Research Centers Showcase: Ignite Talks and Poster Session

Lynne E. Wagenknecht, DrPH, Vice Dean for Population Health, and Professor and Director of Public Health Sciences, provides strategic direction and oversight across all population health research at Advocate Health. She is a chronic disease epidemiologist with an extensive research portfolio in the epidemiology of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity. She is Principal Investigator and Steering Committee Chair of the NIH-funded ARIC (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities) Study. Dr. Wagenknecht is an Associate Director in the Wake Forest Clinical & Translational Science Institute funded through NCATS.  Her publications number nearly 400. She has served as an Associate Editor of Diabetes and as Chair of the NIH Kidney Nutrition Obesity & Diabetes (KNOD) Study Section.  Dr. Wagenknecht received her doctoral degree from the University of Alabama School of Public Health, and a fellowship in the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) Program for Women.

Dr. Pooja Jadiya is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. She earned her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences (Neurobiology) from the Academy of Scientific & Innovative Research (AcSIR) in India and completed postdoctoral training in Neurobiology at Temple University, where she received the prestigious NIH K99/R00 grant for the fellow-to-faculty transition. In 2022, Dr. Jadiya joined the faculty at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Her expertise spans neurobiology, aging, molecular biology, cell biology, animal genetics, and biochemistry. Her research focuses on mitochondrial calcium signaling, quality control pathways, and cell death in Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Jadiya’s work has been published in top-tier journals, including Nature Communications, Nature, Cell Reports, and Science Signaling. She is funded by the NIH, Alzheimer’s Association, and American Heart Association, underscoring her significant contributions to neurobiology and aging research.

Arezoo Movaghar, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Center for Artificial Intelligence Research (CAIR) at Wake Forest University-School of Medicine. She earned her Ph.D. in Biomedical Informatics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she later worked as a postdoctoral fellow. Dr. Movaghar’s research focuses on leveraging artificial intelligence techniques to develop innovative and accessible diagnostic frameworks for complex disorders. Her work has led to identification of new phenotypic associations for various genetic conditions and has also contributed to understanding the predictors and modifiers of health trajectories in patients with disability. She has a special interest in identifying factors related to diagnostic disparities and health inequalities in patients. Dr. Movaghar leads multiple NIH funded projects aiming to use AI to enhance early and equitable diagnosis as well as access to intervention and services for different genetic disorders across diverse patient populations.

Dr Leila DeWitt is an Assistant Professor of Pediatric Hospital Medicine and Associate Program Director for the Pediatric Residency Program. She also serves as a course director for first- and second-year medical students. Dr. DeWitt is a health services researcher with expertise in food insecurity experienced by pediatric patients and their families while admitted to hospital, in addition to the consequences of inpatient food insecurity upon discharge home. She organized an inpatient food pantry and caregiver meal tray program, and she developed a novel screening tool to measure inpatient food insecurity for which she has published in JAMA Pediatrics. Dr. DeWitt attended Wake Forest University for undergraduate and graduate school, finishing with a Masters in Bioethics, proceeded to medical school in South Carolina, and returned to Wake Forest for pediatric residency.

Samuel Carmichael, MD MS FACS, is an assistant professor of surgery in the Section of Acute Care Surgery at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He completed a general surgery residency at the University of Kentucky in 2018 followed by fellowship in Acute Care Surgery at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in 2020. Since that time, he has conducted research at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM), investigating human placental stem cell-based therapies for prevention of abdominal adhesions under Dr. Anthony Atala. He has received funding in this effort from the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma and through an intramural KL2 award. Presently, his continuing efforts seek to describe the native surface glycobiology of the abdomen, the epithelial glycocalyx, under conditions of homeostasis and surgical injury to guide development of future reliable prophylactics for prevention of abdominal adhesions.

I’m a Clinical Child Psychologist and Assistant Professor in Social Sciences and Health Policy, as well as Pediatrics. I’m passionate about advancing mHealth projects, where I develop innovative smartphone apps paired with wearable sensors to track digital phenotypes of mental health across the lifespan. My work focuses on early childhood mental health diagnoses, detecting stress in young adults, and using biofeedback to predict and intervene in panic attacks in adulthood. Through my NIMH K23 award, I created digital phenotypes for anxiety and depression using wearable sensors and smartphones to enhance diagnosis and monitor symptom progress. I co-founded two companies, developing smartphone apps for mental health data collection, and received NSF Innovation Corps funding to explore business strategies. In 2024, I was honored to be selected as an NIH scholar for the mobile health technology institute (mHTI) and the Coaching and Resources for Entrepreneurial Women (CREW) program. I’m excited to continue innovating digital health technologies to better mental well-being.

Dr. Nelson is an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry. She is also a member of the Center for Redox Biology and Medicine, the Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Center for Structural Biology and the Center for Molecular Signaling. Her research has focused on the biochemical and structural characterization of the peroxiredoxin family of antioxidant proteins and in characterizing redox-mediated protein modifications. Since 2017, she has worked with Dr. Todd Lowther and Dr. Terrence Smalley to investigate the structure and mechanism by which the natural product thiostrepton acts as a suicide inhibitor of the mitochondrial protein Peroxiredoxin 3 (Prx3). In collaboration with RS Oncology, Dr. Nelson is a co-author on a patent relating to a clinical formulation of thiostrepton, and this formulation is currently being used in a Phase 1/2 dose escalation study for the treatment of malignant pleural effusions including malignant mesothelioma. During their work to determine the mechanism of thiostrepton, Drs. Nelson, Lowther, Smalley identified the minimal fragment that was sufficient to inhibit Prx3 and to kill cancer cells. They have made and evaluated >160 novel Prx3 inhibitors and have 3 patent applications at the PCT stage.

Sally S. Ong, MD is an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at the Wake Forest School of Medicine. She specializes in the medical and surgical management of complex vitreoretinal diseases. After graduating with distinction from Duke University, she received her M.D. at Duke-National University of Singapore Medical School. She then completed her ophthalmology training at the Duke University Eye Center and pursued a fellowship in vitreoretinal surgery at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Ong joined the faculty of Wake Forest in 2020. Her research interests, sponsored by grants from the North Carolina Diabetes Research Center and Translational Eye and Vision Research Center, include an examination of the intranasal delivery of insulin and nanoparticle-based systems to the retina for the treatment of diabetic eye disease and other ocular conditions. Dr. Ong and her team have identified the intranasal pathway as a novel route of delivery of therapeutics for retinal diseases. Dr. Ong is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society and serves on the board of directors of Women in Retina of the American Society of Retina Specialists, and the North Carolina Society of Eye Physicians and Surgeons.

Cara Janusz, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in Implementation Science in the Division of Public Health Sciences at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. She joined faculty in November 2022 after completing a post-doctoral training fellowship in pediatric health services research at the University of Michigan’s Child Health Evaluation and Research Center. She holds a PhD in Epidemiologic Sciences from the University of Michigan and previously worked on global immunization policy and programs at the Pan American Health Organization. Her research focuses on optimizing the delivery of health promotion and prevention to improve health and wellbeing, particularly in children. Dr. Janusz’s program of research combines her interdisciplinary methods expertise in economic evaluations and evaluative sciences to examine under-immunization patterns and to identify and scale strategies and policies that can improve vaccine uptake.

Ellen Quillen, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in Molecular Medicine and member of the Center for Precision Medicine. She was trained as a statistical and population geneticist receiving her BS from the University of Kansas and PhD from Penn State. She completed her postdoctoral training at Texas Biomedical Research Institute and the Southwest National Primate Center in San Antonio, focusing on statistical genomics and gene expression in extended pedigrees of humans and non-human primates. Her past work has encompassed a wide range of traits including both evolutionary genetics and disease-focused work. Dr. Quillen’s current research applies integrated, multi-omic analyses to study the biology of aging with a particular emphasis on the musculoskeletal system.  Ongoing studies focus on the biological basis of multi-system resilience to diseases of aging including work in radiation-exposed macaques, a comparative study across non-human primate species, and longitudinal multi-omic analysis of cognitive and physical decline in humans participating in decades-long clinical trials. Ultimately, the goal of the Quillen Lab is to understand the molecular and physiological basis of resilience to intrinsic and extrinsic challenges as it manifests across tissues and species to identify global and disease-specific mechanisms for prevention and intervention that will enhance the healthspan.