"MUC1-overexpression Amongst Epithelial Cells is Associated with CDH1 Loss-of-function in Gastric Adenocarcinoma"
Presenter: Chuner Guo, General Surgery Resident
Mentor: Daniel Delitto

"Distinct Natural Killer Cell Subset Signatures Associate with Rejection and Stability in Pediatric Liver Transplantation"
Presenter: Danielis Lopez, Medical Student
Mentor: Sheri Krams

"The Role of Neuropilin-1 in Peripheral Artery Disease Endothelial Cell Metabolic Dysfunction"
Presenter: William McTeigue, Life Science Research Professional
Mentor: Katherine Hekman

"Early Immune Signatures of Graft Rejection in Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation"
Presenter: Cecilia Ledezma-Soto, Life Science Professional
Mentors: Olivia Martinez and Sheri Krams

"Differentiation of Platform vs Technical Learning Needs in Robotic Surgery Using Wearable Technology"
Presenter: Cameron Schultz, TECI Center Research Data Analyst
Mentor: Carla Pugh

"Plasma Proteomics Illuminates Multiple Waves of Bloodborne Cytokines and Hormones During Surgical Injury and Recovery"
Presenter: Jacqueline Chang, Clinical Research Coordinator Associate
Mentors: Kyle Loh and Brendan Visser

"Characterizing Distinct Subtypes of Regulatory T Cells in Human Solid Tumors"
Presenter: Saul Arteaga Cruz, Postdoc
Mentor: Alma-Martina Cepika

"Cancer Reprograms the Remote Vascular Microenvironment via LRG1 to Promote Atherosclerosis"
Presenter: Lingfeng Luo, Instructor
Mentor: Nicholas Leeper

"Characterizing lymphedema etiology, treatment, and progression in a large cohort using LLM variable extraction from clinical notes"
Presenter: Andrea Fisher, Vascular Surgery Resident
Mentor: Katherine Hekman

"Next Generation Sequencing can Facilitate Selection of Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy for Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma"
Presenter: Anish Jay Jain, General Surgery Resident
Mentor: George A. Poultsides

"Association of Operative Complexity with Surgical Episode Payments among Private Payers: Implications for Risk-Adjusted Reimbursement in Emerging Payment Models"
Presenter: Jacob Guorgui, General Surgery Resident
Mentor: Lisa Knowlton

"Surgical vs GLP-1–Based Medical Therapy for Obesity: A Real-World Comparative Study" Presenter: Justine Chinn, General Surgery Resident
Mentor: Dr. Dan Azagury

"Deep Learning-Centered Aortoiliac Calcium Segmentation From Arterial Phase Computed Tomography Scans for Peripheral Artery Disease Screening"
Presenter: Benjamin Liu, Medical Student
Mentor: Shipra Arya

"Clinical Prediction Model for Anal High-Grade Squamous Intraepithelial Lesions (HSIL) Risk"
Presenter: Cintia M. S. Kimura, General Surgery Resident
Mentor: Michelle Khan

"An Informed Decision Not to Operate?: Evaluating the Completeness of Workup for Patients with Primary Hyperparathyroidism"
Presenter: Lia Delaney, General Surgery Resident
Mentor: Carolyn Seib

"High Rate of Transplantation Prior to Review of Status Exception Requests among Adult Heart Transplant Candidates"
Presenter: Daniel Ahn, General Surgery Resident
Mentor: Kazunari Sasaki

"Histological-Omic Integration Maps Fibroblast Neighborhoods Across Interstitial Lung Diseases"
Presenter: Georgios Mikos, Master's Student
Mentor: Michael T. Longaker

"Transcriptomic Atlas of Uterine Leiomyosarcomas Uncovers Tumor States with Unique Drug Sensitivities and Clinical Outcomes"
Presenter: Maria Korah, General Surgery Resident
Mentors: Dr. Daniel Delitto and Dr. Michael Longaker

"Mitochondrial Rejuvenation Improves Angiogenic Function in Aged Endothelial Cells"
Presenter: Shijie Jin, Vascular Surgery Postdoc
Mentor: Katherine Hekman

"Characterization of EBV-Responsive NK Cells Reveals NKG2A:HLA-E as a Targetable Immune Checkpoint for EBV-Associated Malignancies"
Presenter: Josselyn Pena, Abdominal Transplantation Postdoc
Mentor: Sheri Krams

"CXCL13 expression dynamics amongst B cells and CAFs define TLS-like microenvironments in cholangiocarcinoma"
Presenter: Rosyli Reveron-Thorton, General Surgery Resident
Mentors: Deshka Foster, Daniel Delitto

"Artificial Intelligence-Driven Objective Assessment and Constructive Feedback of Laparoscopic Surgical Performance"
Presenter: Chloe Nobuhara, General Surgery Resident
Mentors: Jeffrey Jopling and Thomas Weiser

"Iron Chelators Reduce Progression of Radiation-Induced Fibrosis in Murine Skin"
Presenter: Palca Shibale, Postdoc
Mentor: Derrick Wan

"Runx1-Driven Endothelial-To-Mesenchymal Transition Contributes to Fibrotic Remodeling in LMNA Cardiomyopathy"
Presenter: Dipti Tripathi, Baszucki Biobank Manager
Mentor: Nazish Sayed

"Using Circulating Tumor DNA to Monitor Sarcoma Treatment and Recurrence"
Presenter: Beatrice Sun, General Surgery Resident
Mentor: Byrne Lee

"Incidence of Congenital Anomalies Following the Dobbs Decision"
Presenter: Maddy Adams, General Surgery Resident
Mentor: Stephanie Chao

"Validity Evidence for ENTRUST Platform for Assessment of Breast and Pediatric Surgery EPAs"
Presenter: Andrew Friedman, Medical Student
Mentor: Cara Liebert

"Novel Insights on Surgeons' Cognitive Load Using EEG Sensors"
Presenter: Calvin Perumalla, TECI Center Research Scientist
Mentor: Carla Pugh

"Addressing Cancer Disparities through Translational Community-Based Intervention: From ACUeRDO to APOYO"
Presenter: Eleanor Brown, Social Science Research Professional
Mentor: Aaron Dawes

"Technology Assisted Intraoperative Anatomic Visualization: A Qualitative Study of Surgeon Perspectives and Unmet Needs"
Presenter: Yann Sakref, S-SPIRE Postdoc
Mentor: Lisa Marie Knowlton

"The Benefit of Sequential Normothermic Regional Perfusion and Hypothermic Machine Perfusion in Kidney Transplantation from Donation after Circulatory Death Donors"
Presenter: Sue Fu, Abdominal Transplant Fellow
Mentor: Kliment Bozhilov

"When Is It Cost-Effective to Implement a Whole Blood Program? A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis for Civilian Trauma Centers"
Presenter: Meg Quint, Medical Student
Mentor: Simeng Wang

"Surgeon Scientist Training:  A Foundation for Innovation and Leadership in Academic Surgery"

Dr. Ginny Bumgardner, MD, PhD, FACS

Dr. Bumgardner, MD, PhD, FACS, is The Ohio State University College of Medicine Associate Dean for Physician Scientist Education and Training, Director of the Ohio State Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) and Director of the Department of Surgery’s Research Training Program. She is a tenured Professor and transplant surgeon-scientist in the Department of Surgery, Division of Transplant Surgery and Comprehensive Transplant Center at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. She is also the immediate past President of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons.

Dr. Bumgardner earned her undergraduate degree in Biology with a minor in French from the College of William and Mary, her M.D. degree from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. during her General Surgery residency at the University of Minnesota. She completed her Transplant Surgery fellowship training at the University of California San Francisco. She has over 30 years of experience in the practice and science of transplantation. Dr. Bumgardner performs abdominal transplant surgery, provides pretransplant, peri-transplant and post-transplant care and immunosuppression management. In addition to patient care, teaching and education administrative responsibilities, she directs an NIH-funded Transplant Immunology Laboratory. Dr. Bumgardner is passionate about physician and surgeon-scientist education and training. As the inaugural Associate Dean for Physician Scientist Education and Training she oversees physician scientist training and career development across the spectrum of early stage trainees to early career faculty. She is Principal Investigator/Program Director for five NIH T32/T35 training grants including the Ohio State MSTP T32 (MPI), a postdoctoral T32 entitled Advanced Research Training in Immunology for Surgical Trainees (ARTIST), OSU Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) T32 pre-doctoral training grant, OSU R38 Stimulating Research and Residency (STARR), and OSU T35 Short-term Research in Immunology and Virology Experience (STRIVE) training grant for medical students. Dr. Bumgardner currently serves as immediate past President of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS). She is also a member of the American College of Surgeons National Surgeon Scientist Program Committee. She was elected to the Ohio State Mazzaferri-Ellison Society of Master Clinicians in 2020 and received The Ohio State College of Medicine Distinguished Educator Award in 2021.

Research Interests

My laboratory-based investigations are focused on the discovery of novel mechanisms that regulate de novo alloantibody production after transplant to uncover new targets for development of immunotherapeutics. These studies address the clinical problem of antibody-mediated allograft damage by investigating mechanisms that 1) drive or downregulate alloAb production or 2) cause tissue damage mediated by alloAb effector pathways.

In addition, we test the relative efficacy of conventional and novel immunotherapeutics to suppress alloAb production to see if it interferes with alloAb-mediated graft damage and prolongs allograft survival. Well-developed experimental models are used to study allograft rejection mediated by alloAb alone (e.g., in Rag1 KO recipients), in vivo and in vitro cytotoxicity of alloprimed B cells, in vivo CD8-mediated suppression of alloprimed B cell antibody production, in vitro co-cultures to investigate CD8-mediated suppression of CD4+ T follicular helper cells and methods to enrich for CD8+ T Ab suppressor cells. Using these and other models, my research team was the first to discover a role for iNKT cells in critically enhancing the magnitude of alloAb production post-transplant and also the first to discover a novel CD8-dependent pathway which downregulates alloAb production post-transplant. Studies to date indicate that alloAb-mediated parenchymal cell injury is complement-independent, NK-independent and relies on macrophage dependent cytotoxic effector mechanism. My lab collaborates with experts in transplant immunology, tumor immunology and B cell biology.