2024 Vanderbilt Kennedy Center Science Day --
Tuesday, October 15, 2024
Please extend congratulations to 2024's VKC Science Day honorable mentions and awards recipients!
VKC Science Day Data Blitz: six Science Day presenters with exemplary abstract submittals had 5-7 minutes to discuss their research findings with the audience:
- Jane Eppstein, Clinical/Behavioral/Educational Intervention (PI: Melanie Schuele): “Are Parents of School-Age SLI Children Valid Reporters of Their Children's Grammatical Skills?”
- Natalie Libster, Clinical/Behavioral/Educational Intervention (PI: Julie Lounds Taylor): “Dimensions of Social Support and Quality of Life Among Autistic Adults”
- Shelby Buettner, Systems Neuroscience (PI: Sophia Vinci-Booher): “Drawing Symbols by Hand Leads to Lasting Changes in Brain Function during Visual Symbol Perception”
- Marjolein Mues, Systems Neuroscience (PI: James Booth): “The role of semantic and phonological mechanisms during morphological processing in 7-year-old children”
- Harrison Parent, Cellular & Molecular Neuroscience (PI: Colleen Niswender): “The Role of Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor 7 (mGlu7) in Modulating the Variable Cognitive Phenotypes of Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1)”
- Kirill Zavalin, Cellular & Molecular Neuroscience (PI: JingQiong Kang): “4-Phenylbutyrate Treatment for Altered GABAergic Neurotransmission in Slc6a1S295L Knock-In Mouse Model of Epileptic Encephalopathy”
2024 Science Day Poster Competition: these winners, determined based on collected scores from faculty judges, have the option of receiving their $250 award as a cash prize or in the form of supplemental travel funds:
- Undergraduate Overall: “Exploring Subjective and Objective Measures of Bodily Self-Disturbances in Schizophrenia and Their Associations with Clinical Symptoms and Social Disconnection” (PI: Sohee Park)
Clinical, Behavioral, Education, and Intervention Research: “Analyzing Feedback and Spaced Trials as Key Features in Retrieval Practice for Word Learning in Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children” (PI: Jena McDaniel)
Postdoc: Carly Moser: “The Vocational and Educational Activities of Transition-Aged Autistic Youth with Low IQ” (PI: Julie Lounds Taylor)
Systems Neuroscience:
- Graduate: William Quackenbush:
“The Neurodiversity of Motor Stereotypies: Elucidating Common Brain-Behavior Relationships Across Sensory Landscapes” (PIs: Carissa Cascio, Mark Wallace)
Postdoc: Marjolein Mues: “The role of semantic and phonological mechanisms during morphological processing in 7-year-old children” (PI: James Booth)
Cellular/Molecular Neuroscience: “Group III metabotropic glutamate receptors regulate excitatory neurotransmission in the nucleus accumbens and correct schizophrenia-like deficits” (PI: Colleen Niswender)
Postdoc: Kirill Zavalin: “4-Phenylbutyrate Treatment for Altered GABAergic Neurotransmission in Slc6a1S295L Knock-In Mouse Model of Epileptic Encephalopathy” (PI: KingQiong Kang)
Science Day Research Award Winners: New to this year's festivities was the introduction of three new research-based awards, granted on the work submitted during this year’s Call for Abstracts. The award categories, winners, and their prizes, are as follows:
- Best Research Featuring Unrepresented or Underrepresented Populations (Beats Headphones):
- Taydi Ray, “Shared Book Reading with Latino Families: Caregiver Perspectives and Child Engagement” (PI: Ann Kaiser)
- Best Research Employing Community Engagement/Voices of Persons with Lived Experiences (Kindle Paperwhite):
- Julia Lebovitz, “Understanding the Altered Emotional Experience in Depersonalization-Derealization Disorder” (PI: Sohee Park)
- Best Demonstration of Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration (Bose Handheld Bluetooth Speaker):
- Kelsea McClurkin, “Resting state electroencephalography predicts later language through sensory responsiveness in infant siblings of autistic and non-autistic children” (PI: Tiffany Woynaroski)
Contact Science Day coordinator Elizabeth Turner at elizabeth.turner@vumc.org with any questions.
