Announcing the 2022 Translational Research Scholars
The School of Medicine’s new Program to Advance Physician Scientists and Translational Research is pleased to announce the 2022 Translational Research Scholars Program (TRSP) awardees. These six outstanding junior faculty researchers were
selected from a large number of highly competitive applications from across the School of Medicine with help from a peer review panel of senior faculty. The new TRSP program aims to foster translational research among the School’s early
career faculty, facilitating the pursuit of new lines of exploration and elevating and expanding the scope of their translational research.
“The Translational Research Scholars award is a terrific stepping stone in a junior faculty researcher’s career, affording them the time to think creatively about the crucial next steps in developing their translational research program,” said David Schwartz, MD, Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Director of the Program to Advance Physician Scientists and Translational Research. Along with Dr. Schwartz, the new program is led by Lori Sussel, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics, Director of Basic and Translational Research at the Barbara Davis Center, and Associate Vice Chancellor for Basic Science Research and Sean Colgan, PhD, Levine-Kern Professor of Medicine and Immunology, and Interim Associate Division Head Gastroenterology and Hepatology. The TRSP awards provide each Scholar with up to $300,000 for their research over the next four years.
Translational Research Scholars
Shanlee Davis, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Pediatrics, Division of Endocrinology
Dr. Shanlee Davis is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado SOM and a Pediatric Endocrinologist at Children’s Hospital Colorado. She is part of the interdisciplinary eXtraOrdinarY Kids Clinic & Research Program and leads multiple clinical-translational research studies in pediatric sex chromosome aneuploidies (SCA). She began working with the SCA communities prior to medical school, and after her clinical training as a pediatrician and pediatric endocrinologist she pursued specialized research training to be able to integrate and lead high-quality, clinical-translational research centered around these conditions. She has designed observational studies to understand the relationships of sex steroids, cardiometabolic risk, and psychosocial health in infants, children, adolescents, and young adults with SCA, and recently completed the first ever randomized controlled trial in infants with 47,XXY. Through her clinical care, research, and partnership with community advocacy organizations, she turns the most important clinical issues into testable research questions. Her newly funded project digs deeper into a deficit of energy metabolism in males with 47,XXY and investigates the impact of a novel intervention that may improve chronic fatigue and poor endurance that many with XXY experience. Being able to make a positive impact not only for her patients in clinic but also for affected individuals that she may never meet is her primary motivation for dedicating her career to clinical-translational research.
Jasper Heinsbroek, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Anesthesiology
Dr. Jasper Heinsbroek is an Assistant Professor in the department of Anesthesiology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. He earned his BSc and MSc in Biology and Neuroscience at the VU University in Amsterdam the Netherlands and his PhD in Neuroscience at the Medical University of South Carolina under the mentorship of Dr. Peter Kalivas. The Heinsbroek lab aims to discover novel treatment strategies for opioid use disorders with a focus on the neural circuits of the ventral basal ganglia. Substance use disorders are characterized by recurrent episodes of relapse, and the Heinsbroek lab is exploring the unique anti-relapse properties of glutamatergic ventral pallidum neurons, as well as their interactions with other cell types in the ventral pallidum and basal ganglia circuits at large that regulate drug-seeking with the goal of developing novel more selective therapeutic strategies to prevent relapse.
Sujatha Jagannathan, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics
Dr. Suja Jagannathan is an Assistant Professor at the Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics Department and the RNA Biosciences Initiative at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Her group studies how cells detect and degrade aberrant messenger RNAs (mRNAs), and how dysregulation of this surveillance process contributes to facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD). Before starting her own lab at the University of Colorado in 2018, Suja was an FSHD Society postdoctoral fellow at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle (2013 – 2017) and a graduate student at Duke University in Durham, NC (2006 – 2013). Her lab is currently funded by a Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA/R35) from NIH.
Hunter Moore, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Surgery, Division of Transplant Surgery
Dr. Hunter Moore obtained a bachelor's degree from the University of Colorado in Molecular Cellular Developmental biology, graduating Suma Cum Laude. He went on to medical school at the University of Vermont and graduated Alpha Omega Alpha. Dr. Moore began his post-graduate training at the University of Colorado in general surgery. During this time, he was on T32 training grant and obtained his PhD in clinical science. After completion of general surgery training, he went on to complete a fellowship in abdominal transplant surgery while on a K99 grant. He joined the faculty at the University of Colorado in 2021 as an assistant professor in the Department of Surgery. His laboratory currently evaluates the role of fibrinolysis on organ failure/regeneration and is funded by an R00.
Erin Schenk, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology
Dr. Erin Schenk received her MD and PhD from the Mayo Clinic Medical Scientist Training Program in Rochester, Minnesota. Her thesis work focused on the adaptive immune response to cancer antigens. She completed her internal medicine residency and fellowship at Mayo Clinic with a continued focus in tumor immunology through the Clinician-Investigator Training Program.
Dr. Schenk joined the Thoracic Oncology group as a physician scientist in 2018. Dr. Schenk has an active clinical practice focused on patients with lung cancer and leads multiple clinical trials investigating novel immunotherapy approaches for patients with lung cancer. The Schenk Lab is part of the Thoracic Oncology Research Initiative at the University of Colorado and investigates the lung cancer tumor microenvironment as a contributor to lung cancer progression and treatment resistance.
Mia Smith, DVM, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Pediatrics, Division of Immunology & Microbiology
Dr. Mia Smith is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes. The focus of her research is understanding the role of B lymphocytes during development of autoimmunity. While her studies primarily focus on the role of B cells in type 1 diabetes, she is also interested in other autoimmune disorders, such as autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD), which is the focus of her TRSP award. She aims that through a greater understanding of how B cells become activated and work in concert with other cells of the immune system to initiate autoimmunity, her work will translate into possible future therapeutics to help prevent, delay, or treat autoimmunity.
Review Committee
| Review Committee 2022 | |
| Greg Downey, MD - Review Committee Chair Professor and Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs | Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, & Sleep Medicine, National Jewish Health |
| Traci Lyons, PhD Associate Professor | Department of Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology |
| Sunita Sharma, MD Associate Professor | Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary Sciences & Critical Care |
| Sean Davis, MD, PhD Professor | Department of Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology |
| Beth Tamburini, PhD Associate Professor | Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology |
| Max Seibold, PhD Associate Professor | Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary Sciences & Critical Care, National Jewish Health |
| Martin McCarter, MD Professor | Professor, Department of Surgery, Division of Surgical Oncology |
| Linda van Dyk, PhD Professor and Vice Chair | Department of Immunology & Microbiology |
| Jill Slansky, PhD Professor | Department of Immunology & Microbiology |
| Catherine Lozupone, PhD Associate Professor | Department of Medicine, Division of Bioinformatics |