Young Physician-Scientist Awards, 2021

The ASCI is pleased to recognize the 40 recipients of its 2021 (Young Physician-Scientist Awards), which recognize excellent physician-scientists who are early in their first faculty appointment and have made notable achievements in their research.

Marwah Abdalla, MD, MPH

Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Marwah Abdalla, MD, MPH, received her A.B from Harvard College, Medical Degree and Masters in Public Health from Yale School of Medicine and Yale School of Public Health. She was an Intern, Resident, and Chief Resident in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital. She completed her training as a cardiology fellow and Chief Fellow at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

Dr. Abdalla is an Assistant Professor of Medicine, clinical cardiologist, and faculty member in the Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Her research focuses on hypertension diagnosis, treatment, out-of-office blood pressure monitoring, and the characterization of several blood pressure phenotypic measures including awake and sleep blood pressure, and abnormal ambulatory blood pressure phenotypes including white coat hypertension and masked hypertension. She has demonstrated that African Americans in the Jackson Heart Study have a high prevalence of nocturnal hypertension; higher sleep blood pressure levels are associated with target organ damage (including higher left ventricular mass and left ventricular hypertrophy) and that masked nocturnal hypertension is associated with incident hypertension among African Americans. She is Principal Investigator (PI) of an NIH/NHLBI K23 study entitled “Nocturnal Hypertension and Sleep”, PI of an American Heart Association/Robert Wood Johnson Harold Amos Award to study the association of sleep and blood pressure, as well as PI of a R01 NIH/NHLBI entitled “Automated clinic blood pressure assessment and detection of white coat and masked hypertension study in African Americans.” Her overall career goal is to establish an independent program of research in the areas of hypertension and sleep, focusing on identifying novel interventions to decrease the morbidity and mortality associated with nocturnal hypertension.

Oleh Akchurin, MD, PhD

Weill Cornell Medicine
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Oleh Akchurin, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Rohr Family Clinical Scholar in Pediatrics at Weill Cornell College of Medicine, New York, NY and an attending pediatric nephrologist in New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. He completed his residency training in pediatrics at the State University of Buffalo, Buffalo, NY and fellowship in pediatric nephrology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, NY. Dr. Akchurin is a recipient of the K08 Career Development Award from the NIH NIDDK to decipher how iron metabolism alterations and iron therapy impact renal fibrosis and chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression, as well as CKD complications. Dr. Akchurin has contributed to our understanding of the role of hepcidin in the development of anemia and non-hematologic complications in juvenile CKD. His work also revealed the complexity of the interaction between iron metabolism, iron therapy, and CKD-mineral and bone disorder in juvenile CKD.

Saud AlDubayan, MD

Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Saud AlDubayan, MD, is an Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, a Computational Biologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a Clinical Geneticist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and an Associate Scientist at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Dr. AlDubayan graduated from King Khalid University in Saudi Arabia and received his clinical training in Internal Medicine at the University of Toronto and Clinical Genetics and Genomics at Harvard Medical School. He also did a post-doctoral research fellowship in the Clinical Computational Oncology Laboratory at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute. Dr. AlDubayan’s research focuses on utilizing various computational approaches to identify novel inherited genomic predictors of cancer risk, disease progression, and response to therapy and explore clinically focused questions using genomic, transcriptomic, and methylation data. Towards that end, Dr. AlDubayan led the effort to identify two novel colorectal cancer (CRC) predisposition genes (ATM and PALB2), collectively explaining CRC risk in 1.2% of all CRC patients. He also spearheaded an international effort to identify the first Mendelian germline predisposition gene in testicular germ cell tumors, CHEK2, with potentially immediate clinical and mechanistic implications. More recently, Dr. AlDubayan used machine-learning approaches on the germline genetic data of cancer patients to uncover clinically informative germline drivers of cancer risk, cancer progression, and response to therapy, an effort that may introduce a new paradigm for deep learning-based clinical germline variant characterization. Dr. AlDubayan has received numerous awards, including a Young Investigator Award from the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF), a Career Development Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), a Charles A. King Trust Postdoctoral Fellowship, and a Physician Research Award from the US Department of Defense (DoD).

@s_aldubayan

Matthew R. Alexander, MD, PhD

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Matthew R. Alexander, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Divisions of Clinical Pharmacology and Cardiovascular Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He attended Duke University for his undergraduate studies followed by training in the Medical Scientist Training (MD/PhD) Program at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He subsequently joined the Vanderbilt University Medical Center's Harrison Society, or Physician Scientist Training Program, where he completed an internship and residency in Internal Medicine followed by a Cardiovascular Medicine fellowship. As part of his fellowship he performed postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Meena Madhur on the role of adaptive immunity in hypertension. His independent research program is focused on the role of counter-regulatory immune mechanisms in the pathogenesis of hypertension and related end-organ damage. Dr. Alexander also practices clinically in general cardiology with a focus on advanced hypertension.

@VascRes

Giada Bianchi, MD

Harvard Medical School, Brigham & Women’s Hospital
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Giada Bianchi, MD, is a physician-scientist in the field of plasma cell disorders with a prime laboratory and clinical interest in AL amyloidosis. She is Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a Principal Investigator with the Division of Hematology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA. Dr. Bianchi is Associate Director of the Amyloidosis Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

Dr. Bianchi received her medical degree from Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan, Italy, summa cum laude and Valedictorian of her class. She trained in Internal Medicine at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, followed by fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute/Partners program in Boston, MA.

Dr. Bianchi’s research focuses on plasma cell biology and particularly on the role of protein homeostasis and the dynamics of the ubiquitin proteasome pathway in determining physiologic and pathologic plasma cell fate. Her overarching goal is to mechanistically understand the roots of plasma cell dyscrasias, discover new druggable targets and develop novel therapeutics to support early phase, investigator-initiated clinical trials in AL amyloidosis and multiple myeloma. Dr. Bianchi is the recipient of numerous awards, including the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Research Training Award for Fellows, 2015; the International Myeloma Foundation (IMF) Brian Novis Junior grant, 2015; the Damon Runyon Physician-Scientist Training Award, 2016; the Doris Duke Charitable Research Foundation Clinical Scientist Development Award, 2019; and an NIH/NCI K08 award, 2020.

