CTSI is pleased to announce leadership transitions in its Clinical and Translational Science Training (CTST) programs:
Kamran Atabai, MD has been named the inaugural director of the Precision Health Science TL1 (PRESCIENT) Postdoctoral Fellowship. In his role as PRESCIENT postdoctoral fellowship director, Kamran will lead a program that seeks to train exceptional postdoctoral fellows and provide them with the methodologic, analytic, leadership, and team science skills required to conduct transformative early translational research of relevance to precision health. Kamran is a physician scientist focused on examining the basic mechanisms that underlie common cardiovascular disease processes with a particular focus on identifying novel therapeutic targets. His exposure to both basic scientists at Mission Bay and translational researchers across campus, places him in a unique position to direct this new training program at CTSI.
CTSI also announces changes in the leadership of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) Medical Student Clinical Research Fellowship training program and the NIH-funded TL1 training program for predoctoral learners. Until now, both programs have been led by Joel Palefsky, MD, professor of medicine. Joel has played a central role in predoctoral research training at UCSF since 2001. In addition to establishing and leading the DDCF and TL1 programs, he created the Clinical and Translational Research Fellowship Program (CTRFP). CTRFP provides an integrated, supportive intellectual environment for all UCSF and visiting pre-doctoral students engaged in clinical and translational research (CTR) by organizing a variety of CTR research activities across all 4 UCSF schools.
Joel has decided to focus more of his efforts on his internationally renowