Dr. Bagchi’s lab received quite the attention at the American Physiology Summit in Baltimore held in April 2025. The lab had two abstracts submitted, both of which were competitively selected for oral presentations. One of the abstracts focused on adipose-heart crosstalk mechanisms in early onset of obesity, was selected as an abstract of distinction and presented during the highly coveted Solomon A. Berson Distinguished Lectureship of the Endocrinology and Metabolism Section. Another abstract, which is a new area of work not just in Dr. Bagchi’s lab but also at UAMS, focused on simulating cardiometabolic disease in a 3D-microenvironment using human cardiac fibroblasts and 3D-bioprinting, was selected as one of the top scoring abstracts in Translational Physiology. Somaya Ibrahim, a Pharm.D./MBA candidate and student researcher in the lab, was the first and presenting author for both these abstracts. She was also selected as a finalist for the David Gutterman Trainee Award.
At the American Physiological Society’s Awards event at the same meeting, Dr. Bagchi was honored with the highly prestigious John F. Perkins, Jr. Research Career Enhancement Award. This award supported her visit to the laboratory of Dr. Michelle Tallquist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa where she learned about lineage tracing models and received hands-on-training in specialized techniques to use in her own research program here at UAMS. She is the first recipient from UAMS and the state of Arkansas to receive this honor.
Dr. Bagchi is grateful to the support from her lab team, collaborators, the department and UAMS for these achievements.