The Eighth Annual High School GIDAS Research Conference
This year’s conference is on June 12, 2021; the theme is Genes and COVID-19.
Keynote Speaker
Photo Credit: National Institute of Health
Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D.
Director, National Institute of Health
Date: June 12, 2021 (Saturday), 12:15 – 5:15 pm Eastern Time
Location: Online
Open to the public, including middle school students and adults.
To register, first use the button above before paying below.
Do you like science and computers? Are you interested in discovering relationships between genes and diseases?
Come to the High School Students’ Research Conference and find out what other students are investigating.
This conference is designed to provide young students with experience in a research conference setting to promote learning and interest in science and research.
2021 Conference Agenda
| 12:00 pm | Registration |
| 12:15 pm |
Workshops
|
| 1:00 pm | Greetings from miRcore President Inhan Lee, Ph.D. |
| 1:05 pm |
Student Oral Presentations I Session Chair: Kaitlyn Sadtler, Ph.D. Earl Stadtman Investigator | Chief, Section for Immuno-Engineering, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (Forbes 30 Under 30 | TED Fellow)
|
| 1:45 pm | Break |
| 1:50 pm |
Poster Session Poster Judges: Section chiefs from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Barbara Rehermann, M.D., Behdad Afzali, M.D. Ph.D., Peggy Hsieh, Ph.D. Faculty members from the University of Michigan Akira Ono, Ph.D., David Beer, Ph.D., David Burke, Ph.D., Indika Rajapakse, Ph.D., Jun Li, Ph.D., Laura Scott, Ph.D., Mike Uhler, Ph.D., Stephen Parker, Ph.D., Venkat Keshamouni, Ph.D., Yuanfang Guan, Ph.D. University of California at San Diego, Associate Professor: Gregory Botta, M.D., Ph.D. Scripps Research Institute, Assistant Professor: Quan Nhu, M.D., Ph.D. CSL Behring, Director of Gene Therapy Research: Mihee Kim, Ph.D. |
| 2:50 pm | Break |
| 3:00 pm |
Keynote Address: COVID-19, Health Disparities, and Precision MedicineFrancis Collins, M.D., Ph.D.Director, National Institute of Health |
| 3:45 pm | Break |
| 4:00 pm |
Student Oral Presentations II Session Chair: David Burke, Ph.D. Professor of Human Genetics, University of Michigan
|
| 4:45 pm | 2020-21 GIDAS Activity Reports and Conference Awards |
| 5:10 pm | Closing |
If you present, you will
– Meet professional scientists and connect with peers who share your interest in science
– Grow in professionalism through researching, writing, and presenting on science topics
– Develop public speaking skills in a larger group setting
– Compete for science presentation awards
Your 2021 conference presentation should address some genetic aspect of COVID-19 (or a related field).
Oral Presentations
We selected 11 oral presentations among abstracts submitted by May 17, 2021. We thank all, abstract judges, for their scoring the abstracts.
Abstract Judges:
University of Michigan: A. Bilge Ozel, Ph.D., Jie Liu, Ph.D., Michael Uhler, Ph.D., Ryan Mills, Ph.D., Shelly Flagel, Ph.D., Venkat Keshamouni, Ph.D., Yuanfang Guan, Ph.D.
University of California at San Diego: Gregory Botta, M.D., Ph.D.
University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston: Xiaoyong Bao, Ph.D.
Certificates will be given to the best three presenters/groups based on their scores.
2021 Oral Presenters
Data analysis was more difficult this year due to time series data for most viral studies. We excluded from oral presentation all abstracts with studies that accidentally included 0 hr control samples in both control and infection groups even though the abstracts may have been well-written.
All oral presenters should submit their final presentation materials by 9 pm (ET) on June 11, 2021 to the miRcore official email (which sent your file submission forms) with subject line “Oral Presentation.”
