AACC’s Student Research Awards contest was held virtually for the first time at the 2020 AACC Annual Scientific Meeting. The contest is for students and post-doctoral fellows who are presenting authors of accepted abstracts for the Annual Scientific Meeting.

Students' abstracts are judged prior to the meeting, and the individuals who receive the top four ranked abstracts are invited to compete in the Student Oral Presentation Contest. Judges evaluate the oral presentations on scientific quality as well as the organization and quality of the presentation and accompanying slides. The remaining students compete in the Student Poster Contest in which judges evaluate each poster on scientific quality, clarity of display, and presentation style.

To view the winning posters, log in to the virtual platform, click on the “Poster Hall” icon on the home page, and then select the “Student Research Awards” tab. Winners will be identified by Blue (Oral Presentation) and Purple (Poster) ribbons.

Student Oral Presentation Contest Winners

First Place

Vijayalakshmi Nandakumar, PhD, ARUP Laboratories — Evaluation of phospho-Tau, total-Tau, and Neurofilament Light Chain in CSF for the Diagnosis of Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

Second Place

Christine Dolin, PhD, University of Kentucky — Bone Biomarkers Predict High Turnover vs. Low Turnover Osteoporosis

Honorable Mentions

Caroline Franks, PhD, Washington University — Diagnostic Concordance between BNP and NT-proBNP in Pediatric Patient

Brad Poore, PhD, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center — Retrospective Validation of the APE2 Score in Autoimmune Encephalopathy Evaluation Panels

Student Poster Contest Winners

First Place

Nadia Ayala-Lopez, PhD, Vanderbilt University Medical Center — Discovery of novel medication interferents on point-of-care urine drug screen assays through analysis of electronic health record data

Second Place

Yiqi Ruben Luo, PhD, University of California San Francisco — Exploration of Applying High-Resolution MS2/MS3 Mass Spectrometry for Screening Toxic Natural Products

Honorable Mentions

Kayode Balogun, PhD, Department of Pathology, University of Utah and ARUP Laboratories — Characterization of Red Blood Cell Fatty Acid Profiles and Age-Dependent Reference Ranges

Erica Fatica, PhD, Mayo Clinic — Seeing Double: MASS-FIX Characterization of Immunofixation Bands as Monoclonal or Biclonal