WesternU COMP continues to grow its annual student research symposium
Western University of Health Sciences’ College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific continues to grow its student-led research symposium.
The 4th annual COMP Student Research Symposium, held Dec. 17, 2025, in the Health Education Center on the WesternU California campus, featured five oral presentations and 92 poster presentations.
“There is an increasing level of interest in conducting research among students,” said COMP Professor of Microbiology and Co-Director of the Office for Student Research Hendrik Szurmant, PhD. “The quality of the research presentations are incredibly high as well.”Third-year COMP students B
ella Anderson Enni and Shaira Gail Santos served as the Student Chairs of the symposium, continuing a tradition rooted in the origins of the event. Both are part of COMP’s Biomedical & Clinical Research Track.
“I always feel inspired and energized, knowing the course load each of us have, how people manage to find time to pursue their interests outside of medical school didactics and lectures,” Santos said. “It motivates me to keep challenging myself and to keep getting involved in research.”
Third-year COMP students Bella Anderson Enni (left) and Shaira Gail Santos served as the Student Chairs of the COMP Student Research Symposium.Research conferences are not accessible to all students because of the extensive travel involved, Anderson Enni said.
“This is a great opportunity for students,” she said. “There is such diversity in the research we have here. You don’t just have to study one subject. It’s important for students to recognize that and take pride in their work and to be inspired by everyone’s work.”
The inaugural symposium was organized by COMP alumnus Kevin Nguyen, DO ’24, followed by COMP graduate Ira Glassman, DO ’25, and then fourth-year COMP student Abraham Chorbajian. The new organizers always learn from their predecessors, so there is constant improvement of the process to make it better, Szurmant said.
The symposium is becoming a new tradition and a new legacy for COMP students, said COMP Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Co-Director of the Office for Student Research Sébastien Fuchs, MD, PhD.
“Students realize how important research is to their residency applications, and they are engaged with research,” Fuchs said. “We have a huge variety of research topics – case studies, genetics, imaging, cardiovascular.”
Second-year COMP student Timothy Chu presented his poster, “Novel Nanoparticle-Based Delivery of Carvedilol for Preventing UV-Induced Skin Inflammation,” co-authored with WesternU College of Pharmacy faculty.
“This is a great opportunity to see what other research is going on, and a great opportunity to get new ideas,” Chu said about the symposium. “And I wanted to present because I never presented before. I thought it would be a good opportunity to practice communicating my ideas.”
Second-year COMP student Parmis Rejali presented her poster “Functional Domains of Lipase Maturation Factor 1 Identified with an ER Redox State-sensitive Luciferase Reporter.” She conducted research as an undergrad at UCLA and at WesternU worked in the lab of COMP Professor Miklos Peterfy, PhD.
“Research is a way to expand our medical knowledge. Whatever we have in medicine we owe it to the researchers. I want to be part of that,” Rejali said. “I love being a physician and I want to introduce new changes in the way I can make patients live better and healthier lives.”
Rejali appreciates COMP organizing this symposium.
“I think it’s amazing because we get to present our work and we get to learn from our peers,” she said. “We see how much our students are invested in research, and how much they invest in gaining knowledge, not just memorizing concepts.”
COMP awarded speaker and poster awards, funded by Dr. Andrea Giuffrida, WesternU Senior Vice President for Research.
The two first-prize winners for oral presentations, who will each receive $250:
Harshini Selvakumar, OMSII. Cardiac Function in Adolescents and Adults Born Before Newborn Screening for Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia. Mentors: Sebastien Fuchs, MD, PhD, and Mimi Kim, MD, Children’s Hospital of LA
Blake Han, OMSIII. Association of Statin Therapy with the Incidence of Severity of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitor-Induced Angioedema. Mentor: Iona Pasca, MD, Riverside University Health System
The three highest-scoring primary research posters, receiving a prize of $200 each, were:
Kimiya Banai, OMSII. Bioengineered Scaffold for Sustained Topical Delivery of Thymosin Beta-4 in Dermatologic Applications. Mentor: Devendra Agrawal, PhD.
Devi Patel, OMSIII. Complications of Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy Requiring Surgical Intervention. Mentor: Anthony Oh, MD.
Kayvan Sasaninia, OMSII. Glutathione Modulation Alters Central Nervous System Susceptibility to Mycobacterium avium Infection in Young and Aged Mice. Mentor: Vishwanath Venketaraman, PhD.
