Research Day

Use these suggested subheadings as applicable to your project. (500 words or less)

• Background
• Hypothesis/Aims
• Methods/Study Design
• Results
• Conclusions/Implications
• Advisor’s Information

Other subheadings may be used if better suited to your project design. Do not include graphs or illustrations.

Individuals with accepted abstracts will have until March 20, 2026, to submit a research poster.

Please contact RkfdResearchDay@uic.edu with any questions.

Before starting your abstract submission using the “Submit your abstract” button below, have the following information ready:

• Project Title (Be succinct and use title case in your formatting, e.g., Exploring the Relationship Between Exercise and Cognitive Function.)
• First Author’s Name and Email
• First Author’s Institution (College or organization)
• First Author’s Status (nursing student, faculty member, medical student, etc.)
• Is this project being submitted as a requirement for a medical or pharmacy program?
• Project Category (Basic Science, Clinical, Community, Education, Case Report, Other)
• Additional Authors (list additional authors and your advisor if you have them with no middle initials, degrees or certifications, e.g., Abraham Lincoln. This is for the Research Day Program and applies only to the abstract; use your preferred format when creating your poster.)
• Abstract (500 words or less) Paste the text of your entire abstract in the appropriate box.
• Advisor’s approval.

Select a PowerPoint research poster template.

Use UIC-branded, ADA-accessible poster templates for the UIC College of Medicine, Retzky College of Pharmacy or UIC College of Nursing. You may also use a template from a number of free sites like posterpresentations.com or makesigns.com and insert your organization’s logo (Download UIC Logos and insert into the document instead of paste).

Size should be 48″ wide x 36″ tall for printing at the UIC Rockford Print Shop.

Size may be 48″ wide x 48″ tall if sending to an outside printer.

Maintain a margin/border of .75″ around the outside of the poster.

Fonts:

1. Use Helvetica or Arial (also known as sans serif fonts) for readability and brand compliance. A serif font (e.g. Georgia), should be reserved for titles and headers instead of body text.
2. Font size: (depends on the space allowed and the number of characters in the text.)
   •  Title = 60-90 pt.,
   • Author’s Name = 48-50 pt.,
   • Headers = 36-48 pt.,
   • Subtitle Headers and Text = 24-30 pt.,
   • Captions and References = 18-24 pt.
     Avoid dark backgrounds behind your body text (behind titles are ok because they should be bold). Dark backgrounds work well for PowerPoints, but not for printed text.

Logos, graphics and photos:

1. Photos, graphics, illustrations, graphs and tables add visual interest to posters. If using an image from another source, make sure it is not copyrighted and/or reference it. High-quality images inserted into the PowerPoint work best.
2. Digital posters are for viewing purposes ONLY, so interactivity such as videos, animations and hyperlinks are discouraged.

1. Check that the page size/setup is the actual size of the poster for final printing.
2. Save your PowerPoint as a PDF before submitting. Name your file with the first author’s last name followed by the title of the project. Example: “Franklin_The Shocking Effects of Kite Flying During Thunderstorms.pdf.”
3. Submit final PDF files to https://go.uic.edu/RockfordPosters. Submit ALL posters, including those printed by an outside printer as well as those requiring university printing services, using this link. Deadline for poster submission is Friday, March 20, 2026, by 5 p.m.
4. If you need your poster printed by UIC Rockford Print Shop, please indicate if you are paying for the printing or if you have made other arrangements with an advisor or department that has an account number.

Approximate costs for color or black-and-white poster printing on paper from UIC Rockford Print Shop:

• 48″ x 36″: $40
• 5″ x 43.5″: $45
• 48″ x 43.5″: $49
• Quotes for other sizes or cloth posters from an outside printer can be obtained by contacting Collin Harrison, Graphic Designer Assistant, in the UIC Rockford Print Shop at collinh@uic.edu or 815-395-5618.

1. Allow a MINIMUM of 10 working days for poster printing. You will be notified when and where to pick up your poster when it is ready.

