Pediatric Scientist Development Program
Awardees
Current PSDP scholars are listed by the year PSDP funding was awarded and current institutional affiliation.
2026 PSDP Award Recipients
Just announced · Beginning research July 2027The PSDP Steering Committee is pleased to announce the newest cohort of outstanding trainees who will begin their PSDP research in July 2027.
| Scholar | Institution | Specialty | Project |
|---|---|---|---|
| Russell Ault, MD, PhD | Seattle Children's | Hematology/Oncology | AI-Guided De Novo Protein Design for Tumor-Conditioned Cytokine Therapeutics in Pediatric Solid Tumors |
| Monica Manglani, MD, PhD | Children's Hospital of Philadelphia | Rheumatology | Role of viral tropism in dysregulated effector and memory immune responses and the development of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever |
| Ahmad Anouti, MD | University of Texas, Southwestern | Gastroenterology | Improving Pediatric Liver Transplant Outcomes Through Statistical and Machine Learning-Based Risk Prediction |
| Harisa Spahic, MD | University of Colorado | Neonatology | Sex-Specific Hippocampal Impairment after Brief Hyperoxia with Innate Immune Dysregulation |
| Rebecca Kelly, MD | Children's Hospital Los Angeles | Hematology/Oncology | Defining Symptom Burden Among Long-term Survivors of Young Adult Cancer |
| Narmin Javadova, MD | University of Wisconsin – Madison | Neonatology | What Cord Blood and Neonatal Brain Imaging Reveal About Neurodevelopmental Risk: Extracellular Vesicles, Epigenetics, and Early Behavioral Outcomes |
| Heather Ren, MD, PhD | University of Pittsburgh | Rheumatology | Utilizing urinary lymphocytes to assess and monitor lupus nephritis |
| Aimee Juan, MD, PhD | Stanford University | Genetics | Uncovering Oligogenic Mechanisms of Congenital Heart Disease |
| Michelle Munyikwa, MD, PhD | Children's Hospital of Philadelphia | Infectious Diseases | "I Hide": School, Stigma, and ART Adherence Among Adolescents Living with HIV in Ghana |
2025 Awardees
Year 1| Scholar | Institution | Specialty | Project |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sathi Wijeyesinghe, MD, PhD | Seattle Children's Hospital | Allergy/Immunology | Resident memory T cells in rhinovirus-induced asthma and cystic fibrosis exacerbations |
| Lisa Liu, MD, PhD | University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) | Critical Care | Predicting Response to Anti-Seizure Medications in Drug-Resistant Epilepsy Using Massive-Scale Data |
| Adriana Hoffman, MD | University of Miami | Neonatology | The Role of Neutrophil Extracellular Traps in Intra-amniotic Inflammation and Fetal Lung Injury |
| Charalampos (Harry) Mystakelis, MD | Johns Hopkins | Infectious Diseases | Understanding immune responses to pediatric Clostridioides difficile infection and mechanisms that lead to persistence |
| John Walker, MD, PhD | Children's Hospital of Philadelphia | Endocrinology | Developmental mechanisms of type 2 diabetes for genetic risk variants within CDKAL1 |
| Jennifer Jenks, MD, PhD AAP & APS Scholar | Stanford University | Allergy/Immunology | Defining the Role of B Cells in Peanut Allergy and Sensitized Tolerance |
| Evelyn Hoover, MD, PhD Warren Alpert Scholar | University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) | Infectious Diseases | Investigating the Role of Macrophage Ubiquitin Ligase UBR5 in Sensitivity to Fungal Infection |
| Paige Noreen, MD Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Scholar | University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill | Pulmonology | Effect of ETI and Inflammation on RSV Infection in CF Human Nasal Epithelial Culture |
| Leandros Boukas, MD, PhD | Harvard University | Genetics | Large-scale systematic discovery of transcriptional convergence across Autism Spectrum Disorder-causing genes |
2024 Awardees
Year 2| Scholar | Institution | Specialty | Project |
|---|---|---|---|
| Karan Abraham, MD, PhD Burroughs Wellcome Scholar | Boston Children's Hospital | Hematology/Oncology | Tracing and Perturbing Evolutionary Trajectories of Cancer Cells with Multipurpose Synthetic Molecular Recorders |