Alexander Bick, MD, PhD

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Alexander Bick, MD, PhD, is a physician/scientist working in the field of human genomics. His scientific observations have advanced our understanding of the genetic basis for cardiovascular disease and blood disorders, characterized molecular disease mechanisms and identified both the promise and limitations of translating genomic findings into routine medical practice. He has a particular interest in understanding how the interplay between inherited germline genetic factors and acquired somatic mutations contributes to disease. Dr. Bick leads efforts within the NHLBI TOPMed Program, the VA Million Veteran Program, the UK Biobank and the Vanderbilt BioVU Biobank to characterize the causes and consequences of clonal hematopoiesis. In parallel with his research, Dr. Bick leads the preventative genomic medicine clinical program at the Vanderbilt Genetics and Therapeutics Clinic.

Evan M. Bloch, MBChB, MS

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Evan Bloch, MBChB, MS, is an Associate Professor of Pathology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he serves as the Associate Director of Transfusion Medicine; he also holds a joint appointment in International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Bloch has drawn on his background in anatomic and clinical pathology, transfusion medicine and global health to advance a longstanding interest in the interplay between blood transfusion and infectious diseases, particularly in low and low-middle income countries where transfusion transmitted infection remains a key metric of suboptimal policies and practices. Blood transfusion networks afford invaluable opportunity to study neglected (e.g., Babesia) and emerging infectious diseases (Zika, SARS-CoV2), as donors contribute large volume samples across a diverse geography. Importantly, many —if not most—infectious risks to the blood supply remain neglected (e.g., malaria, bacteria), particularly in low resource settings, whereby research can yield high impact public health intervention. Blood transfusion itself can also be used to contend with emerging pathogens. This is illustrated by the COVID-19 pandemic, during which Dr. Bloch has been engaged in clinical trials to assess the efficacy of convalescent plasma to prevent and/or treat COVID-19.

Tina Cascone, MD, PhD

University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Tina Cascone, MD, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Thoracic, Head and Neck Medical Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX. She received her degree in medicine from the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli (former Second University of Naples), in Naples, Italy. Dr. Cascone earned her doctorate degree in Medical and Surgical Oncology and Clinical Immunology at the same University while performing the experimental studies of her thesis at MD Anderson Cancer Center. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine at the Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO, and her medical oncology fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center. In 2017, Dr. Cascone became an instructor in the Advanced Scholar Program at MD Anderson Cancer Center. In 2018, she joined the faculty as a tenure track assistant professor in the Department of Thoracic, Head and Neck Medical Oncology.

Dr. Cascone leads a basic and translational independent research laboratory with state-of-the-art equipment acquired through a highly competitive University of Texas Rising Stars Award. She was also selected into the physician-scientist program at MD Anderson. The overarching goal of Dr. Cascone’s research program is to identify mechanisms of response and resistance to immune-based therapies and develop novel therapeutic strategies to improve the cure rates of patients with operable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Dr. Cascone is the principal investigator of investigator-initiated and sponsored international clinical studies investigating the role of perioperative immunotherapies for patients with operable NSCLC. She also leads a comprehensive immunogenomic profiling effort at MD Anderson that studies murine- and patient-derived samples treated with neoadjuvant therapies to identify the dynamic changes in immune cell phenotypes and properties in response to therapy.

Ellen Foxman, MD, PhD

Yale School of Medicine
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Ellen Foxman, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Immunobiology at Yale School of Medicine. She earned her MD and PhD degrees from Stanford University, where her doctoral work with Prof. Eugene Butcher defined rules governing human neutrophil migration in complex chemotactic gradients.  She completed residency training in Clinical Pathology at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and post-doctoral training with Prof. Akiko Iwasaki at Yale.  Dr. Foxman’s post-doctoral studies demonstrated that cool ambient temperature permits growth of the common cold virus by diminishing innate antiviral responses of airway epithelial cells.  

Dr. Foxman currently leads a research program on mechanisms of innate immune defense against respiratory viruses.  Current projects focus on (1) identifying molecular mechanisms that control the earliest stages of antiviral defense, (2) understanding how environmental factors influence host-virus interactions and tip the balance between health and disease following virus exposure, and (3) using biomarkers of the body's response to infection to diagnose the cause of respiratory symptoms.  Recent findings include the discovery that rhinovirus, the most frequent cause of the common cold, can temporarily protect against more dangerous viruses by enhancing mucosal antiviral defenses.

Dr. Foxman’s recognitions include the 2018 Hartwell Foundation Individual Biomedical Research Award, and the Phase I NIH/BARDA Antimicrobial Resistance Diagnostic Challenge Prize, and the 2021 Rita Allen Foundation Scholars Award.

@EllenFoxman

Natalia Gomez-Ospina, MD, PhD

Stanford University School of Medicine
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Natalia Gomez-Ospina, MD, PhD, is a physician-scientist dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of genetic diseases. Her clinical interest focuses on patients with lysosomal storage disorders (LSDs), the most common genetic cause of childhood neurodegeneration. She directs the enzyme replacement service for LDSs at Lucile Packard Children’s hospital and the Program for Inherited Metabolic Disorders at Stanford, which aims to promote gene and cell-based therapies for LSDs. Dr. Gomez-Ospina has championed the idea of commandeering the hematopoietic system to express proteins needed in other organs, including the brain. She established an adaptable platform for the treatment of lysosomal enzyme deficiencies and performed a first-of-its-kind preclinical study to support the clinical development of autologous transplantation of genome edited cells to treat patients with Mucopolysaccharidosis type I (Hurler syndrome). Beyond delivering lysosomal enzymes, this platform has potential implications for delivering many kinds of therapeutic proteins to the brain. Her lab combines basic and translational science needed to develop therapies for LSDs primarily combining stem cells and genome editing. In addition to therapy development, Dr. Gomez-Ospina led the discovery and characterization of a new infantile cholestatis syndrome caused by mutations in the bile acid receptor and, as part of large multi-institutional collaborations, participated in the discovery of multiple genetic syndromes. 

