Spring 2025 Awardees

Academic Senate Awardees (AS)

Hardship Awards
Janet Shim, PhD 
Just Inclusion and Equity: Negotiating Community-Research Partnerships in Genomics Research (JUSTICE)
SON: Social & Behavioral Sciences

Pilot for Early Career Investigators
Sneha Challa, PhD 
Exploring the cultural and normative factors influencing sexual and reproductive health inequities among young South Asians in the US
SON: Institute for Health & Aging

Eva Raphael, MD, MPH
Build and Validate the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) Cohort in California to Assess Disparities in Heart Health and Chronic Musculoskeletal Disorders
SOM: Epidemiology & Biostatistics

Changhua Mu, PhD
Development of Tumor-Targeted, Blood-Brain Barrier-Permeable Radio-Theranostic Peptide for Glioblastoma Therapy: In Vitro and In Vivo Evaluation
SOM: Radiology

Pilot for Established Investigators
Elizabeth Dzeng, MD, PhD, MPH
Surrogate decision-maker perspectives on the systemic factors influencing potentially non-beneficial life-sustaining treatments near the end of life
SOM: Medicine

Shared Technology Awards
Lisa Nguyen, MLISc, MA*
Pages to Pixels: Digitizing UCSF’s Unique Archives & Special Collections
Chancellor/EVCP/FAS: Library
*(Co-funded by RDO)
 

UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS)

CAPS Research Award: Mentored Science Award
Grace Haser, MD 
Rapid point-Of-Care hepatitis C tEsTing (ROCCET) in an HIV status-neutral, low-barrier clinic in San Francisco
SOM: Medicine

Mentored Scientist Award Program in HIV/AIDS
Ayesha Appa, MD 
Understanding Methamphetamine Use for Pain Management Among People with HIV: A Mixed-Methods Study
SOM: Medicine


Cancer Center- Cancer Center Support Grant (CC-CCSG)

Pilot for Early Career Investigators
Benjamin Braun, MD, PhD
Creating De Novo JMML Models by CRISPR Base Editing
SOM: Pediatrics
 

UCSF - Gladstone Institute of Virology & Immunology Center for AIDS Research (CFAR)

Mentored Scientist Award Program in HIV/AIDS 
Chao Wang, PhD 
Fill in the blank: Methodology development for antibody detection during treatment interruption.
SOP: Clinical Pharmacy

Lila Sheira, PhD, MPH
Unmet need for PrEP among sero-discordant partners in the Dominican Republic: Understanding barriers and facilitators to a partner-based PrEP referral program
SON: Institute for Health & Aging

Li Du, PhD
Assessment of chronic kidney disease and its progression among older people living with HIV in Uganda
SOM: Laboratory Medicine

Rachel Logan, PhD
Exploring the PrEP implementation landscape in reproductive health care delivery for Black cisgender women
SOM: Family & Community Medicine

Rafael Tiburcio, PhD
Investigating Interleukin-2 variants to enhance the antiviral capacity of HIV-specific CD8+ T cells.
SOM: Medicine

Pilot Award for Investigators New to HIV
Javid Babak, PhD, MB BChir
Inflammasome activation mediating TB-IRIS
SOM: UCSF Center for Tuberculosis
 

Clinical & Translational Science Institute-CTSI Pilot Awards

Pilot Award for Prevention and Treatment of Opioid Use Disorders
Meir Marmor, MD
Pain Alleviation using Artificial INtelligence (PAAIN) Pilot Study
SOM: Orthopaedic Surgery

Pilot for Early Career Investigators
Julien Cobert, MD
Exploring the use of a Hyperspectral Imaging System for Real-Time and Real-World Detection and Classification of Medication Labels and Pharmaceutical Compounds
SOM: Anesthesia & Perioperative Care

Kristen Nishimi, PhD, MPH
Psychological Resilience to Trauma and Inflammatory Activity
SOM: Psychiatry

Jennifer Dunn, JD
Sorting Pregnant Bodies: Payer Segregated Pregnancy Care in Academic Health Centers
SON: Family Health Care Nursing

Peter Washington, PhD
Piloting the Use of Wearable Devices to Predict Cigarette Use and Craving with Personalized Physiological Foundation Models
SOM: Medicine

Monita Muralidharan, PhD
Mass spectrometry-guided computational structural modeling to assess wild-type and mutant tumor suppressor protein p53.
SOM: Cellular & Molecular Pharmacology

Team Science Grant
Rong Wang, PhD 
Brain Arteriovenous Malformation Revealed by Whole Organ Vasculature Mapping at Capillary Resolution
SOM: Surgery
 

Clinical & Translational Science Institute – CTSI Team Science Program

Team Science Grant
Susanna Fryer, PhD 
Effects of brief nature exposure on brain functioning in adolescents and young adults with high levels of perceived stress
SOM: Psychiatry
 

UCSF School of Dentistry - Research

Pilot for Established Investigators
Yan Zhang, MD, PhD 
Dissecting the association between SCPPPQ1/Gingipain ratio in human gingival crevicular fluid and the prevalence of periodontitis
SOD: Orofacial Sciences
 

Global Cancer Program in the Helen Diller Cancer Center (GCP-HDFCCC)

Global Cancer Pilot Award
Mary Jue Xu, MD* 
Implementation of a Disease-Focused Tumor Board at Muhimbili and Ocean Road Cancer Institute
SOM: Otolaryngology
*(Co-funded by IGHS)

Mentored Scientist Award in Global Health Research
Calvin Chiu, PhD* 
Integrating Self-Swab Cervical Cancer Screening into Pharmacy-Based Non-Communicable Disease Programs in Rwanda: A Feasibility Study
SON: Institute for Health & Aging
*(Co-funded by IGHS)
 

UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences (IGHS)

Global Cancer Pilot Award
Mary Jue Xu, MD* 
Implementation of a Disease-Focused Tumor Board at Muhimbili and Ocean Road Cancer Institute
SOM: Otolaryngology
*(Co-funded by GCP-HDFCCC)

Mentored Scientist Award in Global Health Research
Lucía Abascal Miguel, MD, PhD
CAMPO: Chatting for Agricultural Messaging and Prevention Outreach
Chancellor/EVCP/FAS: GHS- Programs

Christine Blauvelt, MD
Multi-Omics Profiling of Maternal-Fetal Vascular Responses to Placental Malaria
SOM: Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Science

Calvin Chiu, PhD* 
Integrating Self-Swab Cervical Cancer Screening into Pharmacy-Based Non-Communicable Disease Programs in Rwanda: A Feasibility Study
SON: Institute for Health & Aging
*(Co-funded by GCP-HDFCCC)

Anneka Hooft, MD, MPH
Describing the Epidemiology of Acute Respiratory Tract Infections and Host Response in Children in Rural Malawi Using Metagenomic Sequencing
SOM: Emergency Medicine

Pilot for Established Investigators
Nadia Diamond-Smith, PhD 
Multi-level factors influencing infant cognitive, socioemotional, and physical development in India
SOM: Epidemiology & Biostatistics

Mount Zion Health Fund (MZHF) 

Pilot for Early Career Investigators
Ariana Thompson-Lastad, PhD
Midwives in Labor: A Pilot Study of Clinicians Unionizing in Reproductive Health Care
SOM: Family & Community Medicine

Pilot for Established Investigators
Elizabeth Whitlock, MD  
Pragmatic characterization of brain health recovery after surgery across the spectrum of age
SOM: Anesthesia & Perioperative Care

Team Science Grant
Alexendar Perez, MD, PhD  
Novel CRISPR therapy for breast cancer brain metastasis
SOM: Anesthesia & Perioperative Care

UCSF Pancreas Center Program

Mentored Scientist Award in Pancreas Cancer
Kenya Bonitto, BS, Rotation Student (PhD)
Identifying novel regulators of KRAS translation in pancreatic cancer
SOM: Urology

Pilot Award for Pancreas Cancer
Kang Wang, MD, PhD
Development and Validation of an AI-Driven Clinical Decision Support System for Surgical Planning in Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma
SOM: Radiology


Research Development Office (RDO)

Shared Technology Awards
Lisa Nguyen, MLISc, MA*
Pages to Pixels: Digitizing UCSF’s Unique Archives & Special Collections
Chancellor/EVCP/FAS: Library
*(Co-funded by Academic Senate)
 

Research Evaluation & Allocation Committee SOM (REAC)

Hardship Awards
Jennifer Fung, PhD
Leveraging Evolutionary Conservation to Predict Chemical Toxicity for Reproductive Health
SOM: Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Science

Gustavo Velásquez, MD, MPH
Program for Rifampicin-Resistant Disease with Stratified Medicine for Tuberculosis (PRISM-TB)
SOM: Medicine

Dilys Walker, MD 
CELOX PPH to manage post-partum hemorrhage in Kenya: an exploratory study
SOM: Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Science

Independence Support Award
Jonathan Budzik, MD, PhD
The dichotomous role of Tax1bp1 during tuberculosis infection
SOM: Medicine

Wei Zhou, MD, PhD
Role of orexin/hypocretin circuit in anesthesia
SOM: Anesthesia & Perioperative Care

Pilot for Early Career Investigators
Nasim Sobhani, MD
Commercial or Open Source Closed Loop Impact on Pregnancy (COSCLIP) pilot study
SOM: Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Science

Daniel Waller, PhD 
Enhancing the efficacy of cancer therapeutic antibodies with ‘PORTTAL’: Proteomic Observation of Recombinant upTake into Tumor via Antibody Labeling
SOM: Laboratory Medicine

Pilot for Established Investigators
Bassem Al-Sady, PhD
Control of hematopoietic cell fate by the epigenetic write enzymes G9a/GLP and SETDB1
SOM: Microbiology & Immunology

Aaron Diaz, PhD 
Genetic lineage tracing of brain tumors under therapy
SOM: Neurological Surgery

Jennifer Kerns, MD, MPH 
Feasibility of Assessing Same-day Trends in hCG after uterine aspiration (FAST-hCG): evaluating whether immediate post-aspiration hCG in patients with pregnancy of unknown location can risk-stratify for ectopic pregnancy
SOM: Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Science

Yan Li, MD, PhD
A pilot study of developing metabolic biomarkers for assessing recurrent glioblastoma
SOM: Radiology

Lauren Ralph, PhD
Cognitive interviews to refine self-administered survey questions on self-managed and telehealth abortion
SOM: Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Science

Nicole Rosendale, MD
Healthcare Experiences of Sexual and Gender Minority Stroke Survivors
SOM: Neurology

John Sauceda, PhD
Mapping Health Services and Engaging Stakeholders to Improve Care for People Who Inject Drugs in Ciudad Juárez
SOM: Medicine

Tara Sigdel, PhD
Molecular Markers for Early Allograft Dysfunction in Liver Transplantation
SOM: Surgery

UCSF Center for Tuberculosis

Mentored Scientist Award in Tuberculosis
Nora West, PhD, MPH
Addressing an unmet need: piloting Problem Management Plus among people with TB in Uganda
SOM: UCSF Center for TB