LMSA-RCM

1ˢᵗ annual research symposium

Saturday April 22nd 2023

The LMSA-RCM Chapter accomplishes its purpose through three main divisions: Research Committee, Community Service Committee, and Mentorship/Networking Committee. Each committee has unique leadership with the following elements: Chair of Committee, Directive (Vice-Chair, Coordinators, etc.), annual and/or semester activities, and specific goals and aspirations. Additionally, there is an auxiliary Media and Public Relations branch that is composed of a Public Relations Director and Social Media Director,as well as all class representatives. There is also a secretary and a treasurer that collaborate with each committee and the rest of the executive board to complete any tasks relevant to their positions. The executive board is composed of the co-presidents, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, committee chairs, public relations director, and social media director.

The Latino Medical Student Association exists to unite and empower current and future physicians through service, mentorship, and education to advocate for the improved health of the Hispanic & Latinx community in the United States.

We envision a world in which improved health outcomes for all patients arise as a result of the following: increased representation and support of healthcare professionals from backgrounds underrepresented among the medical workforces, increased awareness of critical issues affecting the health of the Hispanic, Latinx, and other marginalized communities, and increased efforts to reduce disparities in the ways patients of color experience the American healthcare system.

The LMSA-RCM Annual Research Symposium is an event directed towards providing medical students studying in Puerto Rico the opportunity to share their research projects with the medical and academic community. This is an event created, developed, and executed by medical students, for medical students. It is the only one of its kind in Puerto Rico.

Board Certified Pediatric Pulmonologist

Wilfredo De Jesús Rojas, MD, MSc

Joalex Antongiorgi Torres, MD

Board Certified Psychiatrist

Director, National Center for LMSA Leadership and Advancement

Deion L. Ellis, MD, MMS

Gineida Morales, Ed. D.

Wilfredo De Jesús Rojas, MD, MSc

Joalex Antongiorgi Torres, MD

María J. Crespo, PhD

Hilton Franqui-Rivera, MD

Milliette Alvarado, MD

Walter Frontera, MD, PhD

Enid J. García Rivera, MD, MPH

Mauricio Cáceres Chacón, MD, PhD

Ricardo González Méndez, PhD

Sharee Umpierre, MD

Natalia Cárdenas Suárez, MD

Pablo González Sánchez, MD

Pablo Vivas-Mejía, PhD

Osmarie Martínez, PhD

Josue Pérez Santiago, PhD

Ángel Colón Semidey, MD

Welcome

Marielisa Cabrera, Chair of Research Committee

Introduction: Raul Roura, MS3

LMSA RCM Co-President

Speaker: Deion L. Ellis, MD, MSS

Director, National Center for LMSA Leadership and Advancement

Speaker: Wilfredo De Jesus, MD

Board Certified Pediatric Pulmonologist

Student Presenters

Closing Remarks

Raul Roura, MS3

Check-in

Speaker: Joalex Antongiorgi Torres, MD

Board Certified Psychiatrist

Lunch Break

Poster Presentations

Round 1

Poster B set-up

Poster Presentations

Round 2

Break

Poster A set-up

Awards Ceremony

Event Closure

A special thanks to our volunteers:

Maria C. Cordova, MS3

Bianca Rodriguez, MS3

Sebastian Estarellas, MS3

Brigitte Baella, MS3

Emmanuel Belardo, MS3

Natalia Roa Vidal, MS3

Marcos Latimer, MS3

Natasha Frontera, MS3

Raul Ramos, MS3

Gerardo Caussade, MS1

Julio Rosado Phillipi, MS3

Janice Delgado, MS3

Dr. Hilton Franqui Rivera is a cardiologist specializing in cardiovascular diseases and clinical cardiac electrophysiology with almost 10 years of medical practice. He completed his medical degree, his residency in Internal Medicine, and his fellowship in Cardiology at the Medical Sciences Campus of the University of Puerto Rico. He then completed his fellowship in clinical cardiac electrophysiology at the University of Massachusetts-Baystate. His research projects have been published in various scientific journals such as the Journal of Interventional Cardiac Electrophysiology, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and the Puerto Rico Health Sciences Journal. He currently serves as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine.

