Lab News
Gintas Krisciunas Featured on Innovation Panel at 2025 New York City Dysphasia Symposium
Dr. Gintas Krisciunas, director of the OTO-COATI Lab, was invited to present at the 2025 New York City Dysphagia Symposium, held October 17–18 in New York, NY. He served on a panel titled From Innovation to Implementation in Dysphagia Management, with co-presenters Dr. Georgia Malandraki and Dr. Michelle Troche, and with Dr. Bonnie Martin-Harris serving as a moderator.
His presentation, "Innovation in assessment for dysphagia management," reflected insights drawn from the lab’s ongoing research in clinical outcomes measurement. His talk highlighted novel psychometric approaches such as Item Response Theory and Modified Bookmarking techniques that can enhance both qualitative and quantitative assessment of patient centric outcomes related to swallowing disorders.
The invitation-only symposium explored how rapidly evolving healthcare innovations intersect with patient access, clinician training, and clinical outcomes — all while keeping the patient experience of eating and drinking, and the critical importance of these functions on patient's health and daily lived experience, at the heart of discussion.
Dr. Krisciunas' participation underscores the lab’s active role in contributing to these evolving conversations, and in advancing new approaches to patient-centered dysphagia assessment and management.
Happy Halloween from the OTO-COATI Lab!
For the second year in a row, the OTO-COATI Lab celebrated Halloween by carving pumpkins together. Boo! 🎃
Lalita Sabat’s Presentation Wins First Place at ACCESS Global Health Symposium
We are thrilled to congratulate Lalita Sabat, a medical student at Virginia Commonwealth University and dedicated OTO-COATI Lab member, who recently presented her research titled "Racial Disparities Between Head and Neck Cancer Clinical Trials and Head and Neck Cancer Patients in the United States: A Retrospective Study" at the ACCESS Global Health Symposium held in Richmond, Virginia on September 6, 2025.
This multidisciplinary symposium, hosted annually by Virginia Commonwealth University, features distinguished keynote speakers, poster presentations, workshops, and much more. Lalita’s outstanding work — conducted with collaborators Arnavaz Hajizadeh Barfejani, Grace Chow, Melani Zuckerman, Jungwun Lee, Heather Edwards, and Gintas P. Krisciunas — earned her first place at this year’s event!
Please join us in celebrating Lalita’s achievement in advancing our understanding of critical disparities in head and neck cancer research and patient care.
Gabriele Spokas Presents at American Conference on Physician Health
We are proud to announce that Gabriele Spokas, a graduate student at the University of North Carolina and valued member of the OTO-COATI Lab, recently presented her research titled "Cut, Stitch, Pump: Supporting Surgeons' Wellness with Lactation Time" at the American Conference on Physician Health (ACPH) held in Boston, MA from September 11–13, 2025.
This prestigious conference, jointly sponsored by the American Medical Association, Mayo Clinic, and Stanford Medicine, is dedicated to advancing professional satisfaction and reducing physician burnout. The 2025 theme, "Inspire, innovate, implement: Systemic solutions to strengthen physician well-being," emphasizes sustainable improvements within health care environments.
Gabriele’s presentation, developed in collaboration with Lalita Sabat, Elise Graham, Dr. Gintas Krisciunas, Dr. Claire Lawlor, and Dr. Heather Edwards, addressed an important but often overlooked aspect of surgeon wellness — supporting lactation time to enhance well-being and work-life integration for surgical professionals.
You can read more about Gabriele’s experience and reflections on presenting at ACPH in her LinkedIn post.
Please join us in congratulating Gabriele and the team for their impactful contribution to advancing physician health.
New Students Join the OTO-COATI Lab
The OTO-COATI Lab is thrilled to welcome new team members from Boston University! Second-year medical students Sarah Chang and Shivani Patel are joining our spectroscopy team, advancing work on head and neck cancer detection. Undergraduate student Yusuf Chaudhry will also contribute to this project. Meanwhile, second-year medical student Ruby Nguyen will focus on post-operative outcomes in head and neck cancer patients.
We’re excited to see their energy and ideas shape our research!
Welcome Morgan Raskin!
The OTO-COATI Lab is excited to welcome Morgan Raskin, MS, CCC-SLP to our team! Morgan joins our collaboration with MGH as a clinical research coordinator and research speech-language pathologist, studying voice disorders while pursuing her PhD at the MGH Institute of Health Professions.
We’re delighted to have her expertise and passion for advancing voice research on board!
New Beginnings and Warm Welcomes at the OTO-COATI Lab
Summer is bringing exciting transitions to the OTO-COATI Lab! We’re thrilled to welcome two new medical students to our research team and to celebrate the next chapters for three of our outstanding lab members who are moving on to graduate and medical school.
We’re excited to welcome Nikhita Santebennur, a third-year medical student at Boston University, who has joined the lab to coordinate our studies using spectroscopy to detect head and neck cancer. We’re also pleased to have Varun Gopal, a rising second-year medical student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, who will be pursuing new research on clinical outcomes in patients with head and neck cancer.
