K12 Scholars/Graduates since 2004

William Curry
Year of Entry: 2004
Degree/Institution: MD from Cornell
Title of Research Project or Topic: Antitumor Immunity in Patients with Malignant Glioma
Current Position & Institution: Professor of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Testimonial: The K12 program set the stage very significantly for almost every component of my career in clinical and translational research.  The skills that I acquired via the didactic clinical research training program have made me a stronger researcher and have significantly enhanced my ability to design and interpret clinical studies.  Most importantly the two years of protected and mentored time created the foundation for the clinical and preclinical work in brain tumor immunology that I have accomplished to date and continue to pursue.  The opportunity and the time to really “dig in” in that specialized environment made all the difference.

Santosh Kesari
Year of Entry: 2004
Degree/Institution: MD-PhD from Univ. of Penn.
Title of Research Project or Topic: Clinical Research Training Program in Neuro-Oncology
Current Position and Institution: Director, Neuro-oncology; Chair and Professor, Department of Translational Neurosciences; Regional Medical Director, Research Clinical Institute, Providence Southern California

Helen Shih
Year of Entry: 2005 
Degree/Institution: MD from Univ. of Penn.
Title of Research Project/Topic: (1) Proton radiation for CNS tumors, (2) Translational radiation development in treatment planning optimization & verification of proton therapy delivery
Current Position and Institution: Chief, CNS & Eye Services; Professor in Department of Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Testimonial: The K12 program provided me with the opportunity to jump start my career in a structured academic environment with a combination of identified mentors, research interests, with parallel clinical responsibilities and classroom enrichments. It enabled me to pursue a MPH which has provided a valuable foundation to understanding and leading clinical research with a more critical and trained eye. My mentored research studies have developed into fruitful clinical and translational projects and publications which have led to further ongoing investigational opportunities.

Milan Chheda
Year of Entry: 2006 
Degree/Institution: MD from Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Title of Research Project/Topic: Functional Genomics of Glioblastoma
Current Position and Institution: Associate Professor of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine
Testimonial: The K12 enabled me the time, funding, and freedom to ask the questions and acquire the data that has formed the basis of my own independent laboratory. The mentorship from William Hahn, my laboratory PI, and Tracy Batchelor and Robert Martuza, PIs of the K12, was instrumental in my career development.

Samuel Blackman
Year of Entry: 2006 
Degree/Institution: MD-PhD from University of Illinois at Chicago
Title of Research Project/Topic: Role of sonic hedgehog in high grade glioma biology
Current Position and Institution: Founder and CMO of Day One Biopharmaceuticals

Andrew Chi
Year of Entry: 2007 
Degree/Institution: MD-PhD from Chicago Medical School
Title of Research Project/Topic: Epigenomic Profiling of Glioblastoma Stem Cells
Current Position and Institution: Vice President of Clinical Development, Bright Peak Therapeutics; Senior Editor at Clinical Cancer Research

Clark Chen
Year of Entry: 2008 
Degree/Institution: MD-PhD from Harvard Medical School
Title of Research Project/Topic: Targeting Oncogenic Stress in Glioblastomas
Current Position and Institution: Professor, Lyle French Chair in Neurosurgery and Department Head, University of Minnesota Medical School

 

Jorg Dietrich
Year of Entry: 2009 
Degree/Institution: MD-PhD from Regensburg, Giessen, London
Title of Research Project/Topic: Brain tumor microenvironment and biomarkers of treatment response
Current Position and Institution: Associate Professor of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School

Elizabeth Gerstner
Year of Entry: 2007 
Degree/Institution: MD from Columbia University
Title of Research Project/Topic: Evaluation of anti-angiogenic therapy in glioblastoma
Current Position and Institution: Associate Professor of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School

Eudocia Quant Lee
Year of Entry: 2008 
Degree/Institution: MD from Washington University
Title of Research Project/Topic: Comprehensive clinical and pathological analysis of correlates of survival in a matched case-control study of patients with glioblastoma
Current Position and Institution: Associate Professor of Neurology, Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School

Christine Lu-Emerson
Year of Entry: 2010 
Degree/Institution: MD from University of Washington
Title of Research Project/Topic: Cellular and Molecular Biomarkers of Glioblastoma Resistance to Anti-angiogenic Therapy in Humans
Current Position and Institution: Neuro-oncologist at Maine Medical Partners, Maine Medical Center

Fawn Leigh
Year of Entry: 2009 
Degree/Institution: MD from University of Chicago
Title of Research Project/Topic: Genetic Modifiers-NF1 tumor burden
Current Position and Institution: Neurology Specialist at Seattle Children’s Hospital

Priscila Brastianos
Year of Entry: 2010 
Degree/Institution: MD from John Hopkins
Title of Research Project/Topic: Genomic Characterization of Brain Metastases
Current Position and Institution: Director of Brain Metastasis Program and Associate Professor of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Testimonial: The K12 training grant provided me with phenomenal training opportunities at an early stage in my career. Importantly, I was able to bring together a team of mentors and collaborators to study a challenging clinical problem in cancer, that of brain metastases. We made some key scientific discoveries that are being translated to clinical care.