Dr. María José Crespo, who was born in Spain before relocating to Puerto Rico, completed a PhD in Pharmacology at the Medical Sciences Campus of the University of Puerto Rico and was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Physiology. For approximately 20 years, Dr. Crespo has been a Professor of Physiology and Anesthesiology at the Medical Sciences Campus. Throughout her career, she has been well recognized for her contribution to countless scientific investigations related to physiology, cardiology, pharmacology, among other fields. Among her various achievements, it stands out that she has been the author or co-author of more than 50 scientific papers published in various prestigious journals. Currently, she continues to share her vast knowledge with the medical and postgraduate students of the Medical Sciences Campus of the University of Puerto Rico.

Dr. Sharee Umpierre is a gynecologist-oncologist with more than 20 years of clinical experience investigating gynecologic malignancies in Puerto Rican women. She completed her undergraduate studies at Cornell University, her medical degree at Harvard Medical School, her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine, and her fellowship in Gynecology Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center, University of Texas. Her research studies cervical and endometrial diseases, hereditary syndromes, the genetic manifestation of gynecologic malignancies, and how these compare to the United States. In addition, she serves as director of the clinical division of Gynecology Oncology at the Comprehensive Cancer Center of the University of Puerto Rico.

Dr. Alvarado is an associate professor at the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus with over 13 years of experience in the field of medicine. After graduating from the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine in 2010, she pursued a career in Internal Medicine, and more specifically conducted a fellowship in Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism. She is board certified in both specialty and subspecialty. She has previously published scientific studies on the clinical profile of patients that receive fine-needle aspiration biopsy at the UPR Clinics, with the aim of highlighting the needs patients have in further establishing both diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. She has established herself as a patient advocate and a faculty mentor for many medical students at her institution.

Dr. Ricardo González Méndez is a professor of radiological sciences at the University of Puerto Rico, his research focuses on computational biophysics and bioinformatics. He completed his undergraduate studies in Biology from the University of Puerto Rico in Mayagüez, his PhD in Biophysics from Stanford University, and his post-doctorate in NMR Spectroscopy and Anesthesia from the University of California at San Francisco. He currently studies protein evolution using bioinformatics and structural biology. He also has a particular interest in the molecular properties of iron-based compounds with the potential to use them as contrast for MRI studies.

Doctor Natalia Cárdenas Suárez is an upcoming Obstetrics and Gynecology resident at the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus. She is currently working as a physician in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Emergency Room at San Juan City Hospital. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus, her MD degree at Universidad Central del Caribe, and a Transitional Year Residency at San Juan City Hospital. As for research, Dr. Cárdenas has been actively involved for more than 7 years collaborating in various studies within the fields of OBGYN as well as Anatomy. As for now, she is working on several projects which topics include vNOTES hysterectomies, interstitial cystitis in patients with chronic pelvic pain and medical abortions via telemedicine.

Dr. Walter Frontera is a physician-scientist that has been a pioneer within the field of exercise physiology. He studied Biology at the UPR-Rio Piedras Campus and Medicine at the UPR Medical Sciences Campus. He did his residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the UPR University Hospital. After his post-doctoral studies, did a PhD at the Boston University in Applied (Exercise) Physiology, where he studied physiological changes and exercise associated with the geriatric population. He was the Inaugural Chair of PM&R at the UPR, Harvard Medical School and Vanderbilt University. From 2006-2011, he served as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the UPR. He has more than 350 publications and he was the first recipient of Kessler’s Foundation’s Joel DeLisa, MD Award for Excellence in PM&R. Today, he continues being a scientific and academic pillar at our institution.

Dr. Enid García Rivera is currently Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, as well as the Director of the Endowed Health Services Research Center (EHSRC) and of the Office of Clinical and Community Health Research (OCCHR). Dr. García completed her Doctorate Degree at UPR Medical Sciences Campus School of Medicine and her Residency in Family Medicine at the University of Puerto Rico as well. She continued on to a Fellowship in Epidemiology at the Dengue Branch of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Dr. García has a Master’s Degree in Public Health with dual concentration in epidemiology and behavioral sciences, completed at Boston University School of Public Health. She has around 48 publications and plays a key role in the development and coordination of research studies at the University of Puerto Rico.

Dra. Gineida Morales, born and raised in San Juan, PR, completed a Bachelor’s Degree in Secondary Education in Biology at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus. She has a Master’s Degree in Public Health Education (MPHEd) and a Doctoral Degree in Curriculum and Education (EdD) from the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Science Campus and Rio Piedras Campus, respectively. Additionally, she became certified as a Health Education Specialist (MCHES) at the University of George Washington. Dra. Morales has been the Director of the Academic Mentoring Office of the UPR-SOM and Coordinator of the Faculty Development Program for many years. In addition to her degrees, Morales serves as an American Sign Language (ASL)/Puerto Rico interpreter, through the ASLES Corp. She is currently Education Consultant of ASLES Corp. and a voluntary interpreter at UPR-SOM.