| Kristina Boguslawski, MD, PhD | University of California, San Diego (UCSD) | Infectious Diseases | The interface of biomimetic cell-membrane coated nanoparticles and advanced proteomics to study invasive Staphylococcus aureus infection |
| Patricia Castillo dela Cruz, MD, PhD | University of Washington | Allergy/Immunology | Epithelial Immune Responses to Rhinovirus in Non-Type 2 Pediatric Asthma |
| Jonathan Ghergurovich, MD, PhD | Children's Hospital of Philadelphia | Hematology/Oncology | Uncovering genetic regulators of CD8 T cell exhaustion through temporal screening |
| Jacqueline Kading, MD March of Dimes Scholar | University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) | Neonatology | Development of a microfluidic, anticoagulation-free silicon membrane oxygenator for an Artificial Placenta |
| Sarah McCuaig, MD, DPhil | Children's Hospital of Philadelphia | Rheumatology | Spatial transcriptomic assessment of microanatomic type I IFN activation in pediatric lupus nephritis |
| Mark Ragheb, MD, PhD | Stanford University | Infectious Diseases | Mining the gut microbiome for immunomodulatory microproteins |
| B. Cicero Willis Pineda, MD, MSc American Heart Association Scholar | UT Southwestern Medical Center | Cardiology | Regulation of Cardiac Atrial Myocyte Glycogen Metabolism by the γ2-Subunit of AMP-Activated Protein Kinase: Pathogenic Implications in the Development of Early Onset Atrial Arrhythmogenesis |
| Matthew MacDougall, MD, PhD | Stanford University | Allergy/Immunology | Stem-Like Regulatory T-cell Precursors in Natural and Induced Immune Tolerance |
2023 Awardees
Year 3| Scholar | Institution | Specialty | Project |
|---|---|---|---|
| Evida Dennis-Heyward, MD, PhD | Boston Children's Hospital | Gastroenterology | The Role of the Virome in the Development of Very Early Onset IBD |
| Lauren Harasymiw, MD, PhD, MPH | University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) | Neonatology | Neuroimaging markers that predict long-term brain development and neurodevelopmental outcomes in infants with brain dysmaturation |
| Casey Johnson, MD, MS | Boston Children's Hospital | Gastroenterology | Investigating the role of intestinal epithelial vesicular trafficking in rescuing Microvillus Inclusion Disease |
| Bassem Shoucri, MD, PhD | University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) | Endocrinology | Monounsaturated fatty acids and adipose tissue plasticity in obesity |
| Yue Christine Lu, MD | MSK/Weill Cornell Medicine | Hematology/Oncology | Unraveling MYOD1-L122R Mutant Rhabdomyosarcoma: Identifying Novel Druggable Targets for Improved Clinical Outcomes |
| John Wang, MD, PhD | UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh | Genetics | A dual-model approach to study peripheral nerve myelination in LAMA2-related muscular dystrophy |
| Therese Woodring, MD | University of Wisconsin | Hematology/Oncology | Transcriptome-guided CAR T-cell target selection in acute myeloid leukemia and neuroblastoma |
| Samantha Coss, MD, PhD AAP & APS Scholar | Nationwide Children's Hospital | Rheumatology | Autoantibodies, T cells, and Complement in Juvenile Dermatomyositis: Bridging the Gap Between Innate and Adaptive Immunity |
| Jonathan Knowlton, MD, PhD Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Scholar | Children's Hospital of Philadelphia | Neonatology | Mechanisms of injury, immunity, and repair in neonatal viral lung disease |
| Evan Rajadhyaksha, MD | Indiana University | Nephrology | The Interface Between Vitamin D and Antimicrobial Peptides in the Kidney's Bacterial Defense |
Past Awardees
Browse the full archive of PSDP scholars from prior cohorts.
Contact Us
Sallie Permar, MD, PhD
Nancy C. Paduano Professor and Chair
Weill Cornell Medicine
Pediatrician-in-Chief
NewYork–Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center
T: 212.746.4111
sallie.permar@med.cornell.eduJanet Lam, MSW
Program Manager, PSDP
Research and Administration
Department of Pediatrics
Weill Cornell Medicine
Initial point of contact for prospective fellows & completed applications.
jal2059@med.cornell.eduReady to become a PSDP scholar?
Submit your eligibility form once endorsed by your sponsoring institution. Both current and legacy NIH biosketch formats are accepted.