Nine Clinical Scientists at the Subspecialty Fellowship Stage of Their Training Receive Grants Totaling $1.98M to Support Their Promising Medical Research and Facilitate Their Progression Toward Careers in Academic Medicine.
New York, June 23, 2022 – The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation today announced the nine medical subspecialty fellows receiving a total of $1.98 million in grants through the 2022 Doris Duke Physician Scientist Fellowships. Through the Physician Scientist Fellowships, which fund the research of clinical investigators at the subspecialty training stage of their careers, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation aims to promote the transition of emerging physician scientists into faculty-level positions. At a key career inflection point that helps forge the viability of a career in academic medicine, the award enables research, amid other competing responsibilities, through mentorship and time protection.
"We are proud to support this new cohort of grantees, whose projects highlight the vital contributions physician scientists bring to the biomedical field, from understanding the biological intricacies of disease to accounting for the complexity of the environments contributing to poor health," said Sindy Escobar Alvarez, director for medical research at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. "The past couple of years have tried post-doctoral trainees’ resilience to their limit, so we are grateful for their continued work in translating insights from their clinical research into applications that advance human health.”
While post-doctoral trainees receive support from their departments for a year of required research, funding opportunities for those who seek to conduct additional years of mentored clinical research are scarce. Since the program’s inception in 2019, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation has aimed to address this gap and continues to evaluate eligibility and review criteria to maximize support for all types of promising research with potential to improve clinical outcomes, whether in the near or long term. To that end, the foundation does not prioritize funding for any disease areas or research types.
The 2022 Doris Duke Physician Scientist Fellows, whose projects address significant research questions in areas ranging from oncology to hematological diseases and health outcomes, were chosen through a competitive, peer-review process by an external panel of accomplished physician scientists. Each selected fellow is receiving two years of funding at $110,000 per year, a total of $220,000 for the entire grant term, and will work under the supervision of a mentor who will guide them toward successful biomedical research careers.
A list of the 2022 Physician Scientist Fellows and their research project titles can be found below:
Marilyn Arosemena, M.D., University of Chicago
Project name: The Bidirectional Link Between Diabetes and Sleep: Single Gene Causes of Diabetes and Impact on Sleep Architecture
Joshua Brandstadter, M.D., Ph.D., M.Sc., University of Pennsylvania
Project name: Lymph Node Stromal Cells in the Pathogenesis, Diagnosis and Treatment of Castleman Disease
John Choisi, M.D., Massachusetts General Hospital
Project name: Addressing Health Inequality and Improving Outcomes in Injection Drug Use and Related Infections
Genevieve Guyol, M.D., Boston Children’s Hospital
Project name: The Effects of Poverty and Preterm Birth on Early Relational Health Among Low-income Parent-child Dyads
Sattar Khoshkhoo, M.D., Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Project name: Genetic and Cellular Mechanisms of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
Katherine Knorr, M.D., Ph.D., Rockefeller University/Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Project name: Novel Antibody Targets for the Treatment of Patients with Myeloid Malignancies
Arnav Mehta, M.D., Ph.D., Massachusetts General Hospital
Project name: Deciphering Pancreatic Cancer Plasticity Using Single-cell Sequencing and Lineage Tracing
Erica Pimenta, M.D., Ph.D., Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Project name: Dissecting Epigenetic and Transcriptomic Regulators Mediating the Pathogenesis and Immune Evasion of Liposarcoma
Michelle Rengarajan, M.D., Ph.D., Massachusetts General Hospital
Project name: Modulation of Immune Cell Phenotype by Hormone-producing Cells in Autoimmune Endocrinopathies
About the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
The mission of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation is to improve the quality of people’s lives through grants supporting the performing arts, environmental conservation, child well-being and medical research, and through preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of Doris Duke’s properties. The foundation’s Medical Research Program supports clinical research that advances the translation of biomedical discoveries into new preventions, diagnoses and treatments for human diseases. To learn more about the program, visit www.ddcf.org.
Contact:
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Press Room
comms@ddcf.org / 212.974.7003