April 29, 2026, 1:30-4:30 PM, 1309 Health Science Learning Center (HSLC)
The Madison Scholars Symposium showcases scholars’ 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.
Presenters
Uma Chatterjee – Neuroscience Training Program
Mentor: Michael Cahill, PhD
Presentation: Bridging Genetic Risk to Neurobiological Mechanisms: A Region-Specific, Reverse-Translational Approach to OCD Pathophysiology
Uma is a 3rd year PhD student and NIH/ICTR TL1 predoctoral fellow in the Neuroscience Training Program, supervised by Dr. Michael Cahill. Working from human postmortem tissue to preclinical analyses, her thesis work in the Cahill lab utilizes a reverse-translational approach to characterize the brain region-specific roles of GWAS and rare variant targets in the pathophysiology of debilitating neuropsychiatric disorders, with a particular focus on obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Her ultimate goal is to develop novel therapeutic targets for OCD with a particular interest in precision psychiatry, neuromodulation, and psychedelic compounds. Uma’s work is deeply informed by her own lived experience with severe mental illnesses, including OCD, and she harnesses her dual identity as a researcher and advocate to bridge the gap between mental health research and the broader community through large-scale, accessible science communication.
Maya Evans, PhD – Department of Neuroscience
Mentor: Xinyu Zhao, PhD
Presentation: Investigating Striatal Development in Fragile X Syndrome
Maya Evans is a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Xinyu Zhao, supported by the Integrated Program in Endocrinology (iPEnd) Translational Postdoctoral Training Program (T32). She received a PhD in neuroscience from the University of Iowa, where she studied the impacts of prenatal disruptions on striatal development. Her main research interest is to improve understanding of the mechanisms behind complex neurodevelopmental disorders, with an overarching goal of discovering new treatment targets.
Cassandra McGill, PhD – Department of Medicine, Geriatrics and Gerontology
Mentor: Rozalyn Anderson, PhD
Presentation: Metabolism of skeletal muscle aging is sex dimorphic and responsive to AdipoRon
Cassandra 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. She earned her PhD at the University of Southern California in the labs of Dr. Berenice Benayoun and Dr. Christian Pike, where she investigated the impact of biological sex and APOE genotype on the efficacy of 17a-estradiol treatment. Her current research identifies sex-specific molecular changes across tissues in mice, rhesus macaques, and humans to define conserved, sexually dimorphic pathways of aging. In parallel, she evaluates interventions that improve aging phenotypes in mice to determine whether their efficacy and mechanisms differ between males and females, establishing a sex-informed framework for biomarkers and therapeutic targets relevant to human aging.
Kelsey Sholty, DVM – Department of Comparative Biomedical Sciences
Mentor: David Beebe, PhD
Presentation: Understanding host-microbe interactions in aging
Kelsea Sholty is a PhD candidate in Comparative Biomedical Sciences whose work uses microphysiological systems to study skin wound healing and the role of commensal bacteria in infection. Her work has shown that lymphatic endothelial cells regulate neutrophil behavior during early infection, that Staphylococcus aureus shapes neutrophil NETosis to evade killing and that Corynebacterium dampens these S. aureus-driven responses.
Sam Reid – Neuroscience Training Program
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. My research if 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.
Clara Cole, DVM – Department of Pathobiological Sciences
Mentor: Marulasiddappa Suresh, DVM, MVSc., PhD
Presentation: TBA
Nicholas Garcia – Cellular and Molecular Pathology
Mentor: Anna Huttenlocher, MD
Presentation: Establishing Adult Zebrafish Scale Explant as a Model for Ageing Immune Cell Migration
5th year MD/PhD Student, 2nd year PhD Candidate interested in ageing immunology and cell migration. I am particularly interested in what immune cell autonomous and non-autonomous signals inform migration in aged tissues. I am interested in better understanding our ageing immune system to maximize healthspan. Clinically, I am interested in applying these studies to a practice in Immuno-Dermatology.
