Medical students across both campuses of Wake Forest University School of Medicine recently celebrated Medical Student Research Day (MSRD) which has been an annual tradition on the medical school’s Winston-Salem campus since 1985. This marked the event’s first year on the Charlotte campus, which welcomed its inaugural class of students at The Pearl last summer.
MSRD showcases the collaboration and hard work shaping the next generation of physician-researchers and the connections they’re making in the community. 160 students (119 in Winston-Salem and 41 in Charlotte) presented their research projects with clinicians and researchers who served as judges. Students whose projects demonstrate research excellence were selected for awards.
Congratulations to all of the 2026 Medical Student Research Day award winners!
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Alexa Brewster Ferroptosis Is Amplified by Cardiometabolic Disease After Intracerebral Hemorrhage Mentor: Stacey Wolfe, MD |
Oluwatobi Arogundade Wearable Activity Tracker Devices and Cancer-Related Fatigue: A Clinical Utility Pilot Study for Patients Undergoing Anti-Cancer Treatment Mentor: Dori Beeler, PhD |
MSRP Premiere Award |
MSRP Premiere Award |
Landon M. Burton Microsurgical Anastomosis Innovation: UV-Curable Bioadhesive Comparison in Rat Femoral Artery Model with Cannula-Assisted Technique Mentor: Ramon Llull, MD, PhD |
Maxwell Hiraman Inhibitory Effects of Antimicrobial Peptide WAM-1 on Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Mentor: Lauren King, PhD |
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MSRD Gold Award |
Pierce Bombard Associations Between Radiographic Measures, Gait Biomechanics, and Patient-Reported Outcomes in Symptomatic Progressive Collapsing Foot Deformity Mentor: Albert Anastasio, MD |
Elizabeth Mason Mammography Screening After North Carolina's Medicaid Expansion: A Difference-in-Differences Analysis of BRFSS Data Mentor: Amresh Hanchate, PhD |
Ginger Mullins Design of a Paper-Based Assay to Detect Ischemia-Modified Albumin (IMA) Mentor: Ramon Llull, MD, PhD |
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Translational Science T1 Bench to Bedside Award |
Translational Science T1 Bench to Bedside Award |
Andrew Elliott Report-Enhanced Multimodal Pathology AI for Recurrence Risk Stratification in Early-Stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Mentor: Yuming Jiang, PhD |
Lyndon Wood Inter- and Intra-Rater Reliability of MRI and Radiographic Knee Morphology Measurements Mentor: Benjamin Rothrauff, MD, PhD |
Translational Science T2 Bedside to Community Award |
Translational Science T2 Bedside to Community Award |
Rachel Krekstein Exploring Participant Sociodemographics and Headache Features Across Recruitment Methods for a Virtual Migraine Clinical Trial Mentor: Rebecca Wells, MD, MPH |
Tomas Quintero PREVENT-HF Risk, Myocardial Remodeling, and Incident Heart Failure in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) Mentor: Alain Bertoni, MD, MPH |
NIDDK T35 Research Award |
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Olivia Warfel A Single Hemodialysis Session Alters Platelet and Leukocyte Mitochondrial Bioenergetics Mentor: Mariana Murea, MD |
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Meredith Award for Outstanding Health Equity Research |
Meredith Award for Outstanding Health Equity Research |
Rutvi Sachania Exploring Infant Feeding Perceptions and Practices Among Mothers in South India Mentor: Avinash Shetty, MD |
Fadilah Farrin Hospital-Level Variation in Obstetric Anesthesia Quality and Social Determinants of Perioperative Outcomes Mentor: Amit Saha, PhD, MS |
MSRD Excellence Awards |
MSRD Excellence Award |
Lucy Bell Connecting Patients with WIC and SNAP in the Outpatient Pediatric Setting Mentor: Leila DeWitt, DO, MA, FAAP |
Adelyn Donaldson Pharmacist on the Team: Medication-Related Impact on Integrating Clinical Pharmacists into Trauma Floor Rounds Mentor: Erin Dawson, MD |
Vaibhav Desikan Socioeconomic and Clinical Determinants of Successful Visual Rehabilitation in Children Up to 7 Years of Age Following Cataract Surgery Mentor: Sonal Dangda, MD |
David Khakhutashvili Vaccine Attitudes and Information-Seeking Behaviors Among Parents at Two Charlotte Pediatrics Clinics Mentor: Adam Blatt, MD, PhD |
Alexander Dodson Persistent Cardiac Dysfunction Following Inhaled Microplastic Exposure in Mice Mentor: Rajeev Dhupar, MD |
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Sofia Hrubiak The Influence of Social Determinants of Health on Intraoperative Opioid Administration in Orthopedic Surgery Mentor: Amit Saha, PhD, MS |
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Airyn Hutt Predictive Modeling of Medical Student Success Across Curricular Designs Mentor: Peter Fuerst, PhD |
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Olga Mavridis Association Between SSRI Use and Acute In-Hospital Outcomes in Patients with Spontaneous Intracerebral Hemorrhage Mentor: Stacey Wolfe, MD |
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Claire O'Brien PrEP Prescription Uptake and Availability Among Sexually Active Youth and Young Adults Mentor: Candice McNeil, MD, MPH, FACP, FAAP |
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Taylor Sabato Health Literacy in Acute Care Surgery: The Influence of Social Determinants of Health Mentor: Carma Goldstein, MD |
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Benjamin Sempowski Utility of the Vervet Monkey for Studying Maternal-Fetal Physiology and Adverse Fetal Outcomes Mentor: Sarah Cilvik, MD, PhD |
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Jerome Silva Artificial intelligence-assisted phenotype discovery of Friedreich Ataxia in a population-based sample Mentor: Arezoo Movaghar, PhD |
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Bryson Staley A Pediatric Oncology Pilot Trial to NOURISH: Nurturing Outreach for Understanding and Reducing Inpatient Security of Health Mentor: Leila DeWitt, DO, MA, FAAP |
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Robert J. Stratta Jr. Mid-Term Outcomes with Eversion Endarterectomy of the Deceased Donor Renal Artery to Optimize Kidney Utilization Mentor: Robert Stratta, MD |
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Aarohi Vasavada Prediction of Oncotype DX Results from H&E Slides Using Artificial Intelligence Mentor: Nabil Rahoui, MD |
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Matt Walker Troponin Predicts Long-term Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease in Emergency Department Patients Mentor: Nicklaus Ashburn, MD, MS |
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Evan Zelt Generation of Autologous Limbal Stem Cell-Like Cells from Rabbit Urine-Derived Stem Cells for Preclinical Corneal Surface Regeneration Mentor: Yuanyuan Zhang, MD, PhD |