At the same time, we’re saying heartfelt goodbyes (for now!) to three incredible team members:
-
Lalita Sabat, OTO-COATI Lab fellow, has completed her research fellowship and will begin medical school at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine.
-
Grace Chow, clinical research coordinator, is off to study medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
-
Gabriele Spokas, research specialist, is heading to the University of North Carolina’s Gillings School of Public Health to pursue a Master’s of Health Administration.
We are so grateful to Lalita, Grace, and Gabriele for the energy, dedication, and insight they brought to our work. While we’ll miss having them in the lab day-to-day, we are incredibly proud of their accomplishments and excited for what’s ahead. And though they may be leaving Boston, we look forward to continuing to collaborate with them as they embark on their next adventures.
Congratulations to all, and welcome to our new team members!
Grace Chow Presents Research at COSM 2025 in New Orleans
Grace Chow, an OTO-COATI Lab clinical research coordinator, recently presented her work at the Combined Otolaryngology Spring Meetings (COSM) 2025 research conference, held in New Orleans, LA from May 14–18, 2025.
COSM is the premier annual conference in Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, bringing together physicians, researchers, residents, medical students, and allied health professionals from across the country. The conference serves as a leading forum for sharing innovative clinical and scientific research, with the ultimate goal of improving patient care.
Grace presented a poster on her project titled "Language Matters: Contraception Requirement Phrasing Influences Equitable Enrollment in Head and Neck Cancer Clinical Trials." Her presentation highlighted how subtle differences in language used in clinical trial protocols can impact participant diversity and equitable enrollment. This project was a collaborative effort with Dr. Heather Edwards, Melani Zuckerman, and Dr. Gintas Krisciunas.
Congratulations to Grace on this exciting achievement and contribution to the field!
Winston Liu Presents at 2025 Dysphagia Research Society Conference
OTO-COATI Lab member and Boston University undergraduate student Winston Liu recently presented at the 2025 Dysphagia Research Society (DRS) Annual Conference held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from March 25-28, 2025. His poster, titled "Python-Powered Expert-Driven Anatomic Delineation for BRACS Rating," describes his research project co-authored by Winston, Lucas Berry, and Dr. Gintas Krisciunas.
The DRS conference, known for gathering clinicians and scientists from around the world, serves as a key platform for advancing the study and treatment of swallowing disorders. Winston's presentation was an appreciated contribution to the ongoing dialogue on innovative solutions in dysphagia research. Asked about his experience attending the conference, Winston offered the following reflection:
"DRS was my first time presenting an original piece of scientific research, and I thought it was a great introduction to doing rigid science in a supportive environment. The scientific sessions were very interesting, and getting to see professional researchers and students alike engaging in scientific discourse was eye-opening. Truth be told, I was a little worried when heading to the conference that my poster presentation would involve me justifying and defending the validity of my work. After day 2 of the conference, though, my apprehensions were replaced mostly with excitement. I received many good questions from experienced researchers and clinicians, which have provided me with several future directions that I could take my work. I’m truly thankful to everyone at the lab for being so supportive, and I’m really grateful to Dr. Krisciunas and our senior research specialist, Lucas, for his help in conducting and preparing my research for DRS!"
Congratulations to Winston and the team for this achievement!
You can learn more about the OTO-COATI Lab's research on dysphagia outcomes and assessment here.
New Research Publication: Elastic Scattering Spectroscopy for Intraoperative Oral Cancer Mucosal Margin Guidance
We are excited to announce the publication of a new article titled "Elastic Scattering Spectroscopy for Intraoperative Oral Cancer Mucosal Margin Guidance: Initial Results from a 104-Patient Cohort" in the American Journal of Otolaryngology. The paper was made available online on March 5, 2025.
This innovative paper highlights the promising role of elastic scattering spectroscopy (ESS) as a real-time, non-invasive tool to guide head and neck surgeons during mouth cancer resections. The study builds upon previous pilot research conducted by our interdisciplinary team and includes novel artificial intelligence (AI) analysis techniques to further validate ESS's potential in surgical practice.
The study involved a collaboration between several esteemed institutions and experts, including OTO-COATI lab faculty Drs. Krisciunas and Grillone, along with staff Lucas Berry, Gabriele Spokas, Devin Lucas, and student Mitali Sakharkar. In addition, the paper includes contributions from engineers at Boston University's BMO lab (Drs. Rodriguez-Diaz, A'Amar, and Bigio), as well as head and neck surgeons from Boston Medical Center, the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System, and Tufts Medical Center (Drs. Couey, Edwards, Sayre, Gooey, Hanks, O'Leary, and Tracy), and pathologists from Boston University (Drs. Lu, Pistey, and Zhao).
The research was made possible by a grant from the NIH. The results presented in this paper are a key part of the ongoing investigation into ESS's potential as an adjunct tool to guide surgical margins in oral cancer resection, which could possibly reduce downstream patient morbidity.
You can read the full paper here. If you're interested in learning more about the OTO-COATI lab's research in this area, you can do so from our site's research page.
We are excited to continue advancing this innovative technology, and we look forward to sharing more updates in the future.