WesternU Research Symposium showcases student innovation
The third annual WesternU Research Symposium brought together a diverse array of disciplines and research topics in a showcase of students’ scientific exploration.
The symposium, organized by the Western University of Health Sciences Office of Research and Biotechnology on Jan. 30, 2026, featured five oral presentations and 47 posters. Dr. Christine M. Gall, distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at UC Irvine, served as the keynote speaker.
“I am very pleased to see that so many trainees and students are integrating research into their career trajectory and curriculum,” said WesternU Senior Vice President for Research & Biotechnology Andrea Giuffrida, PhD, MBA. “This is a fantastic choice because research is not just about increasing our knowledge, submitting for publication, and collecting data. It’s a fantastic exercise to develop a lot of different skills – analytical skills, to develop leadership, all these skills will be extremely important for your career in the future no matter whether you decide to become a researcher yourself or something completely different.”
The posters come from young investigators, students and trainees from many different backgrounds, Giuffrida said.
“I do believe diversity is extremely important, particularly in research, because innovation always happens when we have a different perspectives and different backgrounds, which also come from different life experiences coming all together and sharing this,” Giuffrida said. “You will have this afternoon a great demonstration of how important it is to integrate these different backgrounds together to come up with this breadth of diversity also in terms of the type of research that happens at WesternU.”
Second-year College of Pharmacy student James Villegas said he conducted research as an undergraduate and wanted to keep the ball rolling at WesternU.
“Doing things like this helps me actually get my hands dirty and put into practice what I’m learning in class,” Villegas said. “Research is practical and tangible. I learn by doing. Being able to do those things helps me be able to intuitively apply those lessons in a meaningful way.”
This symposium exposes students to a lot of research outside their own area of expertise, he said.
“Research provides inspiration for your own work,” Villegas said. “Being able to collaborate with one another helps build more of those research skills. You learn how to communicate with people from a variety of different fields.”
Medical students learn from what has already been published. Conducting research allows you to approach medicine from the other end, trying to discover new information, said third-year College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific student Ananta Srivastava.
“Research helps me expand my knowledge and explore uncharted territory,” she said.
Third-year College of Podiatric Medicine student Jun Heo said he is thankful for the opportunity to learn what research is about and to hone his research skills.
It’s one thing to read an article and learn about facts, but it’s also another to gather your own facts and then see how they’re significant to your daily practice,” Heo said. “I want to have direction in how I should practice, and that’s why I’m driven to learn more about how to do research. As I’m learning it more and more, I realize that there are different ways of approaching research. When I was presenting, my mind was on the provider side of it, but someone commented, ‘What about the patient side?’ You can approach the same topic from a different view.”
College of Dental Medicine student Pietrangelo Vallebuona, part of CDM’s International Dentist Program, has experience in publishing research.
“I love the interprofessional communication in all different areas of the school joining together to talk about the same topic. When you get passionate about a topic, you can deepen your knowledge of that topic,” Vallebuona said. “We are on a lifelong journey of learning. Learning your profession is not just what you learn in school. Research teaches you how to learn. It creates curiosity to go above and beyond to seek deeper knowledge, which is good for your patients.”
Oral Presentation Awards
1st place – $500
Seyedeh Parmis Rejali – “Development of a Quantitative Assay to Assess the Redox Activity of Lipase Maturation Factor –1”
2nd place – $250
Khawla Abuaqel – “Role of Ccr5 in Mitochondria Dysfunction in Alzheimer’s Disease”
3rd place – $150
Zhichen Ren – “Exploring The Antineoplastic Mechanism of Carvedilol”
Elizabeth Lee – “Predictors of Postoperative Complications in Foot and Ankle Surgery: A Retrospective Cohort Analysis”
Poster Presentation Awards
1st place – $500
Chathurika Rathnayaka – “Ryanodine Receptor (RyR)-mediated Calcium Release is Differentially Induced by UV Radiation in Promotion-sensitive and Resistant JB6 Cells”
2nd place – $250
Alexis Omoregie – “Assessing Dermatological Healing Using the Fitzpatrick Scale: A Study on Ingrown 2 Toenail Outcomes: A Prospective Comparative Observational Study”
3rd place – $150
Emily Han – “Ccl5 Knockout Increases Cfos Expression and Microglia-Neuron Interaction”