Angela Gomez-Simmonds, MD, MS

Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Angela Gomez-Simmonds, MD, MS, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center whose research focuses on using bacterial genomics to investigate the population structure, resistance mechanisms, and transmission of multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. She completed her clinical training in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases at Columbia, where she joined the laboratory of Dr. Anne-Catrin Uhlemann in order to develop a research track dedicated to studying the clinical and molecular epidemiology of these challenging pathogens. Her current K23-funded research takes advantage of long-range whole genome sequencing technology to characterize plasmid-mediated transmission of antibiotic resistance genes in the hospital and its contribution to the diversification and spread of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales. She is also a dedicated teacher to medical students, residents, and fellows.

Parag Goyal, MD, MSc

Weill Cornell Medicine
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Parag Goyal, MD, MSc, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine with appointments in the Division of Cardiology (as a board-certified heart failure cardiologist) and the Division of General Internal Medicine (as a member of the core health services research faculty). Dr. Goyal serves as the Director of the Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction (HFpEF) Program, and Director of the Cardiac Amyloidosis Program at Weill Cornell Medicine/New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

Dr. Goyal has a robust research program focused on improving the wellbeing of older adults with heart failure, with a special focus on optimizing pharmacotherapy in the setting of concurrent geriatric conditions. This work has been supported by extramural funding from the National Institute on Aging and American Heart Association. In August 2020, Dr. Goyal received the Paul B. Beeson Emerging Leaders Career Development Award in Aging (K76) from the National Institute on Aging to develop and test a patient-centered strategy to address polypharmacy in older adults with heart failure through deprescribing. 

Dr. Goyal is also an active member of the American College of Cardiology, where he currently serves as the Chair of the Geriatric Cardiology Early Career Professionals Working Group.  He also Co-Chairs the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) Heart Failure Working Group.  He also sits on the Editorial Boards for the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society and Circulation-HeartFailure, and serves as the Geriatric Cardiology Section Editor for the Journal of Cardiac Failure.

Michael Haffner, MD, PhD

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Michael C. Haffner, MD, PhD, received his MD and PhD from the Medical University of Innsbruck in Austria. He conducted his post-doctoral research at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins under the mentorship of Dr. William G. Nelson. Michael completed his clinical training in Anatomic Pathology and subspecialty training in Genitourinary Pathology at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. In 2019, he transitioned to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to start his independent research program. In addition to his research activities at Fred Hutch, he also serves as an attending pathologist on the Genitourinary Pathology service at the University of Washington.

Brian Palmer Hafler, MD, PhD

Yale School of Medicine
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Brian Palmer Hafler, MD, PhD, demonstrated a long-standing interest in neuroscience, starting with his research with Nobel laureate Eric Wieschaus at Princeton. After graduating magna cum laude from Princeton University, he earned his MD/PhD from Harvard Medical School. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellow in Dr. Constance Cepko's laboratory at Harvard where he discovered that Olig2 drives retinal progenitor cells towards producing specific cell types, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He completed an ophthalmology residency at Yale and a fellowship in retina at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary as a Heed Fellow where he was awarded the Foundation Fighting Blindness Clinical Research Fellowship Award. Following his fellowship, he received a K08 Clinical Scientist Development Award from the NIH and joined the faculty at Harvard Medical School where he served on Mass. Eye and Ear’s Retina Service and had an appointment at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He recently joined Yale University as a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor where he generated the first single-cell human retinal atlas, which was published in Nature Communications. His recent work published in BioRxiv identified shared glial signatures across multiple neurodegenerative conditions affecting the central nervous system. He identified a proangiogenic astrocyte molecular signature that promotes neovascularization in macular degeneration, which may help identify novel therapeutic interventions. Dr. Hafler has received many awards including the Squibb Prize for Scientific Research at Princeton, named as the endowed William Orthwein Yale Scholar, and the Thome Memorial Foundation Award for Age-Related Macular Degeneration Research. 

 

 

Tamia Harris-Tryon, MD, PhD

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Tamia Harris-Tryon, MD, PhD, is a physician-scientist at UT Southwestern and principal investigator of the Harris-Tryon lab. She earned her MD and PhD at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and completed a residency in Dermatology at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Certified by the American Board of Dermatology, she joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2014 and began postdoctoral training in the HHMI lab of Lora Hooper. In her postdoctoral work,  she made use of a unique model system- germ free mice. Through use of this system, her data showed that the protein RELMα is bactericidal in skin, and that vitamin A impacts the expression of RELMα (Cell Host & Microbe 2019).  Since starting her own lab in 2018, Dr. Harris-Tryon has created a unique research platform bridging the fields of immunology, microbiology, and metabolism, with a focus on the interface between the skin surface and the community of microbes that colonize the skin niche.  Her lab is particularly interested in the study of sebaceous glands – specialized epithelial structures that generate an oily mixture of lipids and proteins, called sebum.  In addition to producing sebum, sebaceous glands secrete antimicrobial proteins that limit colonization of the skin by bacteria. Microbes can also utilize the lipids in sebum as a nutrient. Through basic research, her lab aims to unlock how diet and the immune system alter sebaceous gland biology and the impact of these changes on the microbiome. Ultimately, her goal is to translate discoveries from the bench into new therapies for individuals with inflammatory skin diseases. Her work is supported by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.  She is the recipient of the 2019 American Academy of Dermatology Young Investigator Award. 

