2026 DAPM Scientific Evening
The Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at UCLA Health hosted its 18th Annual Scientific Evening on March 10, 2026, at Tamkin Auditorium. The annual symposium highlights the academic achievements of research fellows, resident physicians, fellow physicians, and medical students within the department.
This year’s Scientific Evening was well attended and filled with lively conversation among participants and guests. Throughout the lower level of Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, attendees explored oral and poster presentations showcasing a wide range of basic science and clinical research topics in anesthesiology and perioperative medicine. The event was moderated by Soban Umar, MD, PhD.
The special Guest Judge for the evening was Patricia Kapur Visiting Professor, Marcos F. Vidal Melo, MD, PhD, Professor and Chair of Anesthesiology and Rebecca Terry White Distinguished Chair in Anesthesiology at University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, and a world-recognized leader in academic anesthesiology. Additional judges included Pamela Chia, MD, MS, Christine Nguyen-Buckley, MD, John Park, MD, PhD, John Shin, MD, Tiffany Williams, MD, PhD, and Tristan Grogan, MS.
The department also expressed gratitude to Maxime Cannesson, MD, PhD, our Ronald L. Katz Chair, for his strong support of research within the department, as well as our symposium organizers—Thomas Vondriska, PhD, Dr. Umar, Jennifer Scovotti, Stephanie-Dee Sarovich, and Claudia Bueno—for their time and dedication to making the event a success.
The evening concluded with congratulations to all presenters for their research accomplishments over the past year and with the anticipation of coming together again next year for another evening of education and celebration.
The following individuals were the DAPM 2026 Scientific Evening awardees:
| Award | Awardee |
| 1st Place Resident Physician | Muhib Haidari, MD, MBA Poster Presentation: Monitored Anesthesia Care Versus General Endotracheal Anesthesia for Endoscopic Gastrointestinal Ultrasonography Procedures: A Retrospective Cohort Study (Mentor: Alexandre Joosten, MD, PhD) |
| 2nd Place Resident Physician | Muhib Haidari, MD, MBA Oral Presentation: Cardiac Lipidomic Remodeling and Left Ventricular Function Following Lipid Emulsion in Rats with Endotoxemia (Mentor: Soban Umar, MD, PhD) |
| 1st Place Fellow Physician | Justine Liang, MD Oral Presentation: Intraoperative Cardiac Events During Pediatric Cardiac MRI under Anesthesia: A Retrospective Cohort Study (Mentors: Theodora Wingert, MD, Ihab Ayad, MD) |
| 2nd Place Fellow Physician | Brandon Sumida, MD Oral Presentation: Prevalence of Train of Four Monitoring for Reversal of Neuromuscular Blockade and Sugammadex Utilization in Children (Mentors: Lisa K. Lee, MD, MS, Theodora Wingert, MD) |
| 1st Place Research Trainee | Lejla Medzikovic, PhD Oral Presentation: X Chromosome Gene Biglycan as Driver of the Sex Paradox in Pulmonary Hypertension (Mentor: Mansoureh Eghbali, PhD) |
| 2nd Place Research Trainee | Ateyeh Dehghanitafti, MD Poster Presentation: Intralipid Protects the Heart from Ischemia–Reperfusion Injury by Suppressing NDRG1 Expression (Mentor: Mansoureh Eghbali, PhD) |
| Best Overall Presentation and Recipient of the Leonard F. Walts MD Research Excellence Award | Eileen Nguyen, MD, PhD Oral Presentation: The Balance Between Mu and Kappa Opioids Underlies Itch, Pain, and the Anesthetic Experience (Mentor: Nicolas Massaly, PhD) |