MSTR Alumni Spotlights and Graduation Photos

2014 MSTR Graduate, Brian S. Kim, MD, MSTR

Current position: Professor and Robin and Jack Ross Chair in Bioelectronic Medicine and Neuroimmunology at the Feinstein Institutes, and Vice President and Chief Biotechnology Officer at Northwell Health.

In the MSTR, Brian studied how epithelial cell–derived alarming cytokines regulate innate immune cell homeostasis. In doing so, he discovered novel contributions of basophils and previously unrecognized group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) as drivers of atopic dermatitis or eczema. This work led to an NIH K08 award and further funding to start his lab focusing on chronic itch disorders. His laboratory first identified how sensory neurons utilize classical immune signaling pathways (IL-4Ra and JAK-STAT) to mediate chronic itch. These fundamental discoveries led directly to clinical applications, including randomized controlled trials of ruxolitinib cream for atopic dermatitis and dupilumab for prurigo nodularis, both leading to FDA approval for these first-in-class therapies. Brian is also the co-founder of Alys Pharmaceuticals, a clinical stage immunodermatology-focused biotech company as well as Neurommune Therapeutics and Attu Therapeutics.

 

2013 MD-MSTR Graduate, Daniel Hashimoto, MD, MSTR

Current position: Assistant Professor in Surgery and Engineering and Director of the Penn Computer Assisted Surgery and Outcomes Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine

Daniel's thesis work was titled, “Striving for Acquisition of Expertise in Surgery: Lessons from High Performance Competitive Industries”. After completing surgical residency and a research fellowship in surgical AI & innovation, he was appointed Assistant Professor in Surgery and Engineering at Penn in 2022 and the director of the Penn Computer Assisted Surgery and Outcomes Laboratory, where he leads a multidisciplinary team of clinicians and computer scientists that aims to leverage computer vision to augment surgical decision-making in the operating room and to provide data-augmented guidance to surgeons during operations to improve patient outcomes and reduce the likelihood of intraoperative adverse events. Although early in his career, his research has impacted clinical care, by his development of multiple computer vision algorithms for the analysis of surgical video.  He led international consensus on defining ground truth for the annotation of surgical video and worked to define metrics to assess performance of AI algorithms on surgical tasks. His work has been cited by both the Government Accountability Office and the National Academy of Medicine’s technology assessment on AI in Healthcare as an example of how policy must account for computer vision technologies that guide or influence patient care. He served on the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada task force that recommended that digital health literacy be introduced as a new component of the CanMEDS Physician Competency Framework. He is co-founder of the Global Surgical AI Collaborative, a nonprofit that promotes the democratization of surgical care through the intersection of education, innovation, & technology.

 

2020 MSTR Graduate, Laura Adang, MD, PhD, MSTR

Current position: Assistant Professor of Child Neurology, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine & Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Laura works on clinical trial readiness for the leukodystrophies, which are neurodegenerative, genetic disorders of the brain. The work includes biomarker validation, natural history studies, and development of new tools to measure change. She enrolled in the MSTR degree because she felt there was a gap in herability to take my basic science experiences and translate that into a rigorous scientific program focused on clinical trial readiness. Laura shared that the degree has had a "profound impact" on her career, specifically equipping her with a strong foundation in research methodologies and critical thinking, and enabling her to bridge the gap between basic science and clinical application. 

Her advice for new students is to "stay engaged and focused! It is too easy to be pulled in many directions, especially as a physician-scientist. Think about what you want to gain from the program and make sure you use all of the amazing resources to reach your goals. Also, take the K writing course!"

Laura is now a course director of an ITMAT Ed program focused on the education and mentorship of research coordinators within our rare disease research consortium. This program, the Predoctoral Preparatory Program or P3, was recently R25 funded through NCATS.

Graduation Photos

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