@HarrisTryonLab

Sarah E. Henrickson, MD, PhD

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Sarah E. Henrickson, MD, PhD, trained with Dr. Uli von Andrian at Harvard Medical School, studying the dynamics of the early stages of CD8 T cell activation using intravital multiphoton microscopy.  She completed her pediatrics residency via the Integrated Research Pathway at the Boston Combined Residency Program and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), with post-doctoral work with Dr. Nir Hacohen at the Broad Institute studying susceptibility to cutaneous viral infections.  Her Allergy Immunology fellowship was also completed at CHOP with post-doctoral work with Dr. John Wherry at the University of Pennsylvania, where she investigated the impact of obesity on T cell function in pediatric asthma.  Dr. Henrickson started her lab at CHOP in 2019 and her group studies T cell immunometabolic dysfunction in chronic inflammatory disease and primary immune deficiency. 

@henricksonlab

Lena J. Heung, MD, PhD

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Lena Heung, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center with a joint appointment as a Health Sciences Assistant Clinical Professor in the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles. She earned her MD and PhD degrees in the Medical Scientist Training Program at the Medical University of South Carolina. She completed a residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Baystate Medical Center/Tufts University School of Medicine and an Infectious Diseases fellowship at the University of Washington and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. In her PhD work, she identified a novel lipid-mediated signaling pathway that regulates virulence of the opportunistic fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans. During her fellowship, she began investigating host immune mechanisms that determine the outcomes of C. neoformans infections. She discovered that the fungus is able to subvert inflammatory monocytes by harnessing host signaling pathways that repress the anti-fungal activity of these cells. Her work has been supported by fellowship awards from the Stony Wold-Herbert Fund and the Dana Foundation. In 2017, she obtained a K08 Career Development Award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Currently, her laboratory is studying the role of the DAP12 signaling adapter in integrating C. neoformans sensing and downstream effector functions in monocytes. Additionally, the lab is investigating unique cellular and molecular mechanisms in the host response to the emerging fungal pathogen Cryptococcus gattii.

David A. Hill, MD, PhD

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

David A. Hill, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and an Attending Physician in the Division of Allergy and Immunology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Hill received his undergraduate education at Carnegie Mellon University, and his MD and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania where he studied with Dr. David Artis. He subsequently completed a pediatric residency and allergy and immunology fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and performed a post-doctoral fellowship with Dr. Mitchell Lazar. Dr. Hill runs a basic and translational research laboratory that studies the role of the immune system in pediatric allergy and obesity. He is the author of over 50 research articles and abstracts, is on the Editorial Board of BMC Pediatrics, and has been the recipient of several awards including the Young Faculty Award from the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology, the American Partnership for Eosinophilic Disorders/American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology Hope Research Grant Award.

@lab_hill

Benjamin Izar, MD, PhD

Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Benjamin Izar, MD, PhD, is a medical oncologist Assistant Professor of Medicine at Columbia University. He received an MD/PhD at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen Germany. He did his internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, oncology fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and a post-doctoral fellowship at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Mentor: Dr. Levi Garrway, then Dr. Kai Wucherpfennig) and the Broad Institute (Dr. Aviv Regev). 

His laboratory program at Columbia focuses on understanding tumor heterogeneity and how this impacts response and resistance to immune and oncogene-targeted therapies. Dr. Izar's laboratory has a particular interest in developing and clinically implementing single-cell genomics technologies to address critical questions in patient care. He received several honors, including the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award for Medical Scientists, the American Association for Cancer Research NextGen star award, a NCI K08 and a NCI R37 MERIT award. 

Erik A. Jensen, MD, MSCE

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Erik A. Jensen, MD, MSCE, is an academic neonatologist and clinical investigator. The overall goal of his research is to improve the long-term respiratory health of infants born very preterm (gestational age <32 weeks). To achieve this goal, he conducts research focused in 3 areas: (1) Clinical and translational studies that aim to develop evidence-based strategies to prevent and treat bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) – the most consequential complication of preterm birth; (2) novel characterization of disease severity and phenotypes in BPD; and (3) application of health services research techniques to investigate the association between hospital-level factors and neonatal morbidity and mortality. With collaborators from the NICHD Neonatal Research Network, Dr. Jensen developed the first evidence-based, severity graded diagnostic criteria for BPD. This new disease definition will serve as a key outcome for neonatal clinical care and research. Through interventional and observational studies, Dr. Jensen has improved our understanding of the safety and efficacy of several drug therapies used to prevent and treat BPD. His trial experience in infants with established BPD includes leading a randomized, placebo-controlled crossover trial of aerosolized albuterol in ventilator dependent very preterm infants and a novel series of N-of-1 randomized trials comparing cardiorespiratory stability during periods of gastric and transpyloric feedings. In the translational space, Dr. Jensen has formed strong collaborations to investigate the role of the airway microbiome, neonatal immune function, and lung inflammation in the development of infant lung disease and other serious neonatal morbidities. His research is funded by the NIH (NHLBI, NICHD), the American Lung Association, and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. 

Forum Kamdar, MD, PhD

University of Minnesota Medical School
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Forum Kamdar, MD, PhD, is a physician-scientist and an advanced heart failure and transplant cardiologist interested in elucidating mechanisms of neuromuscular cardiomyopathy. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota in the Lillehei Heart Institute. During her cardiovascular disease fellowship in the Physician-Scientist Pathway she developed a model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy cardiomyopathy using patient-derived human induced pluripotent stem cells and identified an arrhythmic phenotype that is rescued with beta-adrenergic blockade. She is the recipient of the American Heart Association Young Investigator Award and American College of Cardiology Young Investigator Award.  She also co-founded an interdisciplinary Neuromuscular Cardiomyopathy Clinic at the University of Minnesota and was awarded an International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation Grant to study heart transplant outcomes in patients with neuromuscular disease.

Dr. Kamdar’s research is funded by a Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Clinical Scientist Development Award. Her laboratory investigates molecular and physiological mechanisms of advanced heart failure in neuromuscular cardiomyopathy, including Duchenne muscular dystrophy, using a bench-to-bedside approach leveraging patient derived human induced pluripotent stem cell cardiomyocytes, human heart tissues, and patient data with the ultimate goal of developing new therapies to benefit patients with neuromuscular cardiomyopathies.