Visit the VKC Science Day webpage for more information about the next VKC Science Day!
VKC Science Day: A Tradition With Innovation
The Vanderbilt Kennedy Center supports basic/molecular, applied, and clinical research and training. The VKC has more than 300 faculty researchers, staff, and affiliate members working together across disciplines to create basic and clinical scientific discoveries, to translate research into best practices, and to train the next generation of researchers and practitioners. The ultimate goal is to make positive differences in the lives of individuals with developmental disabilities and their families.
Science Day goals:
- Promote “centeredness” by providing a scientific forum.
- Provide an opportunity to present significant research findings.
- Encourage research collaboration.
Poster Sessions:
Posters are presented by undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, research faculty, and research staff conducting research in labs or research programs of VKC members. Poster submittals are divided among three Science Day research themes (*NEW* definitions of each at the bottom of this page):
- Cellular & Molecular Neuroscience
- Clinical, Behavioral, Educational, & Intervention Research
- Systems Neuroscience
Following Science Day, all poster presenters (first authors) are eligible to submit a request for VKC travel award funding ($250 maximum) to present at a scientific or professional conference before the next Science Day (date TBD). Posters presented at other scientific or professional meetings within the last year are eligible for submission. More information on travel award eligibility may be found here.
Data Blitz Consideration:
Presenters who enter the Science Day Poster Competition also submit their abstract for consideration for the Science Day Data Blitz. Following the submission deadline, Science Day Program Committee members review the submitted abstracts in each theme and, based on ABSTRACT QUALITY, select in advance a small number of presenters to share brief research presentations with the Science Day audience, with time for Q&A.
Science Day Poster Competition:
Presenters who opt into in the Poster Competition will have two faculty judges visit their poster during their assigned poster session to review the poster and ask questions. Judges will issue scores based on PRESENTATION QUALITY and COMPREHENSION OF THE RESEARCH. Scores will be tabulated at the end of the second poster session.
Up to seven winners will be chosen: one graduate and postdoctoral presenter from each of the three themes (Systems Neuroscience; Cellular & Molecular Neuroscience; and Clinical, Behavioral, Educational, & Intervention Research), as well as one overall undergraduate presenter. The winners will each receive a $250 Warren Lambert Award, in the form of a cash prize or supplemental travel funds to present their research at a scientific meeting during the year.
Science Day Themes and Their Definitions:
Science Day posters are divided into three themes. Please read the definitions of each theme below to determine the category that best fits your poster research:
- Cellular & Molecular Neuroscience: Posters within this theme feature studies of model organisms, tissues, cells, molecules, or organelles using molecular biology, flow cytometry, imaging cytometry, and/or pharmacological or genetic tools.
- Clinical, Behavioral, Educational, & Intervention Research: Posters within this theme feature research involving human participants, some of which may be designed to evaluate the effects of an educational or behavioral intervention. The effect of the intervention being evaluated should be a health-related, biomedical, educational, or behavioral outcome. This can include knowledge and quality of life outcomes. The intervention in this case can be defined as a manipulation of the participant's environment for the purpose of modifying one or more of these outcomes. Examples can include delivery systems, medications, devices/instruments, procedures/techniques, therapeutic interventions, treatment/prevention/diagnostic strategies, or implementation strategies of any of the above.
- Systems Neuroscience: Posters within this theme feature research on the nervous system at the level of circuits or entire networks, with the goal of understanding neural mechanisms supporting sensory and motor function, multisensory interactions, learning and memory, attention, emotion, and decision-making. Many studies in this category are translational, involving both neurotypical participants and individuals with disabilities (congenital or acquired), as well as animal models. Research methods in this category tend to include functional imaging techniques such as (f)MRI, EEG/ERP, fNIRS, PET, etc.