Women's Health Research Day

Celebrating Excellence in Women’s Health Research on Campus. 

On May 1, 2009, the Miller School of Medicine’s Institute for Women’s Health held its 2009 Women’s Health Research Day.  Student and faculty researchers from throughout the university presented their latest research in women’s health during the poster session that featured nearly 40 posters covering a wide range of studies – from research examining diseases disproportionately affecting women to studies exploring health disparities among women in our own ommunity.   Many departments were represented, such as epidemiology and public health, internal medicine, neurology, obstetrics and gynecology, immunology, and psychiatry.   

 Approximately 100 people attended and took advantage of the opportunity to network and foster opportunities for multidisciplinary research collaborations.  UM President Donna Shalala offered opening remarks.   Vivian W. Pinn, M.D., Director, Office of Research on Women's Health, National Institutes of Health, served as honorary chair and gave the keynote lecture on the future of national women’s health research efforts.   

A panel of three judges, comprised of university faculty and the honorary chair, had the challenging task of selecting three awardees – one from the student presentations, one from clinical faculty presentations and one from basic sciences faculty.  Each received a $250 prize.

Congratulations to the Award Winners!  

2009 Women’s Health Research Day awardees were:

• v  Clinical Faculty Category:  Veronica Accornero, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics in the Department of Pediatrics, Center on Addiction and Health in Women, Children and Adolescents for her poster entitled, “Executive functioning in prenatally cocaine-exposed adolescents.” 

• v  Basic Sciences Faculty Category:  Ami P. Raval, Ph.D., Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology for her poster entitled, “A single estradiol 17 β bolus activates creb and protects ca1 neurons against global cerebral ischemia.”

• v  Student Category:  Ashley Beecham and Danielle Yanuck from the Departments of Neurology and Human Genetics for their work on “Gender specific associations between lipid related candidate genes and carotid plaque.”