Annual College of Medicine Trainee Research Day

24th Annual Trainee Research Day — April 10, 2025

Research Day is an annual event held each spring and features posters from hundreds of trainees, a trainee speaker series and a keynote address by a world-renowned researcher in the field of biomedical science. Faculty members judge poster presentations and travel awards are given to the highest-scoring trainees. This group includes trainees at all levels of programming, including graduate, undergraduate, medical and MD/PhD students, as well as postdoctoral fellows, researchers and clinical residents and fellows.

Research Day also presents an opportunity for colleagues and visitors to learn about the cutting edge research occurring at Ohio State. Faculty judges review poster presentations and make the final selections for the awards. The day also features at least one scheduled presentation by a leader in the biomedical sciences or related fields who will speak about his or her work and the latest developments in that research area, as well as presentations by selected Ohio State College of Medicine trainees. Research Day concludes with a late afternoon reception followed by a presentation of awards for outstanding research projects. 

Keynote Speaker

This year's keynote address will be given by Dr. Erik Finger, MD, PhD. Dr. Finger is the Eunice L. Dwan Endowed Chair for Diabetes Research and Professor of Surgery at the University of Minnesota, where his research focuses on organ and tissue preservation. In addition, he is a multi-organ abdominal transplant surgeon with a particular focus on kidney and pancreas transplantation. He received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from UC Davis, an M.D. from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Ph.D. at Harvard University in Biomedical and Biological Sciences, a General Surgery residency at MGH, and postdoctoral and clinical research fellowships in transplant immunology and clinical transplantation at UCSF. He has been a faculty member at the University of Minnesota for 15 years, where he is actively involved in clinical transplantation, clinical tolerance trials, and basic studies in transplant immunology and organ preservation. He has multiple grants from the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. Recent achievements include the first long-term cryopreservation of organs, followed by successful transplantation.