VCU Faculty and Student Researchers Celebrate the Seventh Annual Women’s Health Research Day

By Sathya Achia Abraham

The Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women’s Health hosted the Seventh Annual Women’s Health Research Day, a networking opportunity celebrating and promoting excellence in interdisciplinary women’s health research last week.

This year’s event, “Emerging Areas of Focus in Women’s Health Research,” included a panel of faculty presenters who addressed emerging VCU research in the vaginal microbiome, telemedicine and women’s health, caffeine and women, stress and cardiorespiratory responses in women.

This year, 44 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, mental health, oral health literacy 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 2005. The award is given to a young researcher who shows promise for improving women’s health.

This year’s winning poster was presented by Elizabeth McLemore, M.D., chief resident in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the VCU School of Medicine, and titled “A survey of health literacy in an indigent population and its effects on sexual health knowledge and practices.” Additional honors went to Eleonora Mezzaroma, Ph.D., in the Department of Pharmacotherapy and Outcomes Science in the VCU School of Pharmacy, and Reagan Viney, M.D., chief resident in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the VCU School of Medicine.

Mezzaroma also received the Building Interdisciplinary Bridges in Women’s Health Research award, which honors the poster that best demonstrated interdisciplinary investigator collaboration in women’s health. The poster, titled “Recombinant Human Interleukin-1 Receptor Antagonist Ameliorates Radiation-Induced Cardiomyopathy in the Mouse,” was a collaboration with researchers from the VCU Pauley Heart Center, the VCU Victoria Johnson Center, the School of Pharmacy and the School of Medicine.

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.

Abstracts of the posters can be viewed here.