On March 30th, 2023, San Juan Bautista School of Medicine celebrated its 7th SJBSM Interdisciplinary Research Symposium in person at the institution, focusing on joining multiple disciplines and institutions to facilitate research collaboration and the advancement of knowledge. The Symposium’s Plenary session theme was Lifestyle Medicine for Healthy Living, and we were pleased to welcome two distinguished speakers. Dr. Andrea Lopez Cepero, Assistant Professor, Epidemiology Department, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, presented “Behavioral Adaptations to Stressors and cardiometabolic risk.” Dr. Paola Mansilla-Letelier, Endocrinologist and Clinical Investigator, discussed “Sugar addiction.”
The program included 46 poster presentations in four major areas: basic sciences (16), clinical research (12), Case Reports (10), and Behavioral Community ( 8). We thank our partners for their support in disseminating the event, especially to Alliance and our collaborators. We had participation from students and faculty from SJBSM, as well as from 5 campuses from UPR (MSC, Rio Piedras, Cayey, Humacao, and Bayamon), Ponce Health Sciences University, Universidad Central del Caribe, Ana G. Mendez, Manati Medical Center, and other hospitals and affiliates. The major disciplines represented were medicine ( 53%), nursing ( 28%), and public health (10%), with 74% of students and 15% of residents.
We thank the participants, collaborators, evaluators, and attendees for contributing to the Symposium’s success and for making it once again a memorable occasion and an opportunity for networking and collaboration. We thank all the abstract authors for sharing their exciting research findings, motivating them to move to the next step for publication. We are pleased to share the best poster presentations in each category with the presenting author in bold. The selection of the awardees was reached after carefully evaluating the scores submitted by at least three evaluators that visited each poster.
Basic Sciences
- Characterization of Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells in response to restraint stress in preclinical models of ovarian cancer. Yadiel A. Rivera-López1, Alexandra N. Aquino-Acevedo1, Yesenia Castillo-Ocampo1, Melanie Ortiz-León1, Elvin R. Hernández-Cordero1 and Guillermo N. Armaiz-Pena1,2
- 1Department of Basic Sciences, Division of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Ponce Health Sciences University, Ponce PR; 2Divisions of Cancer Biology and Women’s Health, Ponce Research Institute, Ponce PR.
- Elucidating 4R cembranoid’s anti-tumorigenic mechanism in non-small cell lung carcinoma. José G. Cirino Simonet, Ivette Suárez, Ariana Acevedo, Nadezhda Sabeva, and Yancy Ferrer Acosta Universidad Central del Caribe-School of Medicine, Bayamón, P.R.
Clinical Research
An Opioid-Sparing Perioperative Multimodal Analgesia Protocol on Hispanic Patients Undergoing Posterior Lumbar Fusion: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Manuel Ramírez-Gonzalez, MD; Norberto J. Torres-Lugo, MD; David Deliz-Jimenez, MD; Gabriel Echegaray-Casalduc, MD; Norman Ramírez, MD; Elfren Colón-Rodriguez, MD; Juan Carro-Rivera, MD; Antonio De La Cruz, BS; Yamil Claudio-Roman, BS*; José Massanet-Volrath, MD; Enrique Escobar-Medina, MD; José Montañez-Huertas, MD.Orthopedic Surgery Dept. , University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus, *San Juan Bautista School of Medicine
Case Reports
- Idiopathic Spinal Cord Herniation: A Case Report. Galen Herron*, U.S. Army and Dr. Jorge Lastra, M.D. Manatí Medical Center Department of Neurosurgery, *San Juan Bautista School of Medicine
- Salmonella Meningitis In An Infant: A Case Report. Jessica Berríos Ríos, MD, PGY31; Patricia Rodríguez Reyes, MD2; Janessa Vázquez Valle, MD2 Puerto Rico Women and Children’s Hospital: 1Pediatric Residency Program, 2Department of Pediatrics/Infectious Diseases
Behavioral/Community Research
Female Breast Cancer Risk Factors, Preventive Measures, and Screening Practices in a Population at Central-Eastern Puerto Rico. Felipe I. Barreras-Galindo, BA1, Pablo A. Barreras-Galindo, BA1, Migdalia Arce, CVT2, Wilfredo E. De Jesus-Monge, MD, MSc1,2
1San Juan Bautista School of Medicine, Caguas, Puerto Rico;
2Hospitales HIMA•San Pablo, Caguas, Puerto Rico