Presenter(s) |
Project Name |
| Annaka Saffron, Rebecca Wang | “Connections Between the IL-17 Pathway and MERS Infection” |
| Disha Iyengar, Ava Barbano, Amrita Kondur, Alycia Mann, Eric Li, Kayli Bannon | “The Role of OAS1 in the Prognosis and Severity of COVID-19 Infection by Means of the Hepatitis C Receptor Pathway” |
| Diya Ramesh | “Direct RNA Hybridization Probes for Rapid Identification of SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern” |
| Emily Kang, Niharica Suri Kannan, Annabel Yang, Jeremy Nelson, Zaina Al Habash | “Potential Effect of Adhatoda Vasica On Chemokine Signaling and Applications Towards COVID-19” |
| Himal Bamzai-Wokhlu, Nicole Qian, McKayla Ro, Ellen Hu | “Microarray Analysis Of Apoptotic Pathways in SARS-COV-1 versus SARS-COV-1-Δe: Regulation of Inflammation and Necrosis via TNF, IL-17, JUN and others” |
| Maria Sicilia, Audrey Gunawan, Azeem Saifee, Shruthi Chakravarthy | “Pathology from Envelope Proteins to Heat Shock Response and Cytokine Storms in SARS-CoV-1 and 2” |
| Noah Black, Ashi Jain, Keerthana Danasekaran, Jasmine Wisniewski, Praveena Mohanraj | “Impact of SARS Coronavirus on Innate Immune System Compared to Influenza A” |
| Rebecca Wang, Angie Liu | “The role of the cytoplasmic pattern recognition receptor in COVID-19” |
| Sahana Ramamurthy, Lauren Smith | “Progression of cytokine-mediated signaling pathway activity in the first 24 hours of H1N1 infection” |
| Sophia Tesic, Tejaswi Koneru, Rachel Boeke | “NF-κB Enrichment Leads to Hyperinflammation in Patients With Severe Coronavirus Infections” |
Research method applicable to future disease research, including COVID-19
| Noah Black, Abigail Yoo, Grace Chae, Abigail Ahn | “Diagnosis of Colorectal Cancer Through Binary Computational Classification Models” |
Honorable Mention
| Ally Wang, Asmita Tuladhar | “The Role of Inflammatory Cytokines in MERS-CoV Infection” |
| Bianca Done, Siya Goel, Shalin Kakasani, Audrey Zhang | “Promoting the Regulation of Metabolic Processes Pathway to Increase Resistance to SARS-CoV-2” |
| Dhivya Bala, Cindy Xue, Ella Vogel | “Stress Response and TLR3 in MA-15 SARS Coronavirus” |
| Sana Sami, Elliott Besirli | “Downregulation of Nucleic Acid Binding Genes in the Measles Pathway Found in Patients Vaccinated for Influenza” |
Poster Presentations
All poster presenters (including Honorable Mention) should prepare a five-minute (maximum) presentation to pitch their research to conference attendees (flexible format; simply deliver the content in an engaging way). All poster presenters should submit their final presentation materials by 7 pm (ET) on June 11, 2021 to the miRcore official email (which sent your file submission forms) with subject line “Poster Presentation” to be assigned to judges.
Poster Judges
This year, the poster judges will be genetic, infectious disease, immune, and bioinformatics research professionals from the University of Michigan and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (National Institute of Health). These professionals will engage each poster presenter in discussion about their research and provide feedback.
Popular votes
The general audience will also vote on poster presentations.
Certificates
Certificates will be given to the best three poster presenters/groups as graded by the judges; the three most popular posters, as selected by conference attendees, will also receive certificates.
2021 Conference Awards
The Most Popular Poster
1st: Arya Goel, Amita Gowda, Akshara Karthik, Katherine Li. “Novel Diagnostic Method for SARS-CoV-2 Delta E-gene Strain Using JUN and FOS Genes.”
2nd: Aanchal Jain, Aditi Ganesan , Noah Vogel, Sanjana Kandiraju, Maria Endrasik. “Upregulation of p53 Genes in Colorectal Cancer Pathway to Affect Tumorigenesis.”
3rd: Bianca Done, Siya Goel, Shalin Kakasani, Audrey Zhang. “Promoting the Regulation of Metabolic Processes Pathway to Increase Resistance to SARS-CoV-2.”
The Best Poster Presentation
1st: Diya Ramesh, Sameeksha Sampath, Varshini Kashyap, Taara Jayaraj, and Vivek Dandu Presenting “A Bioinformatic Analysis of the Role of Heat Shock Proteins in MERS-CoV Infection.”
1st: Roy Yaghi, Shivam Jain, Nathan Crasto Presenting “Evaluating the role of certain genes and cytokines in TNF-α and IFN-γ induced cytokine storms.”
3rd: Sunny Ding, Aishwarya Shivaraman, Kartikeya Nukala Presenting “Downregulation of Cytosolic DNA-Sensing Pathway in response to coronaviruses.”
The Best Research Paper Awards
1st: Disha Iyengar, Ava Barbano, Amrita Kondur, Alycia Mann, Eric Li, Kayli Bannon. “The Role of OAS1 in the Prognosis and Severity of COVID-19 Infection by Means of the Hepatitis C Receptor Pathway.”
2nd: Diya Ramesh. “Direct RNA Hybridization Probes for Rapid Identification of SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern.”
3rd: Noah Black, Ashi Jain, Keerthana Danasekaran, Jasmine Wisniewski, Praveena Mohanraj. “Impact of SARS Coronavirus on Innate Immune System Compared to Influenza A.”
Conference Proceedings
Cover design: Stephanie Prechter
If you want to publish your abstract in the conference proceedings, please submit your research abstract and your “About Me” with your picture in Word format by May 25, 2021 (refer to “Abstract Submission”).
Even if you miss the deadline to publish, you can still bring in your research poster and compete for the poster presentation award. However, you should submit your poster abstract content to us by June 6, 2021 to be considered for a poster presentation (judge assigned).
Abstract Submission
Abstract Guidelines:
You can find them here.
File Submission: Registered presenters will be contacted for the file submission.
Poster
Poster Guidelines:
Due to the coronavirus, the conference will be online. Please prepare a presentation no more than 10 slides in length (not including the title and ending slides), aiming for a presentation time of about 5 minutes.
Sponsors:
