collage of microscope images

MUSC Digestive Disease Research Center 4th Annual Research Symposium & Retreat - April 28th, 2023

Join us on Friday, April 28th for the 4th Annual Digestive Disease Research Center Symposium to celebrate our research efforts across the MUSC Digestive Disease Research Core Center (DDRCC) and the MUSC Center for Biomedical Research Excellence in Digestive and Liver Disease (CDLD). This event will bring together Gastrointestinal and Liver disease researchers from across the campus and provide an opportunity to share new research findings, facilitate scientific exchange, identify potential new collaborations, and promote our associated research core facilities.

Registration is now open to all interested members of the MUSC Digestive Disease Research community

To register and submit your abstract now, CLICK HERE*

The event will include both oral and poster presentations as well as a keynote address from Jason Mills, M.D., PhD Herman Brown Endowed Professor of Medicine-Gastroenterology at the Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX. 

Final Meeting Agenda and Schedule

Friday, April 28, 2023

Hollings Cancer Center Auditorium, HCC 120

Posters and refreshments: HCC auditorium atrium, Pearlstine Family Garden

 

8:00 am Registration, Poster set-up, Coffee

8:20 am Welcome and Introduction

  Don C. Rockey, Director, and Stephen A. Duncan Co-Director

 

Session I

8:30 am Eric Meissner, MD, PhD

  Assoc. Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Disease

"Manipulation of the lambda interferon receptor to influence hepatitis B virus replication and gene expression in hepatocytes."

 

8:50 am Tim Barnoud, PhD

  Asst. Professor, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

"An African-centric p53 variant and its impact on liver disease and cancer."

 

9:10 am Peggi Angel, PhD

  Assoc. Professor, Department of Pharmacology

"Uncovering the hidden fibrosis linked to hepatocellular carcinoma outcomes."

 

9:30 am Andrew Schreiner, MD, MSCR

  "The Association of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) and CVD Risk Factors with Progression to High-Risk for Advanced Fibrosis in Patients with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD)."

 

Break and Posters

 

Session II

10:45 am Lewis Frey, PhD

  Research Health Scientist, Health Equity & Rural Outreach Innovation Center (HEROIC) COIN, Ralph H. Johnson VAMC

"Predicting mortality in veterans with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease."

 

11:05 am Hongjun Wang, PhD

  Professor, Department of Surgery

  "Mesenchymal stem cell treatment for chronic pancreatitis."

 

11:25 am Alyssa Risner (Kourtidis Lab)

  "Cadherin complexes recruit PIWIL2 to suppress pro-tumorigenic transformation."

 

Keynote Address

 

11:45 am Jason Mills, MD, PhD

 Herman Brown Endowed Professor
 Department of Medicine - Gastroenterology
 Baylor College of Medicine

  "Palinogenosis: the cellular program that allows differentiated cells to fuel repair and metaplasia." 

 

12:30 pm Closing Remarks

 

Lunch (RSVP required) & Further Poster Viewing

 

 

Profile: Our Keynote Speaker

Jason MillsJason Mills, MD, PhD

Dr. Mills received his MD and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and residency and postdoctoral training in Pathology at Washington University in St Louis. He was a faculty member there until 2021, when he joined the faculty at Baylor College of Medicine as Professor, Vice Chief and Chief of Research in the Section of Gastroneterology & Hepatology. He was inducted into the American Association of Physicians in 2022. He currently serves as the Co-Director of the Texas Medical Center Digestive Diseases Center, and serves on the External Advisory Board for the MUSC DDRCC.

Research in Dr. Mills's lab focuses on metaplasia and the regulation of stem cell homeostasis in the GI tract. In particular, they are interested in how gastric epithelial cells in adults form from the stem cell, and how this process is altered during metaplasia. They propose that the specific cellular-molecular program that mature cells can use to become regenerative, "paligenosis," allows for the accumulation of mutations in cells that cycle in between long-lived, differentiated states and bursts of proliferation, the Cyclical Hit Theory of tumorigenesis.

  

If you have questions, please contact the DDRCC Center Manager, Kyu-Ho Lee.