NEOMED students earn awards at Innovation Day

NEOMED was well represented at Innovation Day, held March 24 at the Kent State University Design and Innovation Hub. 240 people attended the event presented by Northeast Ohio’s five public universities.

NEOMED students earned three of the six awards for poster sessions during the program.

Pratyusha Ghanta, a Ph.D. student in the laboratory of Moses Oyewumi, Ph.D., was awarded first-place honors among posters for her presentation, titled “Fabrication of Thermoresponsive Hydrogels Loaded with Metallo-Drugs to Combat Resorptive Disorders.” Ghanta is a graduate student in the joint Biomedical Sciences degree program with KSU and is working on her dissertation research at NEOMED.

Scott Everett, a third-year student in the College of Medicine, took the second-place award for his presentation, titled “Design, Development and Validation of an Affordable Infant Radiant Warmer for Low Resource Setting.”

Trinity Samson, an Ph.D./M.D. student, received an honorable mention award for her presentation, titled “Minimally Invasive Cable Grip System.”

In total, nine NEOMED students presented posters during the program.

Faculty also during Innovation Day. Rebecca German, Ph.D., vice president for research, presented on the innovation enterprise at NEOMED and covered all educational and research programs under that fall under the “Innovation” umbrella. Fayez Safadi, Ph.D., professor of anatomy and neurobiology and Ohio research scholar, discussed NEOMED’s innovation ecosystem including education, research, technology development and commercialization during a session. He also mentored several for the student NEOMED attendees.

Dr. German, together with the vice presidents for research of the other four universities, participated in Innovation Day’s closing panel discussion. The five research leaders meet regularly as the Northeast Ohio Public Universities Research Alliance (NEOPURA) to discuss issues of common interest and concern.