UA Little Rock Students Recognized at Arkansas Bioinformatics Consortium
Three UA Little Rock students received recognition at the Arkansas Bioinformatics Consortium’s 10th annual meeting on February 26-27. Adeniyi Oyebade, Kyrilos Sadaka, Armin Mortazi, and Yanyan Qu all garnered recognition in the consortium’s poster contest for scholars.
Oyebade won second place for his poster in the graduate student poster contest. His poster presentation was on the synthesis, characterization, and in vitro studies of ionic materials as combination nanomedicines. His research aims to enhance the selective toxicity of the widely used chemotherapy drug, Doxorubicin, towards tumor cells to diminish its side effects.
“The use of combination nanomedicines (CNMs) is a promising approach to treating tumors using two or more different mechanisms,” explained Oyebade. “Moreover, nanoparticle-based drugs exhibit increased intracellular concentration in cancer cells and lower toxicity in normal cells.”
In the undergraduate category, Sadaka received second place for his poster on the evolution of bacterial resistance to antibiotics. Sadaka expressed gratitude to his mentor, Dr. Mohammad Goodarzi, for his mentorship and encouragement and highlighted the value in the networking opportunities provided by the consortium.
“I’m doing research under Dr. Mohammad Goodarzi, who has been the greatest help to me and has always encouraged me,” said Sadaka. “The Arkansas Bioinformatics Consortium brought together students from all over Arkansas to compete with each other and meet great people from the National Center for Toxicological Research. This year’s agenda focused on Artificial Intelligence learning, and a handful of interesting guest speakers showed AI’s future in public health and bioinformatics.”
Mortazi won third place in the undergraduate poster contest for his research on integrating antibiotics with photothermal therapy to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Mortazi, a Donaghey Scholar, emphasized his gratitude for the opportunity to share his research and engage with fellow scientists.
“I enjoyed sharing the promising results that I have obtained with people who have dedicated their whole careers around projects like mine,” stated Mortazi. “It was a valuable experience to be surrounded by and speak with so many interesting and knowledgeable scientists. It was an experience I will never forget and I am so grateful for the opportunity!”
Qu won in the most popular category. This award is voted on by attendees at large.
