As the 2025 Military Health System Research Symposium drew to a close, all eyes looked to the future of military medical research as Young Investigators received awards on Aug. 7, in Kissimmee, Florida. Researchers with poster presentations also received awards during the ceremony.

The Young Investigators competition honored the best oral presentations from residents, fellows, doctoral candidates, post-docs, and individuals within five years of graduation from a terminal degree. All research was Department of Defense-funded with data directly relevant to one of the four MHSRS focus areas: warfighter medical readiness, expeditionary medicine, warfighter performance, and return to duty.

Speaking about the Young Investigators, retired U.S Army Col. (Dr.) John Holcomb, professor of surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the Uniformed Services University, said, “The Young Investigators program is building the bench.”

“The young investigators sometimes have crazy ideas … but sometimes those crazy ideas really do work,” Holcomb continued. “It's really critical, as we build the bench and move forward … to let the young people take over.”

The annual competition remained a highlight of MHSRS, said ceremony moderator U.S. Air Force Col. Scott Sonnek, deputy chief of the Airman Biosciences Division of the 711 Human Performance Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

An impressive 374 abstracts were submitted in this category in 2025, Sonnek added, with the 15 Young Investigators representing the top 5%. The top 3 presentations received awards.

Charles Elder, from the University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, won first place for his work, “Leveraging Artificial Intelligence to Mitigate Membrane Damage in Freeze-Dried Red Blood Cells.”

Dr. Julian Dilley, from Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, Indiana, was awarded second place for, “Inhibition of Ca2+/Calmoduilin-Dependent Protein Kinase Kinase2(CAMKK2) with STO-609 Reduces Osteoarthritis in a Rabbit Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury Model.”

Dr. Elliot Dirr, of the Naval Medical Research Unit in Dayton, Ohio, won third place for “Partial Pressure of Oxygen and Nitrogen Impacts the Development of Noise-Induced Hearing Loss.”

Poster Competition Winners

Sonnek noted that 1,697 posters were accepted for the 2025 MHSRS meeting. The judging began when the submitted abstracts were assessed by the topic area review committees and ended during the conference with a joint committee review of the poster judges.

‘Best in Show’ Poster Competition Winner

The “Best in Show” poster winner was given to Capt. Ziv Talmi Yaakov of the Israel Defense Forces Medical Corps, Tel Hashomer, and Ramat Gan for “Exercise-Associated Hyponatremia in Military Training During a Heat Wave.”

Session One Poster Winners

First Place: Dr. Sabrina Snyder, Naval Medical Research Unit - San Antonio, Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, for “Survival Analysis of a Dental Self-Healing Composite.”

Second Place: Dr. Kayla Septer, Navy Medical Research Command, Bethesda, Maryland, for “Antigenic Characterization of Currently Circulating Seasonal Influenza Strains Using Antigenic Cartography.”

Third Place: Dr. Diane Bolton, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Silver Spring, Maryland, for “Defining the Window of Opportunity for HIV Peri-exposure Immunoprophylaxis with Biospecific Monoclonal Antibody 10E8.4/iMAB against High-dose Intravenous SHIV Challenge in Rhesus Macaques.”

Honorable Mention: Maj. David Zeidler, German Federal Armed Forces Central Hospital, Koblenz, Germany, for “Treat As You Fight Effects of an Interdisciplinary Antibiotic Stewardship Team in a Tertiary Military Hospital.”

Honorable Mention: U.S. Army Maj. Thomas Musich, WRAIR, for “Antimicrobial Resistance in Ukraine Combat Wound Infections Originating Near Zaporizhahia.”

Session Two Poster Winners

First Place: Danielle Berninzoni, Autonomous Reanimation and Evacuation Research Institute, The Geneva Foundation, San Antonio, Texas, for “Portable Viscoelastic Coagulation Monitor for Pre-hospital and Point-of-Care Application in Combat Polytrauma managed with ECLS and Systemic Anticoagulation.”

Second Place: Kyle Meetze, Safi Biotherapeutics, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Loughborough, United Kingdom, for “Potential Benefits of Long-Term Storage Capability of Manufactured Human Red Blood Cells on Military and Civilian Blood Supply.”

Third Place: Dr. Ava Puccio, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for “Mulit-Omnics Analysis of Plasma and CSF Distinguishes TBI Across the Spectrum of Severity and Time.”

Honorable Mention: U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Daniel Crouch, Naval Health Research Center, San Diego, California, for “Anomaly Seasonality Decomposition and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) Modeling Predict Pre- and Post-Pandemic Febrile Respiratory Illness Rates among U.S. Military Recruit Populations.”

Honorable Mention: Maj. Johan Schmitt, Toulon, France, for “Injury Survivability and Death Preventability during Recent Conflicts in French Combat Fatalities: a Retrospective Study.”

Session Three Poster Winners

First Place: Dr. William Kilgore, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, for “The Battle for the Brain: How Sleep Loss and Circadian Rhythms Shape Neurocognitive Readiness.”

Second Place: Dr. Synthia Mellon, University of California, San Francisco, California, for “Mitochondrial Protein Analysis in Neural Derived Exosomes from Veterans and Active-Duty Soldiers With and Without PTSD.”

Third Place: Dr. Victoria Coyle, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, for “Integrated Metalized Microneedle Patch for Continuous Cortisol Sensing in Interstitial Fluid.”

Honorable Mention: Dr. Cory Smith, Baylor University, Waco, Texas, for “Impact of Cold Air and Cold-Water Immersion on Neural Activation Over the Prefrontal Cortex During Marksmanship Assessments.”

Honorable Mention: Alexander Iwaskiw, Johns Hopkins Research Lab, Baltimore, Maryland, for “A Framework for Population-Specific Blunt Skull Injury Risk Predictions Incorporating Biological Variability.”

Awards were previously handed out to winning individuals and teams for their outstanding research dedicated to improving warfighter health.

For more about MHSRS, the research presented, and additional areas of interest, visit the MHSRS webpage.