Left to right: Dr. Manavalan Gajapathy, Dr. Gurpreet Kaur, Tarun Mamidi, Dr. Liz Worthey
Tarun Mamidi gave a platform presentation on applying his thesis work to identify pathogenic variants causing Neurofibromatosis disease. Mana and Gurpreet also gave poster presentations on their projects. Here are the abstracts submitted to the conference –
In late 2022, CGDS, in collaboration with Dr. Deeann Wallis lab, participated in a hackathon organized by the Children’s Tumor Foundation to tackle challenges with Neurofibromatosis disease. Here’s the presentation from the hackathon to learn more about the project.
In response to the ground-breaking work, Hack4NF organizers awarded three prestigious awards to our team.
Winning team for Challenge-II: Devising in silico strategies to prioritize likely pathogenic NF1 germline variants.
2. Awarded Incubation award to work with the foundation to further develop methods for practical use in a clinical setting.
3. Third award for best overall use of the Hack4NF data platform.
In October 2022, the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) held its highly anticipated annual Research Retreat at Regions Field. This event brought together researchers, medical professionals, and trainees to share the latest advancements in cancer research. Among the many projects presented was a groundbreaking study on Pediatric Thyroid Cancer, presented as a poster by Dr. Gurpreet Kaur, a post-doctoral trainee at the Center for Genomic Data Sciences (CGDS).
Dr. Kaur’s research project aimed to shed light on the molecular mechanisms underlying the disease. As a post-doctoral trainee at the CGDS, she utilized cutting-edge genomic technologies and bioinformatics tools to analyze tumor samples from pediatric patients with thyroid cancer. Her poster allowed her to visually convey the key aspects of her research, including the objectives, methodology, findings, and potential implications. Attendees had the opportunity to engage with Dr. Kaur, ask questions, and gain a deeper understanding of her work.
Dr. Gurpreet Kaur presenting her poster on Pediatric Thyroid cancer project
CGDS trainees Shaurita Hutchins, Brandon Wilik, and Tarun Mamidi attended and presented at the 2022 CCTS Translational Training Symposium in Mobile, Alabama. Both Mamidi and Hutchins received the CCTS Scientific Excellence Award to support travel to the symposium starting on September 14th.
Shaurita, Brandon, and Tarun (left to right) on the final day.
Shaurita presenting a poster on pulmonary arterial hypertension.
Tarun presenting his variant pathogenicity tool called DITTO.
All trainees presented posters at the conference and were able to gain valuable knowledge on networking, utilizing social media as scientists, navigating relationships with mentors, and writing aims for their researchers.
To kick off the fall semester, Brandon Wilk and Tarun Mamidi showcased their projects to incoming students and the GBS community at the annual GBS symposium.
Recently, members of CGDS participated in the UAB hosted AI Against Cancer Data Science Hackathon with not just one team, but two teams. Their aim was at “solving cancer-related research, prevention, and healthcare practice problems using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data science.” Both teams were formed of a diverse range of skilled individuals bringing together capabilities and experience from areas of genetics, genomics, transcriptomics, bioinformatics, machine learning, molecular biology, developmental biology, and clinical genomics.
Team Ditto, comprised of the same members that’d placed third in the 2020 UAB COVID-19 Hackathon (https://sites.uab.edu/cgds/2020/08/04/rico/): Tarun Mamidi, doctoral trainee in Genetics, Genomics and Bioinformatics; Dr. Ryan Melvin, Data Scientist in Anesthesiology; Dr. Thi K. Tran-Nguyen, Postdoctoral Fellow in PMI; Dr. Liz Worthey formed a new collaboration with Dr. Rati Chkheidze from Neuropathology. They presented work on “AI Guided Multiomics Data Mapping on Pathology Whole Slide Images of Glioblastoma”. For more information on their project, please watch their presentation recording here.
The new team this year, entered as Team BirthSeq-AI, was comprised of: Dr. Gurpreet Kaur, Postdoctoral Fellow in CGDS; Shaurita Hutchins, doctoral trainee in Genetics, Genomics and Bioinformatics; Brandon Wilk, doctoral trainee in Genetics, Genomics and Bioinformatics; Kristen Coutinho, doctoral trainee in Genetics, Genomics and Bioinformatics & Cortes Brain Aging and Physiology Lab; and mentored by Dr. Liz Worthey. Their focus on was on “Development of an AI-based Approach to Better Understand Chorangiomas by Studying Placental Heterogeneity”. For more information on their project, please watch their presentation recording here.
Team Ditto winning Second prize and Team BirthSeq-AI winning Health Equity Award
Both teams had stellar presentations and work performed in their respective areas with Team Ditto taking Second Place and Team BirthSeq-AI taking the Health Equity Award. See more at https://twitter.com/cctsnetwork/status/1430263483904532488
UAB is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer committed to fostering a diverse, equitable and family-friendly environment in which all faculty and staff can excel and achieve work/life balance irrespective of race, national origin, age, genetic or family medical history, gender, faith, gender identity and expression as well as sexual orientation. UAB also encourages applications from individuals with disabilities and veterans.