• Best Basic Science Research Poster Award
  Sponsored by: Thermo Fisher Scientific
  Winner: Rachel Campoli
  Poster: “Biofabrication of a Lung Cancer Ex Vivo Model Using Lung-Specific Printable Bioink”
• Best Basic Science Medical Student Research Poster Award
  Sponsored by: University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford Dean’s Office
  Winner: Abbey Dotson
  Poster: “Dual-Action Integrin-Targeted Micelles for the Prevention of Early Pericyte Loss in Diabetic Retinopathy”
• Best Basic Science MBT Student Research Poster Award
  Sponsored by: MBT Program
  Winner: Rukshini Venkatesan Bharathi
  Poster: “An in-vitro study on the Toxicological Effect of Metal Products on Adipose tissue: Obese Population with Hip Implant”
• Best Basic Science Research Poster Award
  Sponsored by: MBT Program
  Winner: Gitika Thakur
  Poster: “Astrocyte-Specific NF-kB Activation Mediates Neurodegeneration in ATL1-Mutant SPG3A Models”
• Best Innovative Project Award (First Place)
  Sponsored by: Office of Technology Management (OTM) – University of Illinois Chicago
  Winner: Naomi Thomas
  Poster: “Design and Characterization of EVNaturopatch for the Targeted Modulation of Inflammation and Pain in Rheumatoid Arthritis”
• Best Innovative Project Award (Second Place)
  Sponsored by: Office of Technology Management (OTM) – University of Illinois Chicago
  Winner: Jayapoorna Saravanakumar
  Poster: “Microneedle Vaccine Delivery System for rBmHAXT(∆Cys) Against Lymphatic Filariasis: A Platform for Next-Generation Vaccines”
• Best Innovative Project Award (Third Place)
  Sponsored by: Office of Technology Management (OTM) – University of Illinois Chicago
  Winner: Hailey Hulse
  Poster: “Proof-of-Concept for Salivary COMP Detection for Early Osteoarthritis Using an AI-driven Nano-engineered Biosensor”
• Clinical Research Poster Award (First Place)
  Sponsored by: Winnebago County Medical Society
  Winner: Bamby Dieng
  Poster: “The Functional Contribution of Sphingosine Kinase 2 to Lung Cancer Survival and Adaptive Resistance to Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors in NSCLC Cell Lines”
• Clinical Research Poster Award (Second Place)
  Sponsored by: Winnebago County Medical Society
  Winner: Rachel Thomas
  Poster: “Review of Fractional Ablative Lasers for the Treatment of Dermatologic Conditions in Darker Skin Phototypes”
• Community/Public Health Research Poster Award (First Place)
  Sponsored by: Winnebago County Health Department
  Winner: Kira Sampson
  Poster: “Mapping the Intersection of Environmental Toxins and Uterine Cancer in Cook County”
• Community/Public Health Research Poster Award (Second Place)
  Sponsored by: University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford Dean’s Office
