As part of the continued support of the Accelerate Forward Together Strategic Plan, the UNC School of Medicine Physician Scientist Training Program (PSTP) supports a small number of clinicians committed to translating research findings to advance the practice of medicine in addition to providing clinical care and teaching. PSTP is a pipeline to recruit, train, and retain promising individuals and provide them with support and mentorship to cultivate their research programs.
The PSTP supports physician-scientists at both the resident or fellowship level and the early-stage faculty level. In this sixth round of awards, one award was given at the resident / fellowship level to Cecilia Levandowski in the Department of Medicine. Grant Fischer, from the Department of Pathology, Jose Martinez, from the Department of Medicine, and Nadia Hoekstra, from the Department of Pediatrics will each receive support at the early-stage faculty level.
“The transition point between fellowship training and becoming an independent faculty researcher presents one of the most daunting hurdles in the long-term career development of physician scientists. The UNC School of Medicine Physician Scientist Training Program has sought to support physicians at or near this critical transition point in order to maintain the pipeline of the physician scientist workforce at UNC. This year, our program received nominations at the fellowship and faculty level from five different clinical departments, with each nominee conducting promising research projects across a diverse range of clinical and scientific interests” said Joseph (Alex) Duncan, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and director of the UNC School of Medicine Physician Scientists Training Program. “Fellow trainees from prior years of this program have successfully transitioned from fellowship to faculty positions here at UNC, fulfilling the program goal of growing our own physician-scientist work force. Our faculty awardees have also continued to have success in obtaining new research awards and publishing impactful scientific works. We are grateful that this strategic SOM program is available to support this year’s cohort of awardees at this critical stage of their career development.”
Levandowski’s research will focus on understanding how Cancer Associated Fibroblasts in the tumor micro-environment influence response to immunotherapy in bladder cancer.
Fischer, an assistant professor in the Department of Pathology, is interested in utilizing multi-omic profiling to understand exploitable molecular-programs that can optimize treatment regimens for Cancers of Unknown Primary, tumors found in patients where the tissue or organ of origin is not known.
Martinez, is an instructor in the Division of Hematology and former SOM PSTP fellow awardee. His research focuses on understanding how aberrant splicing and mutations in splicing factors lead to oncogenic transformation and influence response to therapies in Acute Myelogenous Leukemia.
Hoekstra is transitioning to an assistant professor position in the Division of Pediatric Pulmonology. She is proposing to use artificial intelligence algorithms and digital stethoscope technology to develop novel diagnostic methods to identify aspiration risk in infants. The technology could eventually be applied in both high- and low- resource settings.
More information on the SOM PSTP program can be found on the website.