2025 Madison Scholars Symposium

The Madison Scholars Symposium showcases scholar’s research from several training programs on the UW – Madison campus. The goal of this symposium is to enhance the oral presentation skills in preparation for speaker and poster presentation engagements at national meetings and to promote scholar’s networking ability. Scholars prepared one of two format oral presentations and presented their work to an audience of students, staff, and faculty.

We had a great turn out this year and a superb line-up of presentations from diverse disciplines. Congrats to all the presenters who without exception gave very polished and engaging talks. The standard was truly phenomenal this year which made it extremely difficult for our two adjudicators to select winners.

We are pleased to announce our two winners who will be receiving monetary awards graciously funded by the Asthana Family Endowment:

Oral Presentation Winners

A big thank you to our adjudicators this year!

Presenters

Nicole Wicker – Department of Biochemistry

Mentor: Snehal Chaudhari, PhD

Presentation: Understanding host-microbe interactions in aging

Ms. Wicker is a second-year graduate student in the Integrated Program in Biochemistry. She is a member of Snehal Chaudhari’s lab in the Department of Biochemistry. Her research focuses on understanding how gut microbes interact with their host to influence host aging. She is developing techniques that leverage C. elegans for this research.

Keenan Pearson, PhD – Department of Medicine

Mentor: Rozalyn Anderson, PhD

Presentation: Molecular Profiling Insights into the Effects of Age and Caloric Restriction in Rhesus Macaque Liver

Keenan Pearson is a postdoctoral researcher in Rozalyn Anderson’s lab at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, supported by the Biology of Aging and Age-Related Diseases T32 training grant. He earned his PhD at Mayo Clinic in the lab of Jim Maher, where he developed aptamers for biomedical applications in neuroscience, cancer, and senescence. He continued this work as a postdoc, creating senescent cell-specific aptamers and serving as a co-investigator on a successful Hevolution Foundation grant focused on the targeted delivery of senolytics. His current research uses unbiased molecular profiling approaches to identify molecular signatures of health and aging, with the goal of translating these findings into therapeutic targets for age-related diseases.

Nathaniel Willis, PhD – Department of Nutritional Sciences

Mentor: Joseph Pierre, PhD

Presentation: Cyclic Parenteral Nutrition Reduces Peroxisomal Lipid Oxidation Pathway Upregulation Compared to Continuous Infusion

Nathaniel (Nate) Willis is a Registered Dietitian and second year Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Nutritional Sciences. Nate’s work has focused on preclinical work to examine the pathways by which nutrition support paradigms like parenteral nutrition contribute to the pathogenesis of liver disease. Using microsurgical in rodents to model parenteral nutrition associated liver disease, and multi-omics approaches to unveil pathways of interest, Nate is working to identify markers to guide treatment and ease burden in clinical patients.

Nicholas Garcia – Department of Medical Microbiology & Immunology

Mentor: Anna Huttenlocher, PhD

Presentation: Repetitive Sterile Wounding and Trained Immunity in Zebrafish

Mr. Garcia is am a 4th year MD/PhD student in his 1st year of Graduate School in Dr. Anna Huttenlocher’s lab. He is interested in studying how the innate immune system is shaped over time and how trained immunity may play a role in this process. Additionally, he is interested in what cellular signals and cues inform immune cell recruitment and dispersal from a wound site. Clinically he is undecided, but I am considering Dermatology, Allergy & Immunology, & Rheumatology.

Elizabeth Poad – Department of Nutritional Sciences

Mentor: Brian Parks, PhD

Presentation: Cobalamin metabolism in adipocyte differentiation: Investigating Mmadhc as a genetic modifier of Pparg

Beth is a 3rd year PhD student in the Parks Lab in the Nutrition and Metabolism Graduate Program studying genetic interactions in adipocyte differentiation. She is from Mineral Point, Wisconsin and has a Bachelor of Science in Dietetics from University of Wisconsin-Stout and a Master of Science in Nutrition from the University of Georgia. She is also a Registered Dietitian with interests in genetics and metabolism.

