Award Recipients

2023 K12/CMeRIT Awardees

Romit Bhattacharya, MD
Project Title: Dietary pattern as a causal risk factor for clonal hematopoiesis and inflammatory atherosclerotic disease
Mentors: Pradeep Natarajan, MD, MMSC and Peter Libby, MD

Ijeoma Julie Eche-Ugwu, PhD, MPH, FNP-BC
Project Title: Identification and facilitation of psychosocial resources through development of African American Childhood Cancer MultiProng Nurse Intervention (ACCOMPANI)
Mentors: Joanne Wolfe, MD, MPH and Angela Feraco, MD, MMSc

Isdin Oke, MD, MPH
Project Title: Access to vision screening and pediatric eye care in the U.S.
Mentors: Ann Chen Wu, MD, MPH and David G. Hunter, MD, PhD

Nicolette Juliana Rodriguez, MD, MPH
Project Title: The Racial/Ethnic Equity in GENetic Education, Risk Assessment, and TEsting (REGENERATE) 1.0 Trial
Mentors: Sapna Syngal, MD, MPH and Christopher Lathan, MD, MS, MPH

2022 KL2/CMeRIT Awardees

Pierre Ankomah, MD, PhD
Project Title: Single-cell analysis of a monocyte transcriptional substate in gram-positive and gram-negative sepsis
Mentors: Nir Hacohen, PhD and Roby Bhattacharyya, MD, PhD

Christy Elaine Cauley, MD, MPH
Project Title: Tailored geriatric assessment and management for older adults with diverticulitis
Mentors: Christine Ritchie, MD, MSPH and Zara Cooper, MD, MSc

Sonia Cohen, MD, PhD
Project Title: Investigating epigenetic vulnerabilities to oncolytic virotherapy in solid tumors
Mentor: Bradley Bernstein, MD, PhD

Jonathan Woo Cunningham, MD, MPH
Project Title: Cardiac MRI and plasma proteomics to investigate myocardial interstitial fibrosis
Mentors: Scott Solomon, MD and Patrick Ellinor, MD, PhD

Adrian Haimovich, MD, PhD
Project Title: Screening tools to identify geriatric emergency department patients approaching the end-of-life
Mentor: Mara Schonberg MD, MPH

Theodora Pappa, MD, PhD
Project Title: Integrating molecular profiles into clinical frameworks to guide thyroid cancer care
Mentors: Eliezer Van Allen, MD and Erik K. Alexander, MD

Jesse Michael Platt, MD, PhD
Project Title: Insulin receptor condensate dysfunction in Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD)
Mentors: Richard Young, PhD and Raymond Chung, MD

Rebecca Porter, MD, PhD
Project Title: Enhancing the anti-tumor activity of natural killer cells in ovarian cancer
Mentors: Rizwan Romee, MD and Ursula Matulonis, MD

Jacob Rosenberg, MD, PhD
Project Title: Synergistic host-directed and antibiotic therapies for tuberculosis
Mentor: Sarah Fortune, MD

Alexander Tatara, MD, PhD
Project Title: Staphylococcal mechanobiology in device-related infection
Mentors: David Mooney, PhD and Sandra Nelson, MD

Thomas C. Tsai, MD, MPH
Project Title: Factors underlying racial and rural disparities in access to ambulatory surgery
Mentor: Arnold Epstein, MD

2021 KL2/CMeRIT Awardees

Jehan Alladina, MD (MGH)
Instructor in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
Project: Inflammatory programming of airway mononuclear phagocytes in allergic asthma
Primary Mentor: Benjamin Medoff, MD

Lauren Breithaupt, PhD (MGH)
Postdoctoral Fellow in Psychiatry
Project: Estrogen as a state-specific contributor of neuroinflammation in restrictive eating disorders
Primary Mentor: Kamryn Eddy, PhD

Jenifer Brown, MD (BWH)
Research Fellow in Cardiovascular Medicine
Project: Subclinical primary aldosteronism and the mineralocorticoid receptor in HFpEF pathogenesis
Primary Mentor: Marcelo F. Di Carli, MD

Temidayo Fadelu, MD, MPH (DFCI)
Instructor in Medical Oncology
Project: Developing a context appropriate intervention for breast cancer stigma in Rwanda
Primary Mentor: Timothy Rebbeck, PhD

James Guseh, MD (MGH)
Instructor in Cardiology
Project: Translation of cardiac regression pathways from burmese python to human
Primary Mentor: Anthony Rosenzweig, MD

Maimuna Majumder, PhD, MPH (BCH)
Instructor in Computational Health Informatics Program
Project: Measuring excess mortality and disparities during the COVID-19 pandemic using high-resolution nationwide death certificate data
Primary Mentor: Kenneth D. Mandl, MD, MPH

George Molina, MD, MPH (BWH)
Assistant Professor in Surgical Oncology
Project: Identifying factors associated with variation in surgical treatment of colorectal liver metastasis
Primary Mentor: Quoc-Dien Trinh, MD

Aniruddh Patel, MD (MGH)
Research Fellow in Cardiology
Project: Integrating genetic and other risk factors to predict coronary artery disease in South Asians
Primary Mentor: Amit V. Khera, MD, MSc

Daniel Rubin, MD, PhD (MGH)
Instructor in Neurology
Project: Decoding speech from human motor cortex in neurologic disorders of weakness
Primary Mentor: Leigh Hochberg, MD, PhD

Uma Sachdeva MD, PhD (MGH)
Assistant Professor in Thoracic Surgery
Project: Cancer-associated fibroblasts in the development of early-stage esophageal cancer
Primary Mentor: Yolonda L. Colson, MD, PhD

Sufeng Zhang, PhD (BWH)
Instructor in Gastroenterology
Project: Developing a biomimetic synthetic mucus layer for mucosal healing and targeted therapy in inflammatory bowel disease
Primary Mentor: Giovanni Traverso, M.B., B.S., Ph.D.

2020 KL2/CMeRIT Awardees

David Douglas Berg, MD, MPH (BWH)
Project Title: Insulin-like growth factor binding protein-7, heart failure risk stratification, and efficacy of sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus
Mentors: Marc Sabatine, MD and David Morrow, MD

Sanjay Divakaran, MD (BWH)
Project Title: Skeletal muscle perfusion and energetics in patients with symptomatic PAD
Mentors: Marcelo Di Carli, MD and Mark Feinberg, MD

Daniel Goldenholz, MD, PhD (BIDMC)
Project Title: Forecasting seizure risk using machine learning on patient reported e-diaries
Mentor: M. Brandon Westover, MD, PhD

Claire Jacobs, MD, PhD (MGH)
Project Title: Translational read-through therapy for neurogenetic disorders: targeting CIC nonsense mutations
Mentors: Stephen J. Haggarty, PhD and David Sweetser, MD, PhD

Yuri Kim, MD, PhD (BWH)
Project Title: Development of treatment for dilated cardiomyopathy caused by titin (TTN) gene mutation
Mentors: Christine Seidman, MD and Jonathan Seidman, PhD

Jacqueline Seiglie, MD (MGH)
Project Title: The socioeconomic gradient of type 2 diabetes risk in Mexico: a spatiotemporal analysis, 1990-2017
Mentors: Deborah Wexler, MD and James B. Meigs, MD, MPH

David Shulman, MD (DFCI)
Project Title: Novel precision biomarkers and targeted therapies in patients with ewing sarcoma
Mentors: Steven Dubois, MD and Brian Crompton, MD

Katherine Walker, MD, MSC (BWH)
Project Title: Roles of protectins in the resolution of influenza infection
Mentors: Bruce Levy, MD and Rebecca Baron, MD