Matija Snuderl
Year of Entry: 2011 
Degree/Institution: MD from Charles University, Prague
Title of Research Project/Topic: Investigating the role of Placental Growth Factor (PlGF) in Biology of Medulloblastoma
Current Position and Institution: Director, Molecular Pathology and Associate Professor, Department of Pathology at New York University Grossman School of Medicine

Mikael Rinne
Year of Entry: 2011 
Degree/Institution: MD-PhD from Indiana University
Title of Research Project/Topic: Identifying novel genetic dependencies associated with PTEN loss in glioblastoma
Current Position and Institution: Vice President of Clinical Development at Blueprint Medicines; Instructor in Neurology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School

Brian Nahed
Year of Entry: 2012 
Degree/Institution: MD from Yale, MSc from Harvard School of Public Health
Title of Research Project/Topic: Identification of Circulating Tumor Cells in Glioblastoma Patients
Current Position and Institution: Associate Professor of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School

 

Jennie Taylor
Year of Entry: 2012 
Degree/Institution: MD from University of Kentucky, MPH from Harvard School of Public Health
Title of Research Project/Topic: Molecular mechanisms of resistance to anti-angiogenic therapy in malignant gliomas
Current Position and Institution: Associate Professor of Clinical Neurology, University of California San Francisco

Soma Sengupta
Year of Entry: 2013 
Degree/Institution: MD-PhD from Cambridge University, UK
Title of Research Project/Topic: Elucidating Signaling Pathways for GABA-A Receptor Alpha5 in an Aggressive Subtype of Medulloblastomas
Current Position and Institution: Professor in Neurology at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Vice-chair of Philanthropy and Business Strategy, Chief of neuro-oncology at the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center

Isabel Arrillaga-Romany
Year of Entry: 2013 
Degree/Institution: MD-PhD from Tufts University
Title of Research Project/Topic: Chemotherapy-induced cognitive and brain imagining changes in older adults with breast cancer
Current Position and Institution: Assistant Professor of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School

Justin Jordan
Year of Entry: 2014 
Degree/Institution: MD from UT Southwestern Medical Center
Title of Research Project/Topic: Somatic Mutations Promoting Tumor Formation in NF2
Current Position and Institution: Assistant Professor of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School

Ashley Plant
Year of Entry: 2014 
Degree/Institution: MD from Stanford
Title of Research Project/Topic: Describing Immune landscape of pediatric brain tumors
Current Position and Institution: Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (Hematology, Oncology, and Stem Cell Transplantation), Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine 

Martha Neagu
Year of Entry: 2015 
Degree/Institution: MD-PhD from Columbia
Title of Research Project/Topic: Elucidating and Overcoming Immune Evasion by Glioblastoma
Current Position and Institution: Medical Director, Oncology Early Development at AbbVie

Mariella Filbin
Year of Entry: 2015 
Degree/Institution: MD-PhD from Medical University of Graz, Austria
Title of Research Project/Topic: Epigenetic dependencies in pediatric high grade glioma and diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG)
Current Position and Institution: Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School

Julie Miller
Year of Entry: 2016
Degree/Institution: MD-PhD from Stanford University
Title of Research Project/Topic: Altered metabolism in IDH mutant glioma
Current Position and Institution: Assistant Professor of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School 

 

Nancy Wang
Year of Entry: 2016
Degree/Institution: MD from University of Chicago
Title of Research Project/Topic: Effects of Wnt inhibition on glioblastoma vasculature
Current Position and Institution: Instructor in Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School

Ina Ly
Year of Entry: 2017
Degree/Institution: MD from King's College London, United Kingdom
Title of Research Project/Topic: Characterizing glioma microenvironment with ultra-high gradient diffusion MRI
Current Position and Institution: Assistant Professor of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School

