VCU news

By Jessica Ferreira
VCU Communications and Public Relations

Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University who have dedicated their time and efforts advancing women’s health enjoyed a day of celebration during the 6th Annual Women’s Health Research Day.

Hosted by the VCU’s Institute for Women’s Health, this year’s event “The Art and Science of Bridge Building: Promoting Translational Research in Women’s Health” centered on the development of multidisciplinary and collaborative women’s health research, with a special focus on research being conducted at VCU.

Faculty presenters discussed women’s health research under way at VCU and shared information about resources available to researchers across both the university’s campuses.

This year, 47 research posters were on display by VCU faculty and students covering a wide range of women’s health topics including pregnancy, cancer, diabetes, infant mortality, hormone therapy and substance use disorders.

Many of the posters were entered in a competition for the Elizabeth Fries Young Investigator Award, created in memory of Elizabeth Fries, Ph.D., a VCU psychology professor who served as co-director of cancer control at the VCU Massey Cancer Center. Fries died in 2004. The award is given to a young researcher who shows promise for improving women’s health.

The Elizabeth Fries Young Investigator Award was presented to Jedd Lyn Ticar, a lab and research specialist in the Department of Radiation Oncology, for the best poster overall submitted by a junior investigator and best in basic science category. The poster was titled “MRE11/RAD50/NBS1 Complex Functions in Invasion in Breast Cells and Tumor Progression.”

Additional honors went to Allison Sepulveda, a research manager from the VCU Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies and graduate student in the MPH program, who was recognized for the best in social behavioral research category; and Haeseong Park, M.D., MPH, from the Department of Internal Medicine, who was recognized for the best in clinical research category.

Park also received the Building Interdisciplinary Bridges in Women’s Health Research award, a new award this year, for the poster that best demonstrated interdisciplinary investigator collaboration in women’s health. The poster, titled “A Pilot Phase II Trial of Magnesium Supplements to Reduce Menopausal Hot Flashes in Breast Cancer Patients” was a collaboration with researchers from the Massey Cancer Center Cancer Prevention and Control Program, the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Department of Radiation Oncology.

The award recipients were given monetary travel awards to enhance their professional development and allow them to take the next step in their women’s health research careers.

Elizabeth McGee, M.D., associate professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and David A. Gewirtz, Ph.D., professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology served as co-chairs for the 2010 Women’s Health Research Day.

Abstracts of the posters can be viewed at the VCU Institute for Women’s Health Web site at: http://www.womenshealth.vcu.edu/research/whrd.html.