Sam Reid – Department of Medicine

Mentor: Luigi Puglielli, MD, PhD

Presentation: Overexpression of COASY in the mouse affects both the central and peripheral nervous system

Sam is a second-year graduate student in the Puglielli lab. Her research is focused on the Endoplasmic Reticulum acetylation machinery, specifically the upstream effects of the COASY protein. Previous mouse models of SLC13A5, SLC25A1, and AT-1 systemically overexpressing mice have indicated Coasy as a target of regulation through MS-based analysis of the brain acetylome. This suggests that the CoA biosynthetic pathway through the Coasy protein is involved in adaptive response.

Madeline Crockett – Department of Cellular and Regenerative Biology & Department of Neuroscience

Mentor: Anita Bhattacharyya, PhD

Presentation: Human stem cell models reveal transcriptional and phenotypic consequences of trisomy 21 in neurogenesis

Ms. Madeline Crockett is a first-year PhD student in the Neuroscience Training Program, working with Dr. Anita Bhattacharyya at the Waisman Center. The Bhattacharyya lab broadly focuses on Down syndrome neural development using induced pluripotent stem cells. Madeline’s thesis research focuses on using developmental biology and genomic approaches to investigate astrogliogenesis in Down syndrome prenatal brain development.

Samuel Saghafi – Department of Medicine

Mentor: Dawn Davis, MD, PhD

Presentation: Low Protein Intake Potentiates Beneficial Effects of Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy

Mr. Saghafi is a third year PhD student in the Comparative Biomedical Sciences program. He works in the laboratory of Dr. Dawn Davis studying the pancreatic islet and diabetes. He also works closely with Dr. David Harris to better understand how bariatric surgery affects the pancreatic islet. He performs bariatric surgery on mice and study how bile acids and gut hormones signal to the pancreatic islet and improve insulin secretion.

Dylan Duerre – Department of Medicine

Mentor: Andrea Galmozzi, PhD

Presentation: Heme biosynthesis facilitates BCAA catabolic flux to regulate Ucp1 expression in brown adipose tissue.

Dylan is a 5th year PhD candidate in the CMB program and a member of the Galmozzi Lab. He is interested in understanding how metabolic processes modulate cell signaling under healthy and pathological conditions, especially age-related metabolic impairments such as type II diabetes and obesity. Identifying how changes in flux through metabolic pathways alter the transcriptional and functional landscape of adipocytes may reveal novel targets for therapy development, leading to improved lifespan and health span.

Hannah Miller – Department of Neuroscience

Mentor: Erik Dent, PhD

Presentation: Determining the Role of Microtubule Invasion of Hippocampal Dendritic Spines

I am a third-year Ph.D. candidate in the Neuroscience Training Program working under Dr. Erik Dent. My graduate work is focused on the role of microtubule dynamics in the remodeling and plasticity of hippocampal dendritic spines. Specifically, I will be selectively inhibiting microtubule polymerization into dendritic spines in primary rat hippocampal neurons to investigate the role of microtubule spine entry on dendritic spine morphology and postsynaptic protein content. This work has the potential to shed light on how synaptic function and stability are regulated in the brain, which could inform therapeutic strategies for neurodegenerative diseases and psychiatric disorders where synaptic dysfunction plays a key role in disease progression.

Andrea Wegrzynowicz, PhD – Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology

Mentor: Aleksandar Stanic-Kostic, MD, PhD and Laura Cooney, MD

Presentation: Unique Immune Dysregulation in the Polycystic Ovary

Andrea Killian Wegrzynowicz holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from Lafayette College. Her current work involves using high-dimensional sequencing techniques to investigate the role of the immune system in reproductive pathologies. She is certified as a reproductive health educator and also has an interest in undergraduate chemistry and biochemistry education.

Jason Moody, PhD – Department of Medicine

Mentor: Barbara Bendlin, PhD

Presentation: Associations between Area-Level Disadvantage Across the Life Course and Plasma Markers of Alzheimer’s Disease Pathology and Neurodegeneration – A Mixed-Longitudinal Study

Jason is a postdoctoral research fellow in Dr. Barbara Bendlin’s lab within the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Jason’s research uses quantitative imaging and fluid biomarkers to characterize neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) as well as identify modifiable risk factors for pathological aging. Jason is particularly interested in determining the links between socioeconomic factors and the risk for developing AD and AD-related neurodegeneration.