College of Osteopathic Medicine Research Day 2026

Research Day 2026

On behalf of Dean deJong, we would like to thank you for participating in the 4th Annual Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine Research Day!  Research Day was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the multidisciplinary scholarly work undertaken by MSUCOM affiliated residents, fellows, trainees, and medical students.

Presenters: We want to continue celebrating your hard work by sharing your presentation titles, authors, and institutions on our website and social media sites. A special edition of the Spartan Medical Research Journal will be published soon with abstracts from all consenting authors who presented at Research Day.

Awardees: We extend a special thank you to all our volunteer judges for taking time to evaluate 176 posters and 8 oral presentations. Congratulations to presentation awardees, listed below!

176

Poster Presentations

Poster Presentations

8

Oral Presentations

Oral Presentations

64

Judges

2026 Awards

Awards totaling more than $12,000 were given in the following categories:

Inaugural Dean's Award Winners

Graduate/DO-PhD Student CategoryColin O'HernDO-PhD student; MSUCOM"Human heart-macrophage assembloids mimic immune-cardiac interactions and enable arrhythmia disease modeling"
Non-Graduate CategoryJake DeMeulemeester, BScOMS student; MSUCOM"Surface Modification of Poly(dimethylsiloxane) Blood Flow Chambers with a Poly(ethylene glycol) Conjugate and Factor XII Inhibitor"

 

Dr. Amalfitano Excellence in Research Award

Awarded to the highest quality oral or poster research presentation from all categories. Case reports are not eligible. 

Vijayashree Jambunathan, BScMedical Student; MSUCOM

Poster Awards

Residents, Fellows & Post-Docs

1ST PLACESai Tharun Reddy Gopannagari, MDGME Alliance-affiliated resident; Garden City Hospital
2ND PLACENicholas  Runge , BSc, DOGME Alliance-affiliated resident; Corewell Health - Farmington Hills and Dearborn
3RD PLACE        Sara Nesheiwat, DOGME Alliance-affiliated resident; Henry Ford - Genesys

Medical & Graduate Students

1ST PLACEJordan Sarver, DODMC - Harper University Hospital
2ND PLACEMichael Wischer, BScDO-PhD student; MSUCOM
3RD PLACERhea Raut, BScMedical student; MSUCOM

Oral Presentation Awards

Residents, Fellows & Post-Docs

1ST PLACEThu Duong, DO, PhDGME Alliance-affiliated resident; McLaren - Greater Lansing
2ND PLACEFNU Romman Fatima, MDGME Alliance-affiliated resident; DMC - Sinai Grace

Medical & Graduate Students

1ST PLACEBenjamin Xu, BScMedical student; MSUCOM
2ND PLACEMahima Thapa, BScDO-PhD student; MSUCOM

Best Case Report Award

Awarded to the best poster case report based on its uniqueness, clinical significance, and novel educational value. 

Sai Medavaka, BScMedical Student; MSUCOM