@ForumKamdar

Michael G. Kattah, MD, PhD

University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Michael G. Kattah, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor, physician-scientist, and gastroenterologist at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Dr. Kattah’s clinical work and translational research focus on Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).

Dr. Kattah obtained his MD and PhD from the Stanford University School of Medicine Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) under the mentorship of Dr. Paul J. Utz. His PhD in Immunology involved leveraging several new high-throughput proteomics technologies to interrogate immune responses at the protein level. He completed his internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital followed by gastroenterology fellowship at UCSF where he was mentored by Dr. Averil Ma and Dr. Ophir Klein. His postdoctoral work centered around the role of two IBD-associated genes in intestinal epithelial cell death.

Dr. Kattah’s clinical focus is in IBD, with a particular interest in the transition of young adults from pediatric to adult GI clinic. He also cares for cancer patients with immune checkpoint inhibitor-induced colitis.

Dr. Kattah’s laboratory studies the role of intestinal epithelial cells in IBD pathogenesis using single-cell methodologies, intestinal biopsies, patient-derived organoid cultures, and mouse models. The ultimate goal is to develop patient-tailored treatment strategies that maximize efficacy and minimize toxicity for individual patients.

@MikeKattahMD

Jiwon Kim, MD

Weill Cornell Medicine
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Jiwon Kim, MD, is an Associate Professor in the Cardiovascular Division of the Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College where she is the Associate Director of the Adult Echocardiography Laboratory and co-directs the cardiac MRI program. Dr. Kim has a documented track record of academic focus on pathogenesis of adverse cardiovascular remodeling and their associations with clinical outcomes, which is the focus of her K23 (“Advanced CMR Tissue-Based Prediction of Right Ventricular Dysfunction and Revascularization Response”) for which she studies right ventricular remodeling and its physiologic impact on exercise tolerance via cardiopulmonary exercise testing. She has also served as a co-investigator on several R01 applications focused on LV remodeling and foundation sponsored studies for which she has helped to design and implement multicenter echo and MRI imaging protocols. Dr. Kim completed residency in Internal Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and fellowships in Cardiovascular Disease and Advanced Cardiovascular Imaging at Brown University/Rhode Island Hospital and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, respectively.  Dr.  Kim has published more than 60 peer-reviewed manuscripts and is a frequently invited speaker at the scientific sessions of the American College of Cardiology (ACC), the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) and Society of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (SCMR) and serves on committees for the ASE and SCMR.

@JiwonKimMD

Joanna Klubo-Gwiezdzinska, MD, PhD, MHSc

NIH, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Joanna Klubo-Gwiezdzinska, MD, PhD, MHSc, is a recipient of the ASCI’s 2021 Young Physician-Scientist Award for her translational and clinical research focused on diagnosis, prognosis, and optimization of the management of thyroid cancer (TC), utilizing precision medicine. Dr. Klubo-Gwiezdzinska is a Lasker Tenure Track Investigator and Acting Chief of the Thyroid Tumors and Functional Thyroid Disorders Section in the Metabolic Disease Branch (MDB), National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health (NIDDK/NIH).  She earned her MD and PhD degrees from Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, Poland, and subsequently did a residency in Internal Medicine in Nicolaus Copernicus University Hospital as well as in Georgetown University/Washington Hospital Center, Washington DC,  followed by a fellowship in endocrinology at the NIDDK/NIH, Bethesda, MD.  Dr. Klubo-Gwiezdzinska also obtained a Master's  Degree in Clinical Research from Duke University, Durham, NC. Her lab focuses on the cross-talk between the oncogene-driven signaling pathways and cancer metabolism. Her research team showed the growth inhibitory effects of the antidiabetic drug metformin in TC and documented a new molecular target for metformin in TC - mitochondrial glycerophosphate dehydrogenase (mGPDH). Her group showed that inhibition of mGPDH is associated with a reduction in oxidative phosphorylation leading to a change in the metabolic profile of cancer cells and energetic stress, causing decreased proliferation. Her team recently showed that BRAF-like and RAS-like TCs have distinct metabolic phenotypes that may guide an individualized therapeutic approach. Her lab also showed that somatostatin receptor type 2 (SSTR2) is overexpressed in TC, which could be targeted for imaging and treatment with radiolabeled SSTR2 analogs. In preclinical models, her team proven that the 177Lu-DOTA-EB-TATE is an agent of superior therapeutic efficacy compared with other tested SSTR2 analogs and has the potential to be translated from bench to bedside for the targeted therapy of TC patients.

@gwiezdzinska

John R. Lee, MD, MS

Weill Cornell Medicine
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

John R. Lee, MD, MS, is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension at Weill Cornell Medicine. He completed his medical school training at Weill Cornell Medicine and his combined internal medicine residency/nephrology fellowship at New York-Presbyterian Hospital – Weill Cornell Medical Center. Under the mentorship of Dr. Manikkam Suthanthiran and Dr. Eric Pamer, Dr. Lee established a research program focused on characterizing the relationship between the microbiota and complications in patients with kidney disease. He is an NIAID K23 career development award recipient and a recipient of the National Kidney Foundation Young Investigator Grant Program. He has identified gut microbiota profiles associated with urinary tract infections and post-transplant diarrhea in kidney transplant recipients and has reported on a relationship between the gut microbiota and metabolism of tacrolimus, a common immunosuppressive medication. He has extended his microbiota studies to include characterization of cell-free DNA in the urine of kidney transplant recipients and profiling peritoneal effluent cell-free DNA in patients on peritoneal dialysis. 