  Winner: Francis Kazungu
  Poster: “Effective Messages and Messengers for Flu and COVID-19 Vaccines”
• Excellence in Medical Education and Practice Award
  Sponsored by: University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford Department of Health Sciences Education
  Winner: Kylie Graves
  Poster: “Mapping Core Competencies on Disability for Health Care Education: An Institutional Snapshot”
• NCRHP Poster Award for Encouraging Excellence in Rural Health
  Sponsored by: National Center for Rural Health Professions
  Winner: Austin Flemming
  Poster: “A Comparison of Teaching Approaches Between Healthcare Professional Student and School Teacher in Delivering a Smoking and Vaping Cessation Curriculum”
• NCRHP Poster Award for Encouraging Excellence in Rural Health
  Sponsored by: National Center for Rural Health Professions
  Winner: Laura Berger
  Poster: “Hazards on the Farm: Identifying the Farm Safety Knowledge and Protocols that Youth in Montgomery and Macoupin Counties Possess”
• Excellence in Health Equity Research Award
  Sponsored by: Rockford Campus Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
  Winner: Amaan Chalisa
  Poster: “Advancing Transplant Equity: Comparable Transplant Outcomes in Financially Supported Recipients Despite Delayed Access”
• Best Use of Literature in a Student Research Project
  Sponsored by: Crawford Library of the Health Sciences-Rockford
  Winner: Rachel Thomas
  Poster: “Using an siRNA Knockdown System in Melanoma Cell Lines to Investigate the Redundant Roles of FZD3 and FZD6 in Human Melanomagenesis”
• Best Case Study Award
  Sponsored by: UICOMR Office of Research
  Winner: Vineeth Rao
  Poster: “Concomitant Ankylosing Spondylitis and Isolated Spinal Osseous Sarcoidosis: A Rare Case Report”
• Research Mentoring Program-Rockford (RMPR) Award 
  Sponsored by: University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford-Office of Research
  Winner: Mareeswari Paramasivan
  Poster: “Efficiency of Nano-engineered Electrochemical Biosensor PancreaAlert to Detect Pancreatic Cancer- A Patient Cohort Study”
• Best Rockford Research Mentoring Program Mentor Award
  Sponsored by: University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford – Office of Research
  Winner: Dr. Jeff Smith
• James Scholar Award
  Sponsored by: Rockford Gastroenterology Associates
  Winner: Sopuluchukwu Anidobu
  Poster: “Mitigating Corrosion and its Side Effects from Total Hip Replacement (THR) Using Antioxidants”
• Sister Mary Linus Nowak Research Award
  Sponsored by: Saint Anthony College of Nursing
  Winner: Kayla Shaulis
  Poster: “Barriers to Nurses’ Use of Sedation Protocols and Daily Sedation Interruption”