Kyle Conniff, PhD – Department of Medicine and Department of Statistics
Mentor: Carey Gleason, PhD
Presentation: Understanding host-microbe interactions in aging
Kyle Conniff is a Postdoctoral Trainee and Research Associate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, jointly appointed in the Departments of Medicine and Statistics. He received his Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of California, Irvine, where, under the mentorship of Dr. Daniel Gillen, he developed robust statistical methods for censored survival analysis and machine learning. His current work applies these methods to study modifiable risk factors and research participation decisions in dementia research among Indigenous populations.
Samuel Saghafi – Comparative Biomedical Sciences
Mentor: Dawn Davis, MD
Presentation: Low Protein Intake Potentiates Beneficial Effects of Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy
I am a 4th year PhD candidate interested in studying metabolic diseases. My current work focuses on studying how consuming a low protein diet after bariatric surgery affects secretion of gut-derived hormones and pancreatic islet physiology.
Alysia Vang, PhD – Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Mentor: Laura Hernandez, PhD
Presentation: Prediction of Lactation Potential: From Cows to Humans
Alysia is a second-year postdoctoral researcher in the Integrated Program in Endocrinology (iPEnd). She earned her PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the lab of Dr. Laura Hernandez, where she investigated the use of ultrasound as a predictor of lactation potential in dairy calves. She has continued her work as a postdoctoral researcher, translating her work in dairy cattle to human medicine. The goal of translation is to develop a point-of-care method of detecting possible insufficient glandular tissue prepartum to better inform postpartum care for both individuals giving birth and their newborns.
Kate Lauer, MD – Department of Surgery
Mentor: Luke Funk, MD MPH
Presentation: Integrating a multi-ancestry polygenic risk score into machine learning weight gain prediction models
Kate is a general surgery resident in her second of two post-doctoral research fellowship years. As a member of Dr. Luke Funk’s research group, her work focuses on integrating genomic data into machine learning weight gain prediction models in order to better identify adults at high risk of clinically significant weight gain.
Nicole Wicker – Integrated Program in 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.
Tina Dang – Pharmaceutical Sciences
Mentor: Lingjun Li, PhD
Presentation: Developing a Mass Spectrometry Platform to Profile the Endogenous Immune Peptidome of Alzheimer’s Disease in Serum
Tina Dang is a Ph.D. Candidate specializing in peptidomics in Dr. Lingjun Li’s lab within the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Her current research utilizes advanced mass spectrometry to discover and profile endogenous immune peptides in Alzheimer’s Disease.
Thomas Nipper – Microbiology Doctoral Training Program
Mentor: Andrew (Andy) Mehle, PhD
Presentation: A cellular tripwire deploys self-sensing to restrict influenza virus replication
Thomas is a graduate student in the Mehle Lab studying host-virus interactions. His research investigates mechanisms of early innate immune sensing during influenza virus infection, exploring how host cells first detect and respond to a viral challenge. Understanding these fundamental aspects of the viral lifecycle and early immune recognition has broad implications, as these insights may extend to other viral infections and inform future antiviral strategies.
Brooke Weiler – Neuroscience Training Program
Mentor: Katie Drerup, PhD
Presentation: Mitochondrial Biogenesis at the Synapse
Brooke is a third year PhD candidate in the Drerup Lab in the Department of Integrative Biology. The Drerup Lab uses zebrafish and mammalian cell culture to investigate neuronal cellular biology, with a focus in mitochondrial transport and localization. Brooke’s thesis work is focused on local mitochondrial biogenesis in the axon terminal and the factors that regulate it. This work will expand the current understanding of how mitochondria support neuronal function. Additionally, as mitochondrial dysfunction has been implicated in neurodegenerative disease, this work has the potential to identify therapeutic interventions in the future.
Isabella Whitworth – Department of Genetics
Mentor: Audrey Gasch, PhD
Presentation: Investigating translational errors in aneuploidy-induced premature aging
Isabella Whitworth a postdoctoral researcher in Audrey Gasch’s lab. She received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the laboratory of Lloyd Smith developing technologies to characterize RNA-protein interactions in cells. She now is working on understanding accelerated aging in cells that carry additional chromosomes, also called aneuploids. She is primarily interested in the role of translational errors in accelerated aging and how translational fidelity changes during cell life cycles.