Clayton Hess
Year of Entry: 2017
Degree/Institution: MD from Penn State University
Title of Research Project/Topic: Patterns of Circulating Tumor-Derived Material and Biomarkers in the Peri-Radiation Therapy Period on Childhood Tumors
Current Position and Institution: Medical Director of Radiation Oncology, Dignity Health, Sierra Nevada Memoria Hospital

Pamela Jones
Year of Entry: 2018
Degree/Institution: MD from Tulane University
Title of Research Project/Topic: Plasma Exosomal Biomarkers Following 5-ALA use in Malignant Glioma
Current Position and Institution: Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School

Jose Ricardo "Ricky" McFaline-Figueroa
Year of Entry: 2018
Degree/Institution: MD, PhD from Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons
Title of Research Project/Topic: CDK4/6 inhibition in the treatment of high-grade gliomas
Current Position and Institution: Instructor in Neurology, Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School

John Prensner
Year of Entry: 2019
Degree/Institution: MD, PhD from University of Michigan
Title of Research Project/Topic: Integrative profiling of cell state transitions in glioma
Current position and institution: Instructor in Pediatrics, Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer, Harvard Medical School

L. Nicolas Gonzalez Castro
Year of Entry: 2019
Degree/Institution: MD, PhD from Harvard University
Title of Research Project/Topic: Genomic and epigenomic analysis of IDH-mut and IDH-wt gliomas
Current Position and Institution: Instructor in Neurology, Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School

J. Bryan Iorgulescu
Year of Entry: 2020
Degree/Institution: MD from Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University; MPH / Harvard School of Public Health
Title of Research Project/Topic: Defining tumor-intrinsic and tumor-extrinsic biomarkers of immune checkpoint blockade response in glioblastoma
Current Position and Institution: Faculty at MD Anderson Pathology Department 

Brian Andersen
Year of Entry: 2020
Degree/Institution: MD, PhD, University of Minnesota
Title of Research Project/Topic: Characterization and Inhibition of Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor Signaling in Glioblastoma-Associated Macrophages
Current Position and Institution: Instructor in Neurology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School

Tamar Berger
Year of Entry: 2021
Degree/Institution: MD, Ph.D at Thomas Jefferson University
Title of Research Project/Topic: Targeting essential genes that are associated with truncal chromosome deletions in GBM
Current Position and Institution:Instructor in Neurology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School

Bryan Choi
Year of Entry: 2021
Degree/Institution: MD, PHD at Duke University School of Medicine
Title of Research Project/Topic: BiTE-Armored CAR T cells for Glioblastoma
Current Position and Institution: Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School

Annie Hsieh
Year of Entry: 2022
Degree/Institution: MD at Tzu Chi University College of Medicine, Hualien Taiwan; PhD at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Title of Research Project/Topic: Identifying Gene Targets that Contribute to Glutamate Release in Gliomas
Current Position and Institution:Instructor in Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School

Thomas Nelson
Year of Entry: 2022
Degree/Institution: MD at University of Kansas School of Medicine
Title of Research Project/Topic: Electrical Aberrations in the Tumor Microenvironment: Responsive Neurostimulation (RNS) in the Management of Medically Refractory Epilepsy in Patients with Primary Brain Tumors
Current Position and Institution:Assistant Professor, Neurology, UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences

 

Diana Shi
Year of Entry: 2023
Degree/Institution: MD at Harvard Medical School
Title of Research Project/Topic: Molecular Dynamics of Glioma Formation and DNA Damage Response by Mutant IDH1
Current Position and Institution:Instructor in Radiation Oncology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School

 
 

David Gritsch
Year of Entry: 2023
Degree/Institution: MD at Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria; PhD at University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany in cooperation with Harvard Medical School
Title of Research Project/Topic: Identification of Novel Biomarkers of Immunotherapy Response in Patients with Brain Metastases
Current Position and Institution: Clinical Neuro-Oncology Fellow (Dept of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women's Hospital)

Daniel Chiu
Year of Entry: 2024
Degree/Institution: MD at SUNY Downstate Medical Center College of Medicine, MPH at Yale School of Public Health
Title of Research Project/Topic: NeuroTransitions: A Psychoeducational Intervention for Patients with IDH-mutant Gliomas
Current Position and Institution: Clinical Neuro-Oncology Fellow (Dept of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women's Hospital)

   

Albert Kim
Year of Entry: 2024
Degree/Institution: MD at Medical College of Georgia
Title of Research Project/Topic: Enhancing precision medicine for brain metastases using integrative and interpretable deep learning techniques
Current Position and Institution:Assistant Professor of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School