@john__r__lee

Marcos G. Lopez, MD, MS

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Marcos G. Lopez, MD, MS, received his MD and MS with focus in clinical and translational science from Mayo Medical School and Mayo Graduate School in Rochester, Minnesota and completed anesthesiology residency and critical care medicine fellowship at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. His research focuses on the impact of perioperative vascular dysfunction on organ injury. Specifically, he is studying the role of impaired endothelial function and vascular reactivity in humans in order to elucidate mechanisms of postoperative brain and kidney dysfunction to promote the development of novel therapies for these all too common problems. He has shown that intraoperative hyperoxic cerebral reperfusion contributes to brain dysfunction after cardiac surgery and identified associations between intraoperative oxidative damage, neuronal injury, and delirium. He recently identified that intraoperative venous congestion, which impairs perfusion and may induce endothelial dysfunction, contributes to kidney injury.  He hypothesizes that impaired vascular reactivity mediates postoperative kidney and brain injury, and that impaired endothelium-regulated perfusion during surgery and increased endothelial oxidative stress lead to organ injury. To this end, he has designed and performed experiments to measure vascular reactivity (in vivo and ex vivo) and oxidative damage in patients recruited into a randomized clinical trial of normoxia versus hyperoxia during cardiac surgery as part of his NIH K23 award funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

@MarcLopezMD

Lenette Lu, MD, PhD

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Lenette Lu, MD, PhD, graduated with a BA in the Honors Program with a major in Biology and minor in Asian Studies from Swarthmore College where she worked in the laboratory of Elizabeth Vallen on yeast cell cycle regulation. As part of the Medical Scientist Training Program at Case Western Reserve University, she obtained an MD and PhD in Molecular Virology under Ganes Sen, working on dsRNA mediated signaling and innate immunity in the context of paramyxovirus infections. She completed an internship and residency in Internal Medicine at New York-Presbyterian – Weill Cornell and a fellowship in Infectious Diseases in the Partners program at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Her postdoctoral research under Sarah Fortune at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Galit Alter at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard focused on understanding humoral immune responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Dr. Lu’s initial work characterized divergent humoral profiles in patients with clinically characterized distinct tuberculosis (TB) disease states that support an immunomodulatory role for antibodies. Using this approach, she went on to examine a population of individuals highly exposed to Mtb yet clinically not recognized as part of the spectrum of human disease. She showed robust humoral profiles in the context of non-canonical T cell responses, providing immunological parameters to help define an additional state of human TB and an alternative model towards understanding host responses to Mtb exposure. Dr. Lu joined the Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine at UT Southwestern in 2019 with a clinical practice at Parkland Hospital and research lab aimed at identifying the mechanisms by which antibodies modulate the host immune response in TB. Beyond TB, dissecting antibody functions is fundamentally relevant to all infectious disease where antibodies interface host and microbe, informing diagnostic, therapeutic and vaccine design. 

Jyoti S. Mathad, MD, MSc

Weill Cornell Medicine
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Jyoti S. Mathad, MD, MSc, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Departments of Medicine and Obstetrics & Gynecology in the Center for Global Health at Weill Cornell Medicine. Her primary research interests include the immune and metabolic changes of pregnancy and their impact on the pathogenesis of infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis. She has been conducting NIH-funded research on maternal-child tuberculosis in Pune, India, since 2010. For the past 5 years, she has led the PRACHITi study there, which is investigating the impact of pregnancy and HIV on the immune response to M. tuberculosis. Her K23 award focuses on identifying behavioral and immunologic risk factors that predict which women are at highest risk of developing active TB postpartum. She has also used the PRACHITi cohort as a platform to understand placental immunology. She is an investigator in the International Maternal, Pediatric, and Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials network (IMPAACT) and led the IMPAACT 2001 trial which examined the pharmacokinetics, tolerability and safety of the 3-month regimen of weekly isoniazid and rifapentine for prevention of tuberculosis in pregnant and postpartum women. 

Yvonne M. Mowery, MD, PhD

Duke University School of Medicine
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Yvonne Mowery, MD, PhD, grew up in Richmond and matriculated at the University of Virginia in 2000 as an Echols and Jefferson Scholar. After graduating with a Bachelors of Science with Distinction in 2004, Yvonne joined the Medical Scientist Training Program at Duke University, where she completed her PhD in the laboratory of Salvatore Pizzo, MD, PhD. She graduated in 2012 and continued her training at Duke as an intern in Internal Medicine and resident physician in Radiation Oncology. During residency, she joined the laboratory of David Kirsch, MD, PhD to initiate a new research project evaluating the combination of radiation therapy and immune checkpoint blockade in primary mouse models of soft tissue sarcoma. To facilitate this project, Yvonne developed a novel carcinogen-induced and genetically engineered sarcoma model with high mutational load. Her preclinical studies supported initiation of SU2C-SARC032, a randomized phase II trial evaluating pembrolizumab with neoadjuvant radiotherapy and surgery for high-risk soft tissue sarcoma of the extremity. In 2017, Yvonne joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology at Duke University. Supported by an ASCO Young Investigator Award, Duke Physician-Scientist Strong Start Award, and Butler-Harris endowed professorship, Yvonne continued her work studying radiation and immunotherapy and developed several novel primary mouse models of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) that serve as the basis for her independent laboratory. Yvonne specializes clinically in treating patients with head and neck cancer, and her laboratory focuses on studying HNSCC pathogenesis and mechanisms of overcoming radiation resistance, with a particular interest in DNA damage response pathways. She is the principal investigator of an NCI-supported phase I clinical trial evaluating an ATR inhibitor with pembrolizumab and reirradiation for recurrent HNSCC. Her research is supported by a K08 from NIDCR and a Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award.

Santosh B. Murthy, MD, MPH

Weill Cornell Medicine
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Santosh Murthy, MD, MPH, is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Weill Cornell Medicine, and the medical director of the neurointensive care unit at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Murthy attended medical school at Bangalore Medical College in India and completed his neurology residency at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, where he also served as a chief resident. He subsequently pursued neurocritical care fellowship training at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He also has a Master’s in Public Health from the University of Texas School of Public Health. The goal of Dr. Murthy’s research is to understand ischemic complications after a hemorrhagic stroke, especially ischemic stroke and myocardial infarction, and the risks-benefits of antithrombotic therapy in the context of a recent brain hemorrhage to mitigate ischemic events. He is also interested in studying inflammation and cerebral edema after a hemorrhagic stroke. As a founding member of the Brain-Heart Taskforce of the World Stroke Organization, his research seeks to improve our understanding of the complex relationships between the brain and the heart. Dr. Murthy’s research is currently supported by the NIH/NINDS through a K23 Career Development Award. He has previously been the recipient of the American Academy of Neurology clinical research training fellowship, and a research fellowship awarded by the Leon Levy Foundation. 

Anna S. Nam, MD

Weill Cornell Medicine
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Anna Nam, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM). She received her MD at the University of Missouri; during this time, she was selected for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute-NIH Research Scholars (‘Cloisters’) Program and conducted research under the mentorship of Dr. Larry Fisher. She completed her residency training in Anatomic Pathology and fellowships in Hematopathology and Molecular Genetics Pathology at WCM. During her clinical training, she conducted single-cell genomics research with Dr. Dan Landau at WCM and the New York Genome Center. Her laboratory seeks to elucidate the molecular mediators of genotype-to-phenotype relationships in hematopoietic neoplasms via single-cell multi-omics technologies. She is the recipient of a K08 award from NHLBI, Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Awards for Medical Scientists, and the NIH Director's DP5 Early Independence Award.

Long H. Nguyen, MD, MS

Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Long H. Nguyen, MD, MS, is a formally trained computational gastroenterologist, an Assistant in Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School, a Core Member of the Mongan Institute at MGH, and faculty at the Harvard Chan Microbiome in Public Health Center. His research program focuses on the care of patients with gastrointestinal (GI) illnesses and the conduct of patient-oriented translational research. He has a broad background in epidemiologic methods and clinical research with a joint M.D./M.S. from the Stanford University School of Medicine where original scholarly pursuits focused on racial and ethnic health disparities. Subsequently, he joined the MGH for subspecialty training in gastroenterology. Under the joint tutelage of Professor Andrew T. Chan, a thought leading GI epidemiologist, and Professor Curtis Huttenhower, a renowned expert in computational methods to interrogate gut microbial ecology, he engaged in an intensive five-year post-doctoral fellowship to hone the skills needed to study large-scale epidemiologic cohorts and investigate the taxonomic and enzymatic activity of human gut microbial communities.

Since establishing an independent and competitively funded research program (NIDDK K23, American Gastroenterological Association Research Scholars Award, Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation Career Development Award), he has developed a complementary program to explore the risk factors and social determinants of COVID-19 by rapidly developing and implementing a mobile framework for conducting population-scale investigations of an evolving and fast-moving pandemic. Dr. Nguyen has a long-standing interest in original scholarly work with publications dating back to 2003 and a sustained track record of productivity that includes 55 peer-reviewed manuscripts (17 first-authored) and an additional seven invited commentaries or textbook chapters.

@longnguyen07

Maria Papaleontiou, MD

University of Michigan Medical School
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Maria Papaleontiou, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine with an appointment in the Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Diabetes at the University of Michigan. Prior to starting her internal medicine residency at Saint Peter's University Hospital in New Jersey, she spent several years conducting clinical research on aging at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. She completed her endocrinology fellowship at the University of Michigan, where she subsequently joined the faculty. She is a recipient of Fulbright and Howard Hughes Medical Institute scholarships. Dr. Papaleontiou is a health services researcher in the field of thyroidology and aging. Her research focuses on evaluating the risks of thyroid hormone overtreatment and misuse in older adults, understanding the role of providers and patients in thyroid hormone use and misuse and how it relates to patient outcomes in the aging population, as well as the role of age and comorbidity in thyroid cancer decision-making. Her ultimate goal is to develop tools to tailor thyroid disease treatment to older adults by translating research findings into effective strategies and interventions to improve the care of older adults and reduce patient harm. Her research is currently supported by the National Institute on Aging, and she has also received funding from the Claude D. Pepper Older American Independence Centers, the University of Michigan Biology of Cardiovascular Aging Core and the Elizabeth Caroline Crosby Research Award. She serves on multiple national committees including at the American Thyroid Association, the Endocrine Society and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology. She is currently Associate Editor for Endocrine Practice and Clinical Thyroidology, and serves on the Editorial Boards for Thyroid and Clinical Thyroidology for the Public.

@MariaPapaleont1

Lisa Giulino Roth, MD

Weill Cornell Medicine
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Lisa Roth, MD, is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Weill Cornell Medical College. She serves as the Director of Pediatric Oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine and New York-Presbyterian Hospital.  Dr. Roth completed her undergraduate work at Duke University. She received her medical degree from New York University School of Medicine followed by a residency in Pediatrics at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell a fellowship in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and New York-Presbyterian where she served as chief fellow.  Dr. Roth’s laboratory research focuses on identifying novel therapeutic targets for pediatric lymphomas including Hodgkin lymphoma and aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma.  She is particularly interested in lymphomas associated with EBV and has been studying mechanisms to modulate the virus in these tumors to sensitize tumors to immunotherapy.  Her laboratory work is closely tied to her clinical research where she is leading several national clinical trials focused on advancing therapy for children, adolescents, and young adults with Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. 

Matthew Semler, MD, MSc

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Matthew W. Semler, MD, MSc, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Biomedical Informatics in the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary, and Critical Care Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.  Dr. Semler is a critical care physician and federally funded researcher who seeks to understand the effects of common ICU interventions on patient outcomes by conducting randomized trials embedded into clinical care as part of a “Learning Healthcare System.”  Dr. Semler’s trials, including five published in the New England Journal of Medicine or JAMA, have challenged longstanding dogma around common practices in fluid management, airway management, and respiratory support. 