• Best Basic Science Research Poster Award
  Sponsored by: Thermo Fisher Scientific
  Winner: Sarvika Periyapalayam Murali
  Poster:  Restoring Mitochondrial Balance in SPG11 Associated Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia: Fission-Fusion Dynamics
• Best Basic Science Research Poster Award
  Sponsored by: Department of Biomedical Sciences
  Winner: Avdhi Tripathi
  Poster:  Targeted Drug Delivery for Prostate Cancer Treatment Using RAP-Decorated DHNA-Loaded Liposomes
• Best Case Study Award
  Sponsored by: Office of Research, UICOMR
  Winner: Amaan Chalisa
  Poster:  Eculizumab as a Desensitization Protocol for ABO-I Living Donor Liver Transplant: A Series of Four Cases
• Best Innovative Project Award
  Sponsored by: Office of Technology Management, UIC
  Winner: 1st Place –  Sarvika Periyapalayam Murali
  Poster:  Restoring Mitochondrial Balance in SPG11 Associated Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia: Fission-Fusion Dynamics
  Winner: 2nd place –  Sucheta Rajaraman
  Poster: Expression, Purification, and Evaluation of a Novel Tetravalent Vaccine Against Heartworm Infection
  Winner: 3rd Place – Sharmishthaa Gudetee Padmanaban
  Poster: Denatured Basal Lamina Targeted Liposomes for Cancer Drug-Delivery Application
• Best MBT Student Research Poster Award
  Sponsored by: Master of Science in Medical Biotechnology (MBT) Program and Department of Biomedical Sciences
  Winner: Sharmishthaa Gudetee Padmanaban
  Poster: Denatured Basal Lamina Targeted Liposomes for Cancer Drug-Delivery Application
• Best Rockford Research Mentoring Program Mentor
  Sponsored by: Office of Research, UICOMR
  Winner: Manorama M Khare, PhD, MS, Research Associate Professor, Director Division of Health Research and Evaluation, Division of Health Research and Evaluation, Department of Family and Community Medicine
• Best Student Technical Poster Awards (Two Awards)
  Sponsored by: Winnebago County Medical Society
  Winner: Basic Science – James Jin
  Poster:  Role of SPHK2 in EGFR-TKI Resistance and Lung Cancer Tumorigenicity and Survival
  Winner: Clinical – Janay Taylor
  Poster: Assessing the Health of Unhoused Individuals in Rockford, IL
• Best Use of Literature in a Student Research Project Award
  Sponsored by: Crawford Library of the Health Sciences-Rockford
  Winner: Amanda Bargiel
  Poster:  Improving Diabetes Self-Management Using Mobile Application-Mediated Methods
• College of Pharmacy Outstanding Poster Award
  Sponsored by: UIC Retzky College of Pharmacy
  Winner: Bintou Timbine
  Poster:  Rural Guardians’ and Teachers’ Ability to Identify Mental Health Resources and Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression in Adolescents
• Dean’s Action Council Award
  Sponsored by: Office of the Regional Dean, UICOMR
  Winner: Subaranjana Saravanaguru Vasanthi
  Poster:  Enhancing Awareness and Access to Low-Dose Computed Tomography Screening for Early Lung Cancer Detection in Rural and Minority Communities of Northern Illinois
• Excellence in Health Equity Research Award
  Sponsored by: Rockford Campus Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
  Winner: Adam Geibel
  Poster:  Assessing the Food Environments of Dollars Stores in Rockford, Illinois
• Innovation in Basic Science Research Award
  Sponsored by: Office of the Regional Dean, UICOMR
  Winner: Gitika Thakur
  Poster:  Therapeutic Potential of LXR Agonists for SPG3A: Rescuing Lipid Metabolism and Neuroinflammation in an iPSC Model
• James Scholar Award
  Sponsored by: Rockford Gastroenterology Associates, Ltd and the James Scholar Committee
  Winner: Matthew Jeffers
  Poster:  Toxicity Risk from CoCrMo Particles: The Impact of Dynamic Flow Rate on Neuronal Cells in Microfluidic Systems
• NCRHP Poster Award for Encouraging Excellence in Rural Health
  Sponsored by: National Center for Rural Health Professions
  Winner: Luke Sieving
  Poster:  Postpartum Mental Health Screening and Diagnoses in Rural Communities
• Research Mentoring Program-Rockford Award
  Sponsored by: Office of Research, UICOMR
  Winner: 1st place – Zhenyu Chen
  Poster:  Construction of Dual-Fluorescent Reporter Stem Cell Lines to Study Human Cortical Motor Neuron Development with 3D Cultures
  Winner: 2nd place – Emily Orr
  Poster:  Development and Implementation of the Research Fundamentals Seminar Series for 1st and 2nd Year Medical Students
• Sister Mary Linus Nowak Research Award
  Sponsored by: Saint Anthony College of Nursing
  Winner: Lindsay Bennett
  Poster:  Algorithm for Postpartum Depression Screening in Pediatric Primary Care

