{"id":9225,"date":"2025-05-15T07:48:36","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T11:48:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/intranet\/?p=9225"},"modified":"2025-05-15T10:26:06","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T14:26:06","slug":"four-scholars-named-to-physician-scientist-training-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/intranet\/2025\/05\/four-scholars-named-to-physician-scientist-training-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Scholars Named to Physician Scientist Training Program"},"content":{"rendered":"

As part of the continued support of the\u00a0Accelerate Forward Together\u00a0<\/em>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.<\/p>\n

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 Jeffery Jensen, MD, PhD,<\/strong><\/a> in the Department of Medicine.\u00a0 Kathryn Gessner, MD, PhD<\/strong><\/a>, from the Department of Urology, Simon Gray, MD, PhD<\/strong><\/a>, from the Department of Medicine, and Lauren Kucirka, MD, PhD<\/strong><\/a>, from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology will each receive support at the early-stage faculty level.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince its inception this program has received nominations of young physician-scientists from multiple clinical departments each year, and has supported a total of twenty-one trainees at the critical transition point when their careers transition from fellow trainees to independent faculty researchers.\u00a0 This year, our program received nominations at the fellowship and faculty level from seven different clinical departments, with each nominee conducting promising research projects across a diverse range of clinical and scientific interests\u201d said Joseph (Alex) Duncan, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and director of the UNC School of Medicine Physician Scientists Training Program. \u201cFellow trainees from the initial cohorts of this program have successfully transitioned from fellowship to faculty positions, 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\u2019s cohort of awardees at this critical stage of their career development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jensen\u2019s research will focus on identifying and enhancing expression of novel targets for immunotherapeutics in NUT Carcinoma, an aggressive solid tumor that lacks effective treatments.<\/p>\n

Gessner, an assistant professor in the Department of Urology, is interested in how extracellular signals in the tumor microenvironment regulate the differentiation and function of macrophages to promote the spread and resistance to treatment of bladder cancer. The primary goal of the research is to uncover new therapies that alter the function of tumor-associated macrophages and enhance the response of bladder cancers to treatments.<\/p>\n

Gray, is an assistant professor in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and former SOM PSTP fellow awardee.\u00a0 \u00a0His research utilizes a unique model of Inflammatory Bowel Disease treatment failure he developed during his fellowship to identify the mechanisms underlying failure of advanced therapies for Crohn\u2019s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis and ultimately help to identify new therapeutic targets for these diseases.<\/p>\n

Kucirka is an assistant professor in Obstetrics and Gynecology who proposes to use artificial intelligence algorithms and large language models to better understand the distinguishing features of different types of pre-eclampsia, diseases related to pregnancy-associated hypertension. She will also determine the relation between different subtypes of disease and adverse clinical outcomes during pregnancy.<\/p>\n

More information on the SOM PSTP program can be found on the website.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kathryn Gessner, Simon Gray, Jeffery Jensen, and Lauren Kucirka will receive support from the UNC School of Medicine Physician Scientists Training Program to cultivate their careers as translational clinical scientists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103134,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","odd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFour Scholars Named to Physician Scientist Training Program - School of Medicine Intranet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/intranet\/2025\/05\/four-scholars-named-to-physician-scientist-training-program\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Four Scholars Named to Physician Scientist Training Program - 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