After our 10th highly competitive application cycle, unfortunately delayed due to COVID-related research closures, the Georgetown-Howard Universities Center for Clinical and Translational Science (GHUCCTS) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Haiyan He as a KL2 Scholar. This new awardee, her research project, and training plan are emblematic of our program objectives in that they pair a highly-promising scholar-trainee with a mentor team that includes senior colleagues from across disciplines, departments, campuses, and institutions to pursue research that depends upon collaborations and methods from outside the scholars’ discipline, local research environment, or past experiences.
The GHUCCTS KL2 program is analogous both to the original National Institutes of Health “roadmap” K12 Clinical and Translational Research Scholars program and to individual K-series awards, by providing up to three years of protected time and research support, focused on developing early-career faculty investigators through a multidisciplinary-mentored research experience to enable their success as independent, extramurally-funded investigators, preferably in programs of multidisciplinary, collaborative translational team science.
Haiyan He, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Georgetown University will work on “A novel protein-degradation-based mechanism for fast homeostatic plasticity and its implication in neurodegenerative diseases.” Dr. He is investigating the in vivo function of a newly discovered neuronal membrane-associated proteasome as a fast-homeostatic mechanism and its potential link to neurodegenerative diseases. She is mentored by Dr. Seth Margolis from the Departments of Biological Chemistry and Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine with co-mentorship by Drs. Dan Pak, Brent Harris, and Kathy Maguire-Zeiss, at Georgetown University Medical Center.
Dr. He will join our continuing KL2 Scholars including:
Annie J. Kruger, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital continues her research on “Mechanisms of chemokine antagonism in generating reparative macrophages and inhibiting hepatic stellate cell activity.” With mentorship from Georgetown University Medical Center, she is evaluating the effects of chemokine receptor 2 and 5 antagonists in decreasing the pro-inflammatory and pro-fibrotic activity of macrophages and stellate cells, respectively, in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, one of most prevalent liver diseases in the world today.
Katherine G. Michel, PhD, MPH, Instructor of Medicine at Georgetown University continues her work on “Quantifying immune functionality and crosstalk with the cervicovaginal microbiome among women who naturally control HIV infection”. With mentorship from Georgetown University, the NIH, and the University of Maryland, she seeks to understand the complex relationship between mucosal microbiota and the immune system among women living with HIV, to refine HIV therapeutics and prevention as well as improve women’s health.
Chukwuemeka Ihemelandu, MD, FACS, Associate Professor of Surgical Oncology at Georgetown University continues his study on “Improving detection of microscopic disease to improve survival of patients with gastrointestinal cancers.” With mentorship from the Georgetown Lombardi Cancer Center, the National Cancer Institute, and the University of Massachusetts College of Engineering, he seeks to develop specific and sensitive techniques to image colorectal cancer cells intra-operatively using novel fluorescent probes and advanced imaging techniques.
Please join us in congratulating our new and continuing KL2 scholars.
Our application deadline for the next KL2 cycle is February 1, 2021. Visit the GHUCCTS KL2 Scholar website for further details.
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