Current PSDP scholars are listed by the year PSDP funding was awarded and current institutional affiliation.
The PSDP Steering Committee is pleased to announce the 8 selected outstanding trainees who will begin their PSDP research in July 2023
(2022 PSDP Award Recipients)
Natalie Guerrero, MD, PhD | Indiana University | Adolescent Medicine | Evaluation of the Role of Parental Support in Buffering the Negative Impacts of Racial Discrimination on Mental Health |
Jairo Fonseco, MD (NIH Office of AIDS Scholar) |
Emory University | Infectious Diseases | Characterizing the Cellular Mechanisms of HIV Latency in Childhood |
Benjamin Rodrigues, MD | University of California, San Francisco | Neonatology | Targeting Premyelinating Oligodendrocytes in Perinatal White Matter Injury |
Cassandra Simonich, MD, PhD | University of Washington | Infectious Diseases | Mapping the antigenic evolution of respiratory syncytial virus |
Benjamin Solomon, MD, PhD | Stanford University | Allergy and Immunology | Predicting Immune Dsyregulation from the Antigen Receptor Repertoire |
Bob Sun, MD, MA (Cystic Fibrosis Scholar) |
Boston Children’s Hospital | Pulmonology | Volatile Organic Compound Exposure and Respiratory Morbidity in Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia |
Sahal Thahir, MD | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | Infectious Diseases | The Impact of Soil-Transmitted Helminth and Schistosoma exposure on Plasmodium falciparum immunity in Kenyan infants receiving RTS,S vaccination |
Anna Williams, MD (March of Dimes Scholar) |
Duke University | Nephrology | Improving Acute Kidney Injury Outcomes among Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Survivors |
Aaron Bodansky, MD | University of California, San Francisco | Critical Care | Novel Autoantibody Discovery in Kawasaki Disease and Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome-Children |
Sean Cullen, MD, PhD (March of Dimes Scholar) |
Weill Cornell Medicine | Neonatology | Regulation of Germ Cell Small RNAs and Epigenetically-Inherited Disease by Khdc3 |
Xavier Gaeta, MD, PhD | Stanford University | Nephrology | A Wnt signaling approach to improving kidney tubule regeneration and recovery after acute kidney injury in human organoid and mouse models |
Logan Grimes, MD | Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia | Infectious Diseases | Leveraging MHC Molecules and Gnotobiotic Mice to Identify Early-Life Microbes That Prevent Autoimmunity |
Tuba Kockar Kizilirimak, MD (Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Scholar) |
Yale University | Pulmonology | Does the lack of CFTR result in alterations in circulating myeloid cells early in the disease process, setting the stage for the hyperinflammatory state in CF? |
Taylor LaFlam, MD, PhD | University of California, San Francisco | Rheumatology | The role of the P2RY8 pathway in B cell immune tolerance and systemic lupus erythematosus |
Melody Lun, MD, PhD (American Academy of Pediatrics and American Pediatric Society Scholar) |
University of California, San Francisco | Neonatology | Neurodevelopmental impairment by in utero exposure to pathogenic maternal antibodies |
Rameshwar Rao, MD, PhD | Stanford University | Hematology/Oncology | On-Demand Drug Delivery System Composed of Gold Nanoparticles Targeting the Extracellular Matrix for the Treatment of Osteosarcoma |
Jessica Ruiz, MD (Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Scholar) |
Boston Children’s Hospital | Endocrinology | Leveraging Continuous Glucose Monitoring to Define Dysglycemia Induced by Celiac Enteropathy and Parenteral Nutrition |
Ali Reza Rais Sadati, MD, PhD (Burroughs Wellcome Fund Scholar) |
Stanford University | Cardiology | Donor-derived cell-free-DNA in allorecognition and heart transplant rejection |
Jordan Tyris, MD, MSHS (NICHD DIR Scholar) |
Children’s National Hospital | Pediatric Hospital Medicine | Social determinants of health and pediatric asthma: evaluating individuals in the context of place |
Andrew Cox, MD, PhD | Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center | Infectious Diseases | Improving vaccine efficacy by circumventing NK cell-mediated immune suppression |
Taylor Eddens, MD, PhD | UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh | Allergy/Immunology | The role of CD4+ T cells and the PD-1 signaling pathway in protective and pathologic immunity against human metapneumovirus infection |
Matthew Kan, MD, PhD | University of California, San Francisco | Allergy/Immunology | Targeted gene correction in Artemis-deficient Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Syndrome |
Francis LeBlanc, MD, PhD | Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center | Hematology/Oncology | The role of innate immune signaling in resistance to venetoclax-based treatment regimens in myeloid malignancies |
Jacquelyn Lajiness, MD, PhD | Indiana University | Neonatology | Maternal lipids regulate neonatal dendritic cells during development of allergic disease |
Nina Prasanphanich, MD, PhD | Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center | Infectious Diseases | Decidual natural killer cell response to placental infection |
Steven Spurgin, MD | University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center | Cardiology | Genesis of Pulmonary Arteriovenous Malformations after Diversion of Hepatic Venous Flow |
Phillipp Hartmann, MD | University of California, San Diego | Gastroenterology | Fungal Microbiome in Pediatric NAFLD/NASH |
Imran Khan, MD, PhD | University of California, San Francisco | Neonatology | Impaired myofibroblast proliferation drives pathologic alveolar simplification |
Ben Macadangdang, MD, PhD | University of California, Los Angeles | Neonatology | The role of diversity generating retroelements in creating genome plasticity within the gut microbiota |
Glenn Rapsinski, MD, PhD | UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh | Infectious Diseases | Evolution of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the pediatric cystic fibrosis airway |