Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology faculty, trainees attend Digestive Disease Week 2026

Christina McAninch, fifth-year PhD student in the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program at Penn State College of Medicine, provides a research presentation at Digestive Disease Week 2026.

Faculty and trainees in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology in the Department of Medicine at Penn State College of Medicine were recognized and well represented again this year at Digestive Disease Week (DDW), the world’s premier scientific conference for gastroenterology and digestive disorders. This year’s conference was held in Chicago, Illinois, from May 2-6.

In addition to several outstanding poster presentations, multiple division faculty and trainees provided invited oral research talks, including Drs. Prashant Nighot, Matthew Moyer and Christina McAninch. Division members also lectured and/or participated on the panels of several scientific and/or educational sessions, including Drs. Jennifer Maranki, Matthew Moyer and Hadie Razjouyan.

A complete list of the presentations provided by our team can be found below.

SATURDAY, MAY 2

Symposium

• ADVANCES IN ANTI-DIARRHEAL THERAPIES
  Speaker 3 (Prashant Nighot; Penn State Univ) will present his novel insights describing how members of the tight junction claudin family regulate autophagy and the implications of these interactions for IBD.8:00 am – 9:30 am

Podium presentation – Matthew Moyer

• WHAT’S THE EVIDENCE FOR PANCREATIC CYST ABLATION: OBSERVATION VERSUS TREATMENT? May 2, 2026, ASGE Symposia: EUS: A MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO THE EVALUATION AND TREATMENT OF PANCREATIC CYSTS IN 2026 (LIVE STREAM SESSION). W185b&c,10am, Digestive Disease Week, McCormick Convention Center, Chicago, IL.

Poster presentations:

• DOES BACKWASH ILEITIS AT COLECTOMY PREDICT POUCHITIS IN ULCERATIVE COLITIS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS
  Presenter: Mikayla Cochrane
  Authors: Mikayla Cochrane, Ronaldo Paolo Panganiban
  Saturday May 2nd, 2026 from 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM CDT
• Poster Presenter: Muhammad Shahzil
  Authors: Muhammad Shahzil, Aruna Turaka, Zain Siddiqui, Hadie Razjouyan
  DOES RADIOTHERAPY FOR BREAST CANCER TREATMENT INCREASE THE RISK OF HEPATOBILIARY CARCINOMA? A REAL-WORLD LARGE PROPENSITY-MATCHED STUDY
  Session Type: Abstract Poster
  Session Title: Biliary Tract Neoplasms
  Session Date & Time: May 2, 2026 from 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM CDT
• PERINATAL INDUCTION OF MATERNAL AUTOPHAGY PRESERVES NEONATAL INTESTINAL BARRIER INTEGRITY DURING EARLY-LIFE STRESS
  Authors: Priya Arumugam, Prashant Nighot
  Poster Number: Sa1448
  Session Title: Epithelial Barrier Function
  Session Date and Time: May 2, 2026 from 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM
• 165: RISK FACTORS AND PREDICTION OF RECURRENCE AFTER HOT AND COLD EMR OF LARGE COLORECTAL POLYPS
  Darius James Javidi*², Douglas K. Rex³, Stuart R. Gordon², Muhammad K. Hasan⁴, Fadi Antaki⁵, Saowanee Ngamruengphong⁶, Douglas K. Pleskow⁷, Ian S. Grimm⁸, Daniel Von Renteln⁹, Badih Joseph Elmunzer¹², Harry R. Aslanian¹¹, Ryan Law¹⁰, Matthew T. Moyer¹³, John Maynard Levenick¹³, Amit Rastogi¹⁴, Michael B. Wallace¹⁰, Bhaumik Brahmbhatt¹⁰, Ajaypal Singh¹⁵, Dennis Yang⁴, Aleksandar Gavric¹⁶, Jeffrey Gill¹⁷, Xiaoqing Xia¹⁸, Todd Mackenzie¹⁸, Heiko Pohl¹; ¹³Penn State Health Milton S Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States;
  2:36 pm – 2:48 pm
• Sa1119: INCORPORATION OF INTERVENTIONAL ENDOSCOPY FOR ESOPHAGEAL PERFORATION MANAGEMENT: NOVEL MULTIDISCIPLINARY AND EVIDENCE-BASED APPROACH TO REDUCE MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY
  Neil Sharma², Harishankar Gopakumar*¹, Andrew Canakis³, David Uihwan Lee⁵, Justin Canakis⁷, Petros C. Benias⁴, Raymond E. Kim⁵, Kambiz Shapoor Kadkhodayan⁸, Christopher C. Thompson¹, Shayan S. Irani^{6
  7}Penn State Health Milton S Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States

