YCCI Scholars Program Launches Careers of Clinical Researchers

June 11, 2009

Judy Cho,M.D., YCCI co-director for education pictured second from left, with new YCCI scholars, l to r, Raimund Herzog, M.D., Tore Eid, M.D., Ph.D., Kelly Cosgrove, Ph.D., Sarah Jaser, Ph.D., and Annette Molinaro, Ph.D.o

YCCI has made a major commitment to advance the careers of promising clinical and translational investigators through its Scholars program. Each year, YCCI awards salary and research support for two years to a group of junior faculty members or postdoctoral fellows who are ready to transition to faculty. Selecting a new round of Scholars is typically challenging due to the high quality of the applicant pool, and this year was no exception. “The selection committee is continually impressed by the research proposals in the Scholars’ applications and delighted to be able to offer support and guidance to help them reach their goals,” said YCCI Director Robert Sherwin, M.D., C.N.H. long professor of medicine.

The newly-appointed 2009 YCCI Scholars are a diverse group of 10 investigators from the Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Public Health who are immersed in a wide range of clinical and translational research projects. Their topics range from studies of the brain to gene-environment interactions to the development of new statistical methods for predicting clinical outcomes. Their studies involve patients of all ages and with many different problems, from children with autism spectrum disorder to elderly residents of nursing homes. Representing the Departments of Psychiatry, Pediatrics, Laboratory Medicine, Internal Medicine, Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, the Child Study Center (Child Psychiatry) and the Schools of Nursing and Public Health, the newest round of Scholars are already well on their way to establishing meaningful and successful careers as clinical and translational researchers.

Jack Elias, M.D., Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine

“Until this program started, departments were largely on their own in terms of training clinical researchers,” said Jack Elias, M.D., chair of the department of internal medicine and Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor of Medicine. “I’m very excited about the progress YCCI has made in developing its education program. It’s a wonderful enhancement of existing training efforts and a great way to launch the careers of investigators who want to pursue research.”

From its inception, the program has incorporated mentors, but the mentorship program has been newly revamped during the past year. It now comprises a Career Oversight Committee for each Scholar to augment the trainee’s primary mentor(s). The Career Oversight Committee is an assigned team of successful senior faculty members who provide an unbiased perspective on Scholars’ progress and career development and make suggestions about future directions for both research and grant proposals.

Fred Volkmar, M.D., Director of the Yale Child
Study Center

Senior faculty invited to participate in the program have expressed enthusiastic support. “I’m thrilled to serve in this new mentorship initiative,” said Fred Volkmar, M.D., director of the Yale Child Study Center, Irving B. Harris Professor in the Child Study Center and professor of psychiatry, pediatrics and psychology, who has mentored several Scholars and is now one of the mentorship committee chairs. “It adds another layer of guidance that’s extremely valuable for career development and training of our young faculty.” 2008 YCCI Scholar Leora Horwitz, M.D., M.H.S., assistant professor of medicine, feels she has already benefitted after just one meeting with her Career Oversight Committee. “I found it extremely helpful and have already followed up with every member of the committee about specific aspects of future mentoring that each of them has offered to provide,” she said, adding that she expects there will be changes in her as a result of their advice.

In addition to Volkmar, mentoring committee chairs and members include YCCI educational Co-Director Judy Cho, M.D., associate professor of medicine and Genetics; Margaret Grey, Dr.P.H., R.N., Dean of the Yale School of Nursing; Margaret Hostetter, M.D., Chair of the department of pediatrics and physician-in-chief of Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital; Jordan Pober, M.D., Ph.D., vice-chair of immunobiology for human and translational immunology; Mary Tinetti, M.D., director of the Yale Program on Aging; and Dennis Spencer, M.D., chair of the department of neurosurgery. “We’re pleased to have such a distinguished group of senior investigators who are willing to devote their time and effort to mentoring promising young scientists,” said YCCI educational co-director Eugene Shapiro, M.D., professor of pediatrics, investigative medicine and epidemiology.

Now in its fourth funding cycle under the CTSA, YCCI has invested approximately $5 million of its CTSA funding in the Scholars program, with another ~$2 million invested in pre-doctoral T-32 Scholars as well as Yale’s Investigative Medicine Program which offers physicians and students from the Schools of Nursing and Public Health a PhD degree focused in clinical and translational research. Institutional support for YCCI’s educational programs has also been enthusiastic. To date, the School of Medicine has invested about $7.2 million in these programs. “When we applied for the CTSA, I viewed education and training as one of our highest priorities,” said Sherwin. “The progress we’ve made is exactly what I envisioned.”

2009 YCCI Scholars

Name	Department	Project
Kelly Cosgrove, Ph.D.	Psychiatry	Test-Retest Reproducibility of {11C} PHNO PET Using the Constant Infusion Paradigm
Kavita Dhodapakar, M.D.	Pediatrics	Regulating Fcy Receptor Balance in Autoimmunity
Tore Eid, M.D., Ph.D.	Laboratory Medicine	Characterizing the Metabolome of Epileptic Seizures
Raimund Herzog, M.D.	Internal Medicine	Adaptations of Brain Energy Metabolism to Hypoglycemia
Sarah Jaser, Ph.D.	School of Nursing	Coping, Parenting & Maternal-Child Adjustment in Type 1 Diabetes
Manisha Juthani-Mehta, M.D.	Internal Medicine	Cranberry Capsules for the Prevention of UTI in Nursing Home Residents
Young-Shin Kim, M.D., Ph.D., M.S., M.P.H.	Child Study Center	A Gene Environment Interaction in the Etiology of Autism Spectrum Disorder
Maria Lalioti, Ph.D.	Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences	Identification and Functional Characterization of Follicle Stimulating Hormone Receptor Variants
Annette Molinaro, Ph.D.	School of Public Health	Novel Statistical Methods for Predicting Clinical Outcomes and Assessing Variable Importance in the Presence of Competing Risks
Christopher Pittenger, M.D., Ph.D.	Psychiatry	Glutamate Dysregulation in OCD: an MRS Study