Collaborative Insights: 3rd Annual Temple Translational Science Symposium

Over 120 post-doctoral and graduate student researchers presented posters and discussed their research on a broad assortment of scientific subjects at the Temple University School of Medicine (TUSM) and Fox Chase Cancer Center (FCCC) Third Annual Temple Translational Science Symposium, an all-day event held on September 18th in the Medical Education and Research Building.
 
Joined by hundreds more scientists, clinicians, administrators, students, and visitors, they exchanged ideas, pondered implications, and explored future directions for their research.
 
Supplementing the symposium’s poster presentations were lectures by faculty on subjects ranging from cannabinoid receptors, to gastroparesis, to translational research in a time of austerity and opportunity.
 
“Translational medicine is a major focus at Temple Health and this annual symposium is a great opportunity to get a flavor of what is going on in the labs across departments in Temple University School of Medicine, Fox Chase Cancer Center, and Temple University,” said Arthur Feldman, MD, PhD, Executive Dean of TUSM and Chief Academic Officer of Temple University Health System in his opening remarks at the event.
 
“We hope today’s event sparks the kind of discussions that lead to cross-disciplinary collaboration among both student and faculty researchers,” added Walter Koch, PhD, William Wikoff Smith Chair in Cardiovascular Medicine, Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmacology, Director of the Center for Translational Medicine at TUSM, and Chair of this year’s Translational Science Symposium planning committee.
 
Two investigators – Mary E. Abood, PhD and David Wiest, PhD – were honored at the symposium with awards for Senior Research Excellence, while two more – Sergei Grivennikov, PhD and Ilker K. Sariyer, DVM, PhD – received Early Research Investigator awards. Translational Science Investigator Awards were presented to Erica Golemis, PhD and Henry Parkman, MD.

At the conclusion of the day’s events, a special Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Gerard Criner, MD, TUSM Professor of Medicine, Florence P. Bernheimer Distinguished Service Chair, and Director of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and Temple Lung Center, for his 25-plus years at Temple devoted to researching and delivering novel treatments that reduce the morbidity, mortality, and cost to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
 
“If you apply yourself as a clinical investigator and work with smart and devoted colleagues, you can begin to transform patient care,” said Dr. Criner. “When you apply scientific discoveries to novel treatments, you generate information from the bedside that, in turn, drives new trials. That is the essence of translational science – continually revealing new information that helps clinicians work faster and more efficiently to find effective treatments for challenging diseases,” he added.