Congratulations to our Oral Presentations Winners
OrAL coMPETITION WINNER 1ST PLACE
Chien-Yu (Irene) Tseng, PharmD
High Throughput Screening for GLP-1 RA-Induced Prescribing Cascades among Older Adults with and without Obstructive Sleep
Apnea
Oral Competition winner 2nd place
Filipe Alex Da Silva, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Associate
TREM2 Drives Immune and Neuroinflammatory Remodeling in Pulmonary Hypertension
oral cOMPETITION wINNER 3RD PLACE
Lecsy González, MS, MPHL
Blame and Bias in Training: Public Health Student Perceptions of Obesity and Nicotine Dependence
CICMD 2025 Poster Competition Winners
Congratulations to Ashley Darakjian, for winning this year’s CICMD Poster Competition! Her research, Adipose Stem Cells Mitigate Viral Myocarditis, explores how stem cell–based therapies could help reduce heart inflammation and improve outcomes for patients with viral myocarditis — a critical step toward developing innovative treatments for inflammatory heart disease.
CICMD proudly recognizes Kayla Smith as a 2025 Poster Competition winner! Her poster, Trends in Telehealth Uptake in Patients with Hypertension Pre- and Post-COVID-19, provides valuable insights into how virtual care has shaped hypertension management and access to care during and after the pandemic.
CICMD congratulates Jamie Zeldman for winning the 2025 Poster Competition! Jamie’s project, A Qualitative Study Exploring Fathers’ Preferences for Digital Resources on Child Feeding to Prevent Early Childhood Obesity in Home Visiting Programs, highlights the importance of engaging fathers in early prevention strategies and designing family-centered digital tools to promote healthy childhood nutrition.
Undergraduate Poster Competition Winner
CICMD is proud to celebrate Sultan Khanfar, the undergraduate winner of the 2025 Poster Competition! Sultan’s project, Early Microglial Pruning of Inhibitory Synapses in the PVN Underlies Sympathetic Overactivation in Pulmonary Hypertension, sheds light on how early microglial activity in the brain may drive overactivation of the sympathetic nervous system — a key factor in pulmonary hypertension. This important research contributes to understanding the neuroimmune mechanisms behind cardiovascular disease and may help guide the development of future therapeutic strategies. Sultan was also awarded the APA Undergraduate Research Award in Physiology.
CICMD Early Career Symposium Pictures
