Congratulations to Rebecca Boese, Cynthia Chikomoni, Urvi Jain and Sudarshan Bollapragada (left to right) as they stand with Dean Van Briesen as recipients of the 2026 COEIT Research Day Student Poster Awards on May 1.
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- Rebecca Boese presented on Investigating mechanisms mediating pathogen adhesion in infective endocarditis using aortic bovine valves.
- Sudarshan Bollapragada presented on Microbiome Regulation of Cervical Cancer Progression.
- Urvi Jain and Cynthia Chikomoni co-presented on Investigating the Role of Pneumococcal Phenotypic Heterogeneity in Determining Virulence Severity.
- Rebecca Boese presented on Investigating mechanisms mediating pathogen adhesion in infective endocarditis using aortic bovine valves.
Three of our undergraduate researchers presented at URCAD 2026 on April 22:
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- Elise Delaporte* — Elucidating the Symbiotic Interaction Between Lactobacillus iners and Gardnerella vaginalis in Bacterial Vaginosis
- Urvi Jain — Investigating the Role of Pneumococcal Phenotypic Heterogeneity in Determining Virulence Severity
- Yanyu Arias — Development of a Vagina-on-a-Chip Model for Studying Recurrent Bacterial Vaginosis
*Elise is a 2025 recipient of the UMBC Undergraduate Research Award (URA).
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- Dr. Jackman Burden and Venkatesh Srinivasan received a CENTRE award from the Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship at UMBC in May 2026.
- Rebecca Boese received the G-RISE Meyerhoff Graduate fellowship in February 2026.
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- Dr. Jackman Burden and Dr. Sayantan Bhattacharya (Mechanical Engineering) receive a 2025 COEIT Innovations and Interdisciplinary Projects (CIIP) award for their proposal, Evaluating the Impact of Pathogen-Mediated Infective Endocarditis on Bioprosthetic Aortic Valve Function.
- Urvi Jain is a recipient of the HHMI undergraduate fellowship in December 2025.
- Yanyu Arias’s abstract was selected for a Lightning Round Talk on bacterial vaginosis research at UMBC’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fest (SURF) 2025.
The JB Lab opened in June 2025
Dr. Jackman Burden started in January 2025