Medical Student Achievements
Cardiovascular Center of Excellence
M2 student Farrell Chatelain was one of the winners of the 22nd annual Medical Student Research Symposium. Chatelain
tied for 3rd Place. Winners received a $750 Dean's Research Travel Award. Co-Authors:
Ayushi Patel, Huijing Xia, Eric Lazartigues LSUHSC-New Orleans, LSUHSC-Cardiovascular
Center of Excellence.
Genetics
Brionna King (M4 Medical Student - Honors Research Program - Dr. Giulia Monticone's lab) won the
LSU LCMC Health Cancer Center Travel Award for her research on nucleoside analogs
as novel immunotherapeutics leveraging the adenosine pathway. She will present her
research at the AACR annual meeting 2026 in San Diego with the travel award support.
Laura Naldi’s (PhD student - Dr. Giulia Monticone's lab) image of a tumor-derived organoid was
selected for the Agilent BioTek 2026 imaging calendar. Organoid models are at the
forefront of preclinical cancer research, and a key component of Laura's work on sodium-dependent
regulation of antitumor T-cell 
responses through the vasopressin pathway. The project is a collaboration between
Dr. Giulia Monticone's lab at LSUHSC and Dr. Alessandro Peri at the University of
Florence (Italy).