SUNDAY, MAY 3

Speaker – Jennifer Maranki

• ASSESSMENT OF PANCREATIC CYSTS AND SCREENING FOR PANCREATIC CANCER
  AGA-ASGE Postgraduate Course
  Sp353
  Session begins on Sunday, May 3, 2026 at 7:30 AM
  W375de

Poster presentation:

• Presenter: Brandon Rodgers
  Authors: Brandon Rodgers, Charles E Dye, Rushin Brahmbhatt, Charles Vining, Lawrence Knab, Amy Kane, Andrej Quatrone, James Birkholz, Zvjezdana Sever Chroneos, Melissa Kelly, Hadie Razjouyan, Jennifer Maranki, Matthew T. Moyer
  Presentation Title: ALCOHOL FREE EUS-GUIDED PANCREATIC CYST CHEMOABLATION: A 13 YEAR SINGLE CENTER EXPERIENCE
  Session Date & Time: May 3, 2026 from 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM CDT

Moderator – Jennifer Maranki

• EVIDENCE-BASED ERCP: WHEN TO INTERVENE? (LIVE STREAM SESSION)
  SUNDAY, MAY 3, 2026, 2:00 PM- 3:30 PM
  W185bc

MONDAY, MAY 4

Podium presentation:

• FEMALE ENDOSCOPISTS HAVE FAVORABLE ADENOMA DETECTION RATES COMPARED WITH MALE ENDOSCOPISTS IN A NATIONAL COLONOSCOPY REGISTRY
  Authors: Lauren Deborah Feld1,2, Jennifer L. Holub3, Linda C. Cummings4,9, Jennifer Maranki5, Colleen Maclin Schmitt6, Audrey H. Calderwood*7,8
  Presentation ID: 608
  Date: Monday, May 4, 8:15am-8:30am
  Session Number: 0002
  Location W180 McCormick Place

Podium presentation – Matthew Moyer

• THE FUTURE OF CYST MANAGEMENT: IS CHEMOABLATION READY FOR PRIME TIME? EVOLVING STRATEGIES IN THE DIAGNOSIS AND MANAGEMENT OF PANCREATIC CYSTIC LESIONS: FROM GUIDELINES TO PRECISION MEDICINE. 7-9am, May 4, Hyde Park Room, Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, Chicago, IL

Poster presentations:

• Vanessa Orbe, Shannon Dalessio, Zeba Hussaini, Audrey Kulaylat, Matt Coates, Emmanuelle Williams, Ron Panganiban, Andrew Tinsley, Kofi Clarke
  Session Type: Abstract Poster
  Session Title: Quality of Life and Psychosocial Outcomes
  COMPARATIVE RISK OF ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION AFTER OSTOMY VS. NON-OSTOMY SURGERY IN BIOLOGIC-TREATED IBD PATIENTS
  Session Date & Time: May 4, 2026 from 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM CDT
• Presenter: Grace Wilgucki (IM PGY-1)
  Authors: Grace Wilgucki, Brandon Rodgers, Zeba Hussaini, Charles Dye, Matthew T. Moyer
  HIGH-GRADE ESOPHAGEAL STRICTURE DUE TO SARCOIDOSIS SUCCESSFULLY TREATED WITH FULLY COVERED ESOPHAGEAL STENT COMBINED WITH TRIAMCINOLONE INJECTION
• Vanessa Orbe, Shannon Dalessio, Audrey Kulaylat, Kofi Clarke
  Session Type: Abstract Poster
  Session Title: Quality of Life and Psychosocial Outcomes
  Session Date & Time: May 4, 2026 from 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM CDT
  SHORT-TERM PSYCHIATRIC RISK AFTER SURGERY FOR INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE: A PROPENSITY SCORE–MATCHED ANALYSIS
• Session Date & Time: May 4, 2026 from 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM CDT
  Presenter: Maqdous Awan (MS3)
  Authors: Maqdous Awan, Brandon Rodgers, Matthew T. Moyer
  WHEN PERFORMING EUS-GUIDED PANCREATIC CYST CHEMOABLATION, CAN MULTIPLE CYSTIC TUMORS BE TREATED SAFELY AND EFFECTIVELY AT THE SAME SESSION?
  Session Date & Time: May 4, 2026 from 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM CDT

Oral presentation:

• Christina McAninch, Steven McAninch, Zonghui Ma, ; Jiaxing Tan, Sara Shimko, Eleanora Margulis, Haiying Chen, Sinisa Dovat, Ronaldo Panganiban, Gregory Yochum, Bing Tian, Marina Chulkina, Jia Zhou, Irina Pinchuk
  Session Type: Abstract Lecture
  Session Title: Intestinal Fibrosis in IBD – Finally Cracking the Nut?
  Session Date & Time: May 4, 2026 from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM CDT
  MESENCHYMAL-CELL SPECIFIC TARGETING OF BRD4 AS A STRATEGY TO REDUCE CROHN’S DISEASE-ASSOCIATED FIBROSIS
• 898: ENDOSCOPIST PERFORMANCE MAY BE A STRONGER DETERMINANT OF RECURRENCE THAN POLYP OR PROCEDURE CHARACTERISTICS OF LARGE POLYP EMR
  Kaitlin McGowan², Xiaoqing Xia³, Douglas K. Rex⁴, Saowanee Ngamruengphong⁶, Aleksandar Gavric⁵, Matthew T. Moyer⁷, Badih Joseph Elmunzer⁸, John Maynard Levenick⁷, Jeremy Barber⁹, Harry R. Aslanian¹⁰, Mazen Elatrache¹¹, Michael B. Wallace¹², Ian S. Grimm¹³, Cyrus Piraka¹¹, Daniel Von Renteln¹⁴, Bhaumik Brahmbhatt¹², Jeffrey Gill¹⁵, Eugene Zolotarevsky¹⁶, Amit Rastogi¹⁷, Mouen A. Khashab⁶, Stuart R. Gordon², Douglas K. Pleskow¹⁸, Fadi Antaki¹⁹, Robert Pompa¹¹, Ajaypal Singh²⁰, Todd Mackenzie³, Heiko Pohl*^{1,2
  7}Penn State Health Milton S Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States;
  5:00 pm – 5:15 pm

TUESDAY, MAY 5

• THE NEXT HORIZON IN EUS FROM DIAGNOSIS TO INTERVENTIONS (LIVE STREAM SESSION)
  Hadie Razjouyan, MD, MPH, Reem Z, Sharaiha, MD
  10:00 am – 11:30 am

Poster presentations:

• Caden Chow, August C. Stuart, Andrew Tinsley, Zeba Hussaini, Ronald Panganiban, Emmanuelle D. Willams, Kofi Clarke, Matthew D. Coates
  Session Title: Enteric Sensation in Health and Disease
  Session Date and Time: May 5, 2026 from 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM
  DURABILITY OF PAIN PHENOTYPES IN INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE
  Poster Number: Tu1668
• Justin Canakis, Mikayla Cochrane, Anirudh Damughatla, Hadie Razjouyan
  MACROSCOPIC ON-SITE EVALUATION FOR PANCREATIC LESIONS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF DIAGNOSTIC PERFORMANCE IN EUS-GUIDED TISSUE ACQUISITION
  Session Title: Endoscopic Ultrasound of the Pancreas
  Session Date and Time: May 5, 2026 from 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM
  Poster Number: Tu1861
• Marina Chulkina, Christina McAninch, Steven Bruce McAninch, Ronaldo Paolo Panganiban, Yen Teng Tai, Bing He, Dhimant Desai, Sinisa Dovat, Irina V. Pinchuk
  Session Type: Abstract Poster
  Session Title: Mechanisms of IBD Therapeutics
  Session Date & Time: May 5, 2026 from 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM CDT
  ROLE OF CK2 IN TYPE 2 CD4 T CELL EFFECTOR FUNCTION DURING ULCERATIVE COLITIS-ASSOCIATED INFLAMMATION