Dr. Mauricio Cáceres is a graduate of the UPR School of Medicine, where he obtained his Doctorate in Medicine and PhD in Anatomy. Currently, Dr. Cáceres is part of the faculty at the UPR School of Medicine as an adjunct professor in Anatomy and Neurobiology. Dr. Cáceres researches the role of environmental contaminants in the development of neuropsychiatric disorders such as anxiety. This work has been presented at various national and international forums, including the Society for Neuroscience, American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, and Society for Biological Psychiatry. Dr. Cáceres is committed to training future physician scientists on the island.

Dr. Osmarie Martínez Guzmán is a post-doctoral associate at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR)-Medical Science Campus (MSC) in San Juan. She received her Ph.D in Microbiology and Immunology from UPR-MSC in 2017 and later joined the laboratory of Dr. Demetrio Sierra as a postdoctoral researcher. Dr. Guzmán’s current research focuses on the role of the gut microbiota in regulating anxiety-like behaviors in rodents, a topic of particular relevance given the high levels of anxiety disorders in Puerto Rico. She has received numerous fellowships and awards, including the NSF Partnership for Research and Education in Materials (PREM) Fellowship, the NIH-RISE Program, and the Dr. Américo Pomales Award. She has also served as an Adjunct Professor at the Universidad Ana G. Mendez and as a Teaching Assistant at UPR-MSC.

Dr. Joalex Antongiorgi is a board certified psychiatrist who graduated with honors from the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences campus, where he served as Chief Resident and performed his subspecialty in children and adolescents. He worked as director of the residency program in the department of Psychiatry and later as Associate Dean of Student Affairs at the Medical Sciences Campus of the University of Puerto Rico. He currently works with the veteran population at the Puerto Rico Veterans Hospital. He is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, for adults, adolescents and children.

Doctor Wilfredo De Jesús is a board certified Pediatric Pulmonologist who is currently the Medical Director of the Pediatric Rare Lung Diseases and Asthma Institute in Puerto Rico and the PCD director at the Puerto Rico PCD Center. He completed his Bachelor’s Degree at the University of PR, Cayey Campus, his MD Degree at the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus and his Pediatric Pulmonary Subspecialty Fellowship at the University of Texas, McGovern Medical School. His research interests include: Rare pediatric lung diseases, Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia (PCD), Hermansky-Pudlak Syndrome, among others. Dr. De Jesús obtained the Catalyzer Research Grant 2021 from the Puerto Rico Science, Technology and Research Trust.

Doctor Pablo González Suárez is a third year medical resident of the combined Medicine-Pediatrics Residency at the University of Puerto Rico. He graduated with a Medical Degree from the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus. His interests in the future include serving as a primary physician. His interests include Cardiology, with a goal of treating pediatric and adult patients with congenital anomalies.

Dr. Pablo E. Vivas-Mejia is an associate professor in the Department of Biochemistry & Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus. Dr. Vivas-Mejia’s research is focused on cancer. Specifically, it works to reveal the mechanisms through which cancer cells become resistant to chemotherapy, and additionally designs and test interference RNA-based therapies for advanced cancers that are resistant to current chemotherapy regimens. Dr. Vivas-Mejia has expertise in the use of nanoparticles for drug delivery. Over his career Dr. Vivas-Mejia has developed cancer-focused cellular and molecular biology expertise as well as experience with the use of cancer mouse models for therapeutic purposes. His laboratory uses several biochemical and molecular approaches, and cutting edge technologies to identify and targeting cancer promoting signaling molecules.

Dr. Pérez-Santiago received a B.S. in Computer Science and a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus. He obtained his PhD in the Bioinformatics and Systems Biology Program at UCSD. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at the University of Puerto Rico Comprehensive Cancer Center. Among his work, he focuses on understanding the role of the human microbiome (gut and oral) in aging-related conditions, such as neurocognitive decline, and cancer in HIV infection with the end-goal of developing microbiome-targeted preventive, diagnostic or treatment strategies for these comorbid conditions. He is also investigating the associations of oral microbiota with oral HPV infection among high-risk Hispanic adults.