• Best Basic Science Research Poster Award
  Sponsored by Department of Biomedical Sciences
  Winner: Sahana Somaiah
  Poster Title: “Developing a recombinant fusion protein vaccine for Dracunculiasis (Guinea worm disease) in a mouse model”
• Best Basic Science Research Poster Award
  Sponsored by Thermo Fisher Scientific
  Winner: Samuel Christopher Katru
  Poster Title: “Identification and characterization of Wuchereria bancrofti Nematode Pan Allergen (NPA) for human filarial Tropical Pulmonary Eosinophilia (TPE)”
• Best Student Technical Poster
  Sponsored by Winnebago County Medical Society
  Winner: Joe Berei
  Poster Title: “Development of Mucin-5AC as a Blood Biomarker for Early Detection of Lung Cancer”
• Best MBT Student Research Poster Award
  Sponsored by MBT Program and Department of Biomedical Sciences
  Winner: Saundarya Prithweeraj
  Poster Title: “Urine-based Biosensor (iBiosensC) with AI Model for the early detection of breast cancer”
• Best Use of Literature in a Student Research Project
  Sponsored by Chicago Crawford Library of the Health Sciences
  Winner: Catherine Hayes
  Poster Title: “Atorvastatin hypersensitivity reaction within 24 hours of first dose”
• CCTS Best Community-Translational Research Poster Award
  Sponsored by Center for Clinical and Translational Science, University of Illinois Chicago
  Winner: Francis Kazungu
  Poster Title: “COVID-19 Vaccine Attitudes and Barriers among Unvaccinated Residents in Rural Northern/Central Illinois”
• Dean’s Action Council Award
  Sponsored by Office of the Regional Dean, University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford
  Winner: Kendra Sy
  Poster Title: “No pain, no gain: Implementation of uniform opioid prescribing practices in a teaching clinic”
• Innovation in Basic Science Research Award
  Sponsored by Office of the Regional Dean, University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford
  Winner: Christina Bloomfield
  Poster Title: “A Cross-Tissue Computational Analysis of Microglia Transcriptomes”
• NCRHP Poster Award for Encouraging Excellence in Rural Health
  Sponsored by National Center for Rural Health Professions
  Winner: Blake DePaul
  Poster Title: “Mental Health in Rural America: Assessing burden and public perception”
• Sister Mary Linus Nowak Research Award
  Sponsored by Saint Anthony College of Nursing
  Winner: Courtney Lomas
  Poster Title: “Pressure Ulcer Protocol in the Wake of COVID-19”
• Supporting Model Public Health Practices-Research Award
  Sponsored by Winnebago County Department of Public Health and its Board of Health
  Winner: Catharin Peters
  Poster Title: “Standardizing the Screening and Referral Process for Postpartum Depression in Pediatric Primary Care”
• CCTS Best Clinical-Translational Research Poster Award
  Sponsored by Center for Clinical and Translational Science, University of Illinois Chicago
  Winner: Catharin Peters
  Poster Title: “Standardizing the Screening and Referral Process for Postpartum Depression in Pediatric Primary Care”
• Research Mentoring Program-Rockford (RMPR) Award
  Sponsored by Office of Research
  Basic Science – 2 awards
  Winner: Hemalatha Kanniyappan
  Poster Title: “A low-cost, sensitive, ergonomic, diagnostic tool to detect the earliest signs of pancreatic cancer”
  Winner: Zhenyu Chen
  Poster Title: “Construction of Dual-Fluorescent Reporter Stem Cell Lines to Study Human Cortical Motor Neuron Development with 3D Organoid Culture”
• Research Mentoring Program-Rockford (RMPR) Award
  Sponsored by Office of Research
  Community
  Winner: Biswadeep Dhar
  Poster Title: “Exploring the influence of family interaction patterns on the ability to improve sleep among Asian American young adults”
• Best Student Technical Poster
  Sponsored by Winnebago County Medical Society
  Winner: Vincent Parise
  Poster Title: “Tissue-engineered bone substitute for effective bone healing: a nanocomposite interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) bioactive scaffold”
• College of Pharmacy Outstanding Poster Award
  Sponsored by UIC College of Pharmacy
  Winner: Tony Rosella
  Poster Title: “Impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19) on the incidence of Clostridioides difficile infection”

