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2019 Safar Symposium/Multi-Departmental Trainees' Research Day; Department Trainees Win Five Awards

"Doctors Mahajan, Nichols, and Kochanek posing for a photo"
L to R: Drs. Aman Mahajan (Peter and Eva Safar Professor and Chair, Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine), David G. Nichols (2019 Safar lecture presenter), and Patrick Kochanek (Director, Safar Center for Resuscitation Research)

The 17th annual Safar Symposium and seventh annual Multi-Departmental Trainees’ Research Day was held on April 22-23, 2019. This yearly event honors the late Dr. Peter Safar and his wife Eva for their contributions to the scientific community and highlights current research in areas spanning Dr. Safar’s interests. The research day event is a collaboration between the Departments of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Critical Care Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Neurological Surgery, and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (PM&R), as well as the Peter M. Winter Institute for Simulation Education and Research (WISER).

L to R: Michael Schnetz, Joel Caporoso, Andrew Cooper, Shuai Liu, and Tyler Nelson
Forty posters were presented by trainees from our department; the Departments of Critical Care Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Neurological Surgery, and PM&R; and WISER.

The theme of the 2019 event was Neuroprotection, Neurotoxicity and Recovery in the Developing Brain. Forty posters were presented, 22 of which were from our department, in addition to five oral presentations from trainees in the collaborating departments.  Both the first and second place oral presentation awards were presented to trainees in our department. First place was awarded to Michael Schnetz, MD, PhD, a T32 postdoctoral scholar working with mentor Murat Kaynar, MD, MPH, presenting “Response to Inhaled Anesthetics as Measured by the Triple Variable Index Reveals Population-level Patterns of Intraoperative Hypotension Exposure.” The second-place prize was awarded to Joel Caporoso, PhD, a T32 postdoctoral scholar working with mentor Yan Xu, PhD, presenting “Non-Opioid Analgesics for the Treatment of Chronic Pain Targeting the Cannabinoid-Binding Site in Glycine Receptors.”

Sofiane Lazar, PGY-3 Resident, presenting his poster “Double Lung Transplantation in Patient with Combined Variable Immunodeficiency and anti-IgA antibodies”

Andrew H. Cooper, PhD, postdoctoral associate in the lab of Bradley K. Taylor, PhD, won the Best Overall Poster Award among all the posters at the symposium for “Latent Pain Sensitization is Masked by µ-Opioid Receptor Signaling in the Rostral Ventromedial Medulla and is Driven by Descending Serotonergic Facilitation.” Two trainees tied for the top Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine poster award. Shuai Liu, a visiting postdoctoral scholar working with mentor Li-Ming Zhang, MD, presented “Mechanical Ventilation with Moderate Tidal Volumes Aggravates Extrapulmonary Sepsis-induced Lung Injury via IL33-WISP1 Signaling Pathway” and Tyler Nelson, a graduate student in Dr. Brad Taylor’s lab, presented the poster “Facilitation of Neuropathic Pain via NPY Y1 Receptor Activation in the Dorsal Horn.”

Morning presentations on the first day of the symposium included:

Ben Alter, T32 Postdoctoral Scholar, presenting his poster “Onset Hyperalgesia Suggests Bi-Directional Modulation of Dynamically Changing Heat Pain”

“Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in Children – State of the Art” by Christopher Giza, MD, Professor of Pediatrics and Neurosurgery, UCLA Medical Center

“Can Serum Biomarkers Identify Unrecognized Brain Injury in the Pediatric ICU?” by Alicia Au, MD, MS, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh

“Futuristic Approaches to Maximizing Hypothermia as a Neuroprotectant in the Newborn and Beyond” by Travis Jackson, PhD, Safar Center for Resuscitation Research

“Early Rehabilitation – the New Neuroprotection!” by Karen Choong, MD, Professor of Pediatrics and Critical Care, McMaster University

Zachary Choi, undergraduate researcher, Xu Lab, presenting his poster “Functional Tolerance of Human α7 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor to Cysteine Labeling”

“Life After Critical Illness in Children – Are the Kids all right?” by Scott Watson, MD, Professor of Pediatrics, Seattle Children’s Hospital

“The Controversial Role of Ascorbate in Pediatric Acute Brain Injury” by Michael S. Wolf, MD, Safar Center for Resuscitation Research

David G. Nichols MD, MBA, President and CEO, American Board of Pediatrics, delivered the 39th Peter and Eva Safar Annual Lecture in Medical Sciences and Humanities, “Complex Chronic Illness – Who will care? Who will cure?

WISER director Paul E. Phrampus, MD moderated day two of the symposium on April 23rd, which celebrated WISER – 25 Years of Simulation Excellence and featured the following presentations:

“Graduate and Undergraduate Student Perceptions on Suspension of Disbelief” by Chris Muckler, DNP, CRNA, CHSE, Associate Professor, School of Nursing, Duke University

“Medical Education Research as Translational Science” by William C. McGaghie, PhD, Professor of Medical Education and Preventive Medicine, Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine

“Simulation as a Dissertation Focus: A Reflection on the Twisting Road of Doctoral Education” by Joe Goode, MSN, CRNA, PhD, University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing, Nurse Anesthesia Program

“Turning Simulation-based Teaching into Scholarship” by Barry Issenberg, MD, Michael S. Gordon Professor of Medicine and Medical Education, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine