Three outstanding UVA undergraduates mentored by School of Medicine faculty have been selected to present their research at the Second Annual Undergraduate Showcase, hosted by the Network for Undergraduate Research in Virginia. The event will take place at the General Assembly Building in Richmond on Thursday, January 29, from 3-5 p.m.
This showcase brings together top undergraduate researchers from across the state, providing a unique platform for students to share their innovative work with peers, faculty, and policymakers. Representing the School of Medicine this year are Owen Brown, Nicholas Cormas, and Sophia Go.
Owen Brown: Using Targeted Ultrasound Heat to Help immune Therapy Fight Aggressive Breast Cancer
Owen Brown, an undergraduate researcher in the Natasha Sheybani, PhD, laboratory at the University of Virginia, will present his project titled “Thermally ablative focused ultrasound tumor re-engineering to enhance Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy in triple-negative breast cancer.”
Owen’s research combats a major challenge in cancer immunotherapy: while CAR-T cells have revolutionized treatment for hematological cancers, they remain far less effective in the context of solid tumors, where physical barriers, limited trafficking, and immunosuppressive signaling restrict their activity. His work explores whether thermally ablative focused ultrasound (tFUS), a similarly noninvasive and clinically established technique, can help modify the tumor environment in a way that better supports CAR-T function. He focuses specifically on triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), an aggressive subtype that is both difficult to treat and representative of the broader obstacles facing CAR-T in solid tumors.
Using a controlled in-vitro system, Owen exposes TNBC cells to tFUS and collects their post-ablation secretome, the molecular material released from treated cells. When these secretomes are introduced to CAR-T cells, he has consistently observed increases in their cancer cell killing capability and shifts in secreted factors that reflect a more immunogenic environment. Together, these findings suggest that tFUS could help create conditions in which CAR-T cells function more effectively, indicating a potential pathway to bolster efficacy while preserving their core benefits.
With solid tumors accounting for the vast majority of global cancer diagnoses, this work contributes to an important area of ongoing research. As the project progresses, Owen’s findings may help inform future strategies for pairing focused ultrasound and immunotherapy, with the long-term goal of expanding treatment options for patients with cancers currently resistant to CAR-T therapy.
Nicholas Cormas: Uncovering Immune Checkpoints that Enable Brain Repair in Multiple Sclerosis
Nicholas Cormas, an undergraduate researcher in the John Lukens, PhD, laboratory, will present his first-author project titled “SHP-1 regulates the resolution of microglia-mediated neuroinflammation during CNS remyelination.” His work investigates how immune regulation in the brain determines whether inflammation resolves productively to allow repair or instead persists and worsens disease.
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is characterized by cycles of autoimmune-mediated myelin loss and incomplete repair in the central nervous system. Microglia, the brain’s resident immune cells, sit at the center of this process: first mounting an inflammatory response to clear damaged myelin, then resolving inflammation to support remyelination. Nicholas’s research focuses on how this transition is controlled at the molecular level.
His project centers on SHP-1, an inhibitory phosphatase expressed almost exclusively by microglia in the brain. Using a mouse model with microglia-specific deletion of SHP-1, Nicholas demonstrated that loss of this inhibitory enzyme leads to prolonged microglial activation, delayed clearance of myelin debris, and impaired maturation of myelinating cells during early remyelination. These findings suggest that microglial SHP-1 signaling functions as a critical regulator of immune resolution, facilitating the brain’s transition from damage control to repair.
Given the lack of effective disease-modifying therapies for MS, Nicholas’s work provides a conceptual framework for targeting immune checkpoints to promote remyelination. Nicholas plans to eventually publish this work in a peer-reviewed journal and has recently presented his project at the #ReThink Neuroimmunology conference held at Harvard Medical School, where he was among a small number of undergraduate presenters.
Sophia Go: Tackling Air Pollution and Alzheimer’s Disease
Sophia Go, an undergraduate researcher in the Jianjie Ma, PhD, laboratory, will present her project titled “Using a novel humanized anti-CitH3 antibody (hCitH3-mAb) to mitigate ozone-induced chronic inflammation and modulate the bidirectional lung-brain axis in Alzheimer’s disease through targeting NETosis.”
Sophia’s research addresses a critical public health issue: the impact of air pollution on age-related diseases like Alzheimer’s. Her work explores how long-term exposure to ground-level ozone—a major air pollutant—damages lung cells and triggers inflammation. While ozone itself cannot reach the brain, Sophia’s research investigates how it may still influence neuroinflammation through a “lung-brain axis.” Specifically, she focuses on citrullinated histone H3 (CitH3), a molecule released during a process called NETosis, which can exacerbate immune responses in the brain and worsen Alzheimer’s disease.
Sophia’s project tests a novel humanized antibody, hCitH3-mAb, which targets and neutralizes circulating CitH3. Previous studies have shown that this antibody can prevent harmful inflammation in mouse models of sepsis and smoke inhalation. Sophia predicts that, in an ozone pollution exposure model, administering hCitH3-mAb will prevent lung injury and chronic inflammation from spreading to the brain, potentially reducing the harmful effects of pollution on Alzheimer’s progression.
With 99% of the world’s population living in areas that exceed World Health Organization air quality guidelines, Sophia’s research is both timely and urgent. As climate change reverses previous gains in air quality, her work highlights the importance of finding new ways to protect vulnerable populations from the health impacts of pollution.
Celebrating Undergraduate Achievement
The selection of Owen Brown, Nicholas Cormas, and Sophia Go for this prestigious event is a testament to the caliber of undergraduate research at the School of Medicine. Their participation in the Undergraduate Showcase not only brings recognition to their individual achievements but also underscores the university’s commitment to fostering the next generation of scientific leaders.
Congratulations to all three students and their School of Medicine faculty mentors on this remarkable accomplishment!
Filed Under: Honors & Awards, Research