Spring 2025 Awardees

Academic Senate Awardees (AS)

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)

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