Jonathan E. Shoag, MD

University Hospitals Case Medical Center
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Jonathan (Yoni) Shoag, MD, is a surgeon-scientist who manages patients with prostate cancer while studying the disease in the lab. He grew up in Beachwood Ohio. Dr. Shoag then attended the University of Pennsylvania graduating Summa cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa, and was a member of Gary Koretzky’s lab studying mast cell signaling. He then went on to Harvard Medical School, where he was in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) program, and worked with Zoltan Arany studying angiogenesis and metabolism, graduating Magna cum Laude. He went on to complete his general surgery internship, urology residency, and urologic oncology fellowship at Weill Cornell while working in the lab under the mentorship of Christopher Barbieri. Dr. Shoag recently joined University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Case Western Reserve University as an Assistant Professor of Urology. He is a member of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center's GU malignancy program and an Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor of Urology at Weill Cornell.

Dr. Shoag is the recipient of a Damon Runyon Physician-Scientist Training Award, an American Urological Association Research Scholar Award, and a Vinney Scholars Award in addition to others. His work thus far has yielded first author publication in journals including JCI, NEJM, JAMA Oncology, and JCO.  His current work is focused on using large data to better diagnose, treat, and understand the biology of prostate cancer.

Jennifer Sucre, MD

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Jennifer Sucre, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Cell and Developmental Biology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She graduated from Harvard Medical School, trained in pediatrics at Washington University in St. Louis, and completed fellowship in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine at UCLA. Since joining the Vanderbilt faculty in 2016, she has established a research program focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms of lung development and lung disease across the lifespan with a particular focus on bronchopulmonary dysplasia, the leading complication in survivors of preterm birth. Her clinical experience treating premature infants provides a unique perspective for studying lung development, and she has cultivated new ex vivo, in vitro, and in vivo models of lung injury. Dr. Sucre has combined these models with single-cell biology and spatial transcriptomics to gain paradigm-shifting insights into cellular specialization and dynamics in the developing lung, elucidated age-regulated host susceptibility factors to SARS-CoV-2 infection, and defined previously unrecognized cell types in chronic respiratory diseases.

@sucre_jen

Justin Taylor, MD

University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Justin Taylor, MD, is a physician-scientist devoted to improving outcomes for patients with hematologic malignancies. He is a tenure-track Assistant Professor and member of the Cancer Epigenetics program at the University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. The Taylor lab studies the role of recurrent mutations in hematologic malignancies and how to target them with novel therapeutics using animal modeling, molecular biology and single-cell genomic techniques. The central focus of the lab is on understanding how alterations in nuclear export function due to mutations or overexpression of XPO1 contribute to oncogenesis. The lab uses molecular biology, genomics, proteomics and mouse modeling to determine the mechanisms and potential targetable weaknesses of these genetic alterations. They also study how XPO1 alterations interact with other mutations and the potential role for combination therapy. Specifically, they are currently investigating spliceosome mutations and the impact of XPO1 inhibitors on spliceosomal function. Dr. Taylor also holds a faculty position in the Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology where he sees patients with hematologic malignancies. He completed residency in Internal Medicine at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Hematology/Oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center followed by post-doctoral training in the lab of Omar Abdel-Wahab, MD. He has published several original research articles as either first or last author in the past year in the following journals: Cancer Discovery, JCO Precision Oncology, Lancet Haematology, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Blood and Nature Genetics. He is the principal investigator on grants sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (K08), American Society of Hematology, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Edward P. Evans Foundation for MDS. He has received Young Investigator Awards from ASCO Conquer Cancer Foundation, Hairy Cell Leukemia Foundation and Evans MDS Foundation.    

@TaylorJ_MD

Lisa B. VanWagner, MD, MSc

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Lisa VanWagner, MD, MSc, FAST, FAHA, is an Assistant Professor of Gastroenterology & Hepatology and Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, IL.  Dr. VanWagner received her medical degree from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in 2007.  She then completed her Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology and Transplant Hepatology training at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, IL in 2015 while concurrently obtaining her master’s degree in Clinical Investigation from the Northwestern University Graduate School. 

Dr. VanWagner utilizes human population-based approaches, large electronic health record data analysis and health services research methods to define and characterize cardiovascular disease risk prediction, prevention and treatment approaches in patients with chronic liver disease. Her scientific work has been recognized by leading professional organizations, with awards from the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), American Society of Transplantation (AST) and American Heart Association (AHA).  She has published over 90 peer-reviewed manuscripts. Her publications have been the first to describe findings such as the increased risk of adverse cardiac events after liver transplant for NASH and her team developed the first liver transplant-specific cardiovascular disease risk assessment tool for clinical use (available at: www.carolt.us). Other publications have been used to develop strategies for policymakers, such as the AHA (annual statistics update), and for clinical practice guidance (AST and AHA guidance on cardiovascular disease evaluation and management in liver transplantation). Clinically, she works in the multidisciplinary Northwestern Fatty Liver Program in the Northwestern Medicine Digestive Health Center and the combined heart-liver transplant program at the Northwestern Medicine Comprehensive Transplant Center.  Dr. VanWagner is a fellow of the AHA and AST and currently serves as chair of the Liver and Intestine Community of Practice (LICOP).

Craig Wilen, MD, PhD

Yale School of Medicine
(affiliation at time of recognition)

About the awardee

Craig Wilen, MD, PhD, received his A.B in Biology and Economics at Washington University in St. Louis, his MD and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. His residency training was in clinical pathology at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, MO. His postdoctoral studies were conducted in the laboratory of Herbert "Skip" Virgin in the Department of Pathology & Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine where he discovered CD300lf as the first receptor for a norovirus and identified intestinal tuft cells as the physiologic target cell for mouse norovirus infection. Dr. Wilen is currently an Assistant Professor in Laboratory Medicine and Immunobiology. The Wilen lab studies how viruses, particularly coronaviruses and norovirus, interact with and evade the immune system. We use a variety of mouse and human models to identify the molecular mechanisms of viral pathogenesis with our long term goal being to leverage these basic science discoveries to develop affordable and effective vaccines and therapeutics.

@wilenlab