A Research Tradition: VCU Celebrates 29th Annual Watts Research Symposium

By Sathya Achia Abraham

Graduate students and postdoctoral scholars from across Virginia Commonwealth University’s campuses came together to share research findings and celebrate the 29^th annual Daniel T. Watts Research Poster Symposium this week.

More than 60 posters, highlighting research in cancer, traumatic brain injury, behavioral science and more were displayed in the Hermes A. Kontos Medical Sciences Building during the two-day event.

The annual event is held in honor of Daniel T. Watts, former dean of the School of Basic Health Sciences and Graduate Studies and a nationally recognized pharmacologist. During his tenure at VCU, Watts was passionate about biomedical research and graduate education and helped establish the research enterprise in the basic health sciences here. The poster symposium was launched shortly after Watts retired in 1982.

The Watts Research Poster Symposium provides investigators with the opportunity to share recent findings and learn about what others are investigating, which ultimately opens doors to possible collaboration across disciplines.

“Events like this are necessary and important so that we can exchange and share our findings and develop collaborations,” said Bogna Ignatowska-Jankowska, Ph.D., a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, who presented research titled “In vivo investigation of ZCZ011: A Positive Allosteric Modulator of the CB1 Receptor.”

“There is a lot of multidisciplinary research here at VCU and it’s very important for young people to have this exposure if we’re going to lead research,” she said.

Ignatowska-Jankowska came to VCU last year after graduating from the University of Gdansk in Poland. She was drawn to VCU because it offered her the opportunity to conduct research in “one of the best behavioral pharmacology labs in the world” for her specific field of research. For the past year she has worked in the laboratory of Aron Lichtman, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology and toxicology and an expert on drug abuse, studying cannabinoid receptors.

The event was supported by the Office of Graduate Education in the VCU School of Medicine.

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