NPAW 2023

NPAW 2023

UT Health San Antonio Postdoctoral Association (UP)
NPAW Activities

Donuts to Go
Monday, September 18, 2023 ∙ 9:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
Lecture Commons & GCCRI Commons

11th Annual San Antonio Postdoctoral Research Forum
Tuesday, September 19, 2023 ∙ 8:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Holly Auditorium & Foyer

Snack n’ Swag
Wednesday, September 20, 2023 ∙ 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Lecture Commons & GCCRI Commons

Appreciation Lunch
Thursday, September 21, 2023 ∙ 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Academic Learning & Teaching Center 3.304

Tacos on the Run
Friday, September 22, 2023 ∙ 9:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
Lecture Commons & GCCRI Commons

Postdoc of the Day!

Umber Darilek, PhD

Pediatrics - Neonatology

"Umber, who has a PhD in Nursing Science, is in the second year of postdoctoral training in implementation science. Family nurture care (FNC) has been shown in two randomized clinical trials to produce significant outcomes in babies in newborn intensive care units (NICU). Umber’s research is on how to translate concepts of FNC to everyday care for newborn babies that need NICU care and are separated from their mothers. Umber has recently completed a scoping review of multi-modal early relational health interventions in the NICU and a manuscript she is first author on is ready for submission. She has also been successful in garnering a grant from the Episcopal Health Foundation to develop educational tools for FNC use in NICUs for families and staff. Umber’s postdoctoral training is supported by the McFarland Family Trust and the Head Endowment. Umber, who is very passionate about developing tools to improve relational health for mothers and babies in stressed conditions, has a very strong work-ethic and is a joy to work with!"

— Alice Gong, MD
Mentor

Yannick Wadop Ngouongo, PhD

Biochemistry & Structural Biology
Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer's & Neurodegenerative Diseases

"Wadop Ngouongo, who has an excellent background in scientific computing, joined our research group at the Biggs Institute from the University of Yaoundé, Cameroon, in 2022. This background has proven to be critical to our current research program as he is able to leverage his computing background to help understand how genetic, lifestyle, and other environmental factors affect the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. His research on the relationship between amyloid-beta build-up in the brain and changes in the gut microbiome has gained international recognition, earning him travel fellowships to the 2023 Alzheimer's Association Conference in Amsterdam earlier this year and to the upcoming Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE San Antonio) Conference that will be held in San Antonio next month. Wadop's long-term goal is to help translate the scientific discoveries that he has participated in into effective therapeutics for Alzheimer’s and related dementias. Since his arrival in my lab, he has contributed significantly to two publications and has two first-author manuscripts under review. Wadop is not just hard working but he is creative and very passionate about science and we are very excited about his potential to develop into an independent research scientist."

— Bernard Fongang, PhD
Mentor

Janette Vazquez, PhD

Population Health Sciences
Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer's & Neurodegenerative Diseases

"Dr. Janette Vazquez is studying the contribution of cardiovascular health to cognitive aging among Mexican Americans with the support of a T32 award from the Cardiovascular Research Training Program at UT Health San Antonio. Her work is critical because Hispanics have an increased risk of Alzheimer’s dementia compared to non-Hispanic Whites, but the reasons of this disparity are not well understood.
Since joining our group in November 2022, Dr. Vazquez has successfully presented her work at three meetings and secured a Postdoctoral Diversity Enrichment Program grant from the Burroughs Welcome Fund. She has continuously shown commitment to excellence, independence, strong work ethics, and endless curiosity. In particular, she will work on the integration of statistical principles with machine learning algorithms in analyses for her projects.
It is a privilege and joy to work with Dr. Vazquez!"

— Claudia Satizabal, PhD & Chen-Pin Wang, PhD
Mentors

John Shannonhouse, PhD

Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery

"Although John moved with me to UT Health San Antonio from UTMB Galveston, he only joined my lab as a postdoctoral research fellow in 2021. Our research program is heavily dependent on transgenic and knockout mouse models, and without his hard work generating and maintaining these colonies for the lab, we would not have accomplished all we have to date. John had already been very productive before joining our group as a postdoc and he has maintained the same level of productivity. He has already published two papers since he started postdoc training: one in the high impact Journal of Neuroscience in August 2022 and another in the Journal of Visualized Experiments in February of this year. In addition, the poster he presented at the School of Dentistry’s Research Symposium held earlier this year placed second. John is now in his 3rd year as a NIDCR COSTAR (T32) Postdoctoral Research Scholar and I consider him my research group’s most valuable asset."

— Yu Shin Kim, PhD
Mentor

James M. Graham, PsyD

Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences

"James is a postdoctoral fellow working with the STRONG STAR PTSD Research Consortium, currently in his second year of training. He has been instrumental as an applied clinician and research collaborator in numerous studies of PTSD, traumatic brain injury and headache, and he is making significant contributions to a large, $14 million multisite study of a novel treatment for headache attributable to mild TBI. During his time as a fellow, James has shown tremendous clinical and research growth and he has demonstrated his leadership by developing a reading group with other postdoctoral fellows to discuss relevant books on trauma and combat exposure. We are delighted to have James as a postdoctoral fellow with us at UT Health San Antonio."

— Donald D. McGeary, PhD
Mentor