• Best Basic Science Research Poster Award
  Sponsored by Department of Biomedical Sciences
  Winner: Priyadharshini Vijayakumar
  Poster Title: Mitochondrial Oxidative Stress Mediated Neurodegeneration Induced by CoCrMo Nanoparticles
• Best Basic Science Research Poster Award
  Sponsored by Thermo Fisher Scientific
  Winner: Rifika Jain
  Poster Title: Evaluation of Clofazimine, an anti-leprosy drug, as a potential anti-cancer therapy against cadmium driven prostate cancer
• Best Case Report Award
  Sponsored by Rockford Anesthesiologists Associated
  Winner: Jesseca Pirkle
  Poster Title: Mitochondrial Oxidative Stress Mediated Neurodegeneration Induced by CoCrMo Nanoparticles
• Best Clinical Research Poster Award
  Sponsored by Rockford Ambulatory Surgery Center
  Winner: Madeline Hunt
  Poster Title: Evaluating Outcomes in Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) for Robotic Hysterectomy
• Best MBT Student Research Poster Award
  Sponsored by Master of Science in Medical Biotechnology (MBT) Program and Department of Biomedical Sciences
  Winner: Namrata Dube
  Poster Title: Therapeutic Targeting of SphK2 in TKI Resistance and NSCLC Tumorigenicity
• Best Student Technical Poster Awards – Clinical Science
  Sponsored by Winnebago County Medical Society
  Winner: Sheena Chatrath
  Poster Title: Longitudinal Course of Mental Health in Atopic Dermatitis
• Best Student Technical Poster Awards – Basic Science
  Sponsored by Winnebago County Medical Society
  Place Winner: Edward Miliavski
  Poster Title: The Effects of Smoking on Telomere Length, Induction of Oncogenic Stress, and Chronic Inflammatory Responses Driven by hTERT
• Best Use of Literature in a Student Research Project Award
  Sponsored by Crawford Library of the Health Sciences-Rockford
  Winner: Joseph Berei
  Poster Title: The Effects of Smoking on Telomere Length and Stability, Induction of Oncogenic Stress and Chronic Inflammatory Responses
• CCTS Best Clinical-Translational Research Poster Award
  Sponsored by UIC Center for Clinical and Translational Science
  Winner: Edward Miliavski
  Poster Title: The Effects of Smoking on Telomere Length, Induction of Oncogenic Stress, and Chronic Inflammatory Responses Driven by hTERT
• CCTS Best Community-Translational Research Poster Award
  Sponsored by UIC Center for Clinical and Translational Science
  Winner: Francis Kazungu
  Poster Title: Patient perspectives on the burden of direct healthcare costs to households in Coastal Kenya
• College of Pharmacy Outstanding Poster Award
  Sponsored by UIC College of Pharmacy at Rockford
  Winner: Maria Vologzhina
  Poster Title: 4-HNE impact on Top1cc formation
• College of Pharmacy Outstanding Poster Award
  Sponsored by UIC College of Pharmacy at Rockford
  Winner: Kate Bybee
  Poster Title: Descriptive Analysis of Practice Location Outcomes for the Rural Pharmacy Education (RPHARM) Program at UIC College of Pharmacy
• Dean’s Action Council Award
  Sponsored by Office of the Regional Dean, UICOMR
  Winner: Shruti Gautam
  Poster Title: Promotion of Low-Dose Computed Tomography for Early-Stage Lung Cancer Detection
• Innovation in Basic Science Research Award
  Sponsored byOffice of the Regional Dean, UICOMR
  Winner: Priyadharshini Vijayakumar
  Poster Title: Mitochondrial Oxidative Stress Mediated Neurodegeneration Induced by CoCrMo Nanoparticles
• James Scholar Award
  Sponsored by James Scholar Program
  Winner: David Fischer
  Poster Title: Corrosion Behavior of Selective Laser Melting (SLM) Manufactured Ti6Al4V Alloy in Saline and BCS Solution
• NCRHP Poster Award for Encouraging Excellence in Rural Health
  Sponsored by National Center for Rural Health Professions
  Winner (Tie): Phil Scheibel
  Poster Title: Behavioral Insights During the COVID-19 Pandemic from a Rural Illinois Community Prior to Widespread Vaccine Access
  Winner (Tie): Kailyn Baalman
  Poster Title: Patient Assessment of a Chronic Care Management Program in Rural Illinois
• Sister Mary Linus Nowak Research Award
  Sponsored by Saint Anthony College of Nursing
  Winner: Kristina Thomas
  Poster Title: Data Analysis: Identifying Gaps in Care for COPD Patients
• Supporting Model Public Health Practices Research Award
  Sponsored by Winnebago County Health Department and its Board of Health
  Winner: Kristy Dollinger
  Poster Title: Role of a Community Garden in Promoting Healthy Food Choices in Children