Outside Division

SATURDAY, MAY 2

• PERSISTENT IMMUNE MICROENVIRONMENT CHANGES ASSOCIATED WITH PROGRESSION RISK IN BARRETT’S ESOPHAGUS
  Hyun Young Park¹, Erin Grayhack¹, Ashten Omstead¹, christopher sherry¹, alisha khan¹, catherine lewis¹, neda Dadgar¹, Kunhong Xiao¹, Gursiman Kochar¹, Michael Landau¹, Douglas Brian Stairs², Ali H. Zaidi¹, Patrick Wagner*^{1
  2}Penn State Cancer Institute, Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States
  8:45 am – 9:00 am

Poster presentation 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm

• Sa1660: INTRANASAL OXYTOCIN ALLEVIATES GASTRIC DYSFUNCTION IN A RAT MODEL OF ENVIRONMENTAL PARKINSONISM
  Ruchi Bhagat*¹, Kirsteen N. Browning^{1
  1}NET, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States
• Sa1662: OXYTOCIN MODULATES DMV NEURONS IN FEMALE RATS: IMPLICATIONS FOR DISORDERS OF GUT-BRAIN INTERACTIONS
  Ruchi Bhagat*¹, Kirsteen N. Browning^{1
  1}Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, United State
• Sa1391: SURVIVAL OUTCOMES IN METASTATIC COLORECTAL CANCER PATIENTS WITH BRAF MUTATIONS UNDERGOING CHEMOTHERAPY: A RECONSTRUCTED INDIVIDUAL PATIENT-DATA META-ANALYSIS OF RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIALS
  Syeda Kanza Kazmi*¹, Muhammad Abdul Rehman², Aqsa Kabir⁴, Jalib Ahmed⁴, Hanaa Tariq^{3
  1}Penn State Health Milton S Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States;
• RARE PROTEIN DISRUPTING GENETIC VARIANTS IN GIPR ARE ASSOCIATED WITH IMPAIRED GLUCOSE TOLERANCE AND INSULIN RESISTANCE
  Inuk Zandvakili*^1,2, Yi-An Ko², Kyle Nerz^5,2, Wei-Wen Hsu¹, Luis F. Lara¹, Jessica R. Wilson³, Carolin Schneider^4,2, Rader Daniel^{2
  5}Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States
  3:00 pm – 3:15 pm

MONDAY, MAY 4

Poster presentation 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm

• Mo1778: GUT BARRIER BREAKDOWN, COLONIC NLRP3 INFLAMMASOME ACTIVATION AND ENTERIC PLASTICITY IN A RAT MODEL OF PARKINSON’S DISEASE INDUCED BY GASTRIC INJECTION OF PARAQUAT AND LECTINS
  Vanessa D’Antongiovanni*¹, R. Alberto Travagli³, Kirsteen N. Browning², Carolina Pellegrini^{1
  1}Universita degli Studi di Pisa, Pisa, Tuscany, Italy; ²Penn State College of Medicine Department of Neural and Behavioral Sciences, Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States; ³Neurobiology Research, Newport, North Carolina, United States
• Mo1583: THE EFFICACY AND SAFETY OF FIRST-LINE VEDOLIZUMAB COMPARED TO INFLIXIMAB IN BIOLOGIC-NAÏVE INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE PATIENTS: A META-ANALYSIS
  Syeda Kanza Kazmi*¹, Musab Maqsood², Anas Babar², Aymon Shahid², Aiza Ashraf Zia², Hafiz Muhammad Ehsan Arshad², Muhammad Zain Raza², Ali Ahmad Nadeem², Fizza Liaquat², Hira Nadeem^{2
  1}Penn State Health Milton S Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States
• Mo1465: TRACING NAD+ METABOLISM UNCOVERS ADAPTIVE COORDINATION BETWEEN HOST AND MICROBIOME DUING COLITIS
  Abrar Alsaadi*¹, Lina Welz², Anant A. Pothakamury¹, Clara Gilloteau¹, Praveena Prasad¹, Mahmoud Yahia¹, Jaedon Sadler¹, Jaclyn Smith¹, Brenita C. Jenkins¹, Garret Diven¹, Johanna Bornhäuser², Taous Mekdoud², Shuchang Tian¹, Philip Rosenstiel², Stefan Schreiber², Jordan Bisanz¹, Konrad Aden², Melanie McReynolds^{1
  1}The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, United States;
• 898: ENDOSCOPIST PERFORMANCE MAY BE A STRONGER DETERMINANT OF RECURRENCE THAN POLYP OR PROCEDURE CHARACTERISTICS OF LARGE POLYP EMR5:00 – 5:15

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