Anushka Arora, an undergraduate researcher in UAB's Honors College Personalized Pathway program, won first place in her category at the UAB Spring Expo for her poster presentation, “A Pilot Study: Psychosocial Correlates of Pain in Patients with Ulcerative Colitis.”
The pilot study examined how psychosocial factors relate to clinical and experimental pain in patients with ulcerative colitis, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease. Pain in these patients is not fully explained by inflammation alone. This work investigates psychosocial factors alongside experimental measures of pain processing to identify patient-centered mechanisms that contribute to pain vulnerability and persistence. Understanding these mechanisms may inform more targeted approaches to symptom management and improve quality of life.
The project served as Arora's honors thesis and was conducted under the mentorship of Demario Overstreet, Ph.D., senior author on the study, and assistant professor in the Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery, in collaboration with Robert Sorge, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Psychology.
“Anushka's project reflects the type of research we strive to conduct in our laboratory,” Overstreet said. “By engaging students in clinically relevant neuroscience research, we are preparing the next generation of scientists while advancing our understanding of the mechanisms underlying pain.”
The Expo, held each spring, showcases undergraduate research from across the university. Winning posters are selected within categories by judges during the in-person presentation session.
“This award reflects Anushka's initiative, intellectual curiosity, and the rigor she brought to every stage of the project—from study design through presenting her findings,” Overstreet said. “I am incredibly proud of what she accomplished. It also highlights the longstanding collaboration between Dr. Robert Sorge and me, which brings together complementary expertise in pain neuroscience, psychology, and gastrointestinal conditions that affect patients with inflammatory bowel disease and other surgical conditions. We're excited to build on this partnership through several upcoming collaborative projects aimed at advancing our understanding of the biopsychosocial mechanisms underlying pain while continuing to mentor and train the next generation of scientists.”
The study builds on Overstreet's broader research program on biopsychosocial mechanisms of pain in gastrointestinal disease and after surgery. Overstreet, a 2026 Pittman Scholar, recently received a National Institutes of Health MIRA (R35) award of more than $2 million to study how acute pain becomes chronic after surgery.
Sorge is an NIH-funded scientist who leads multiple NIH R01-funded research programs, directs the INSPIRE Laboratory in the Department of Psychology, and serves as co-director of UAB's undergraduate neuroscience program.
About UAB Expo
Hosted by UAB's Office of Service Learning and Undergraduate Research, the UAB Expo operates in a hybrid format, with online and in-person poster and oral presentation sessions evaluated by UAB faculty, staff, graduate students, and local community members. Beyond the awards, the event is designed to help students strengthen their presentation skills, exchange ideas with peers, and receive feedback they can carry into future work. Presenters can also archive their posters with UAB Libraries, which generates a permanent link that can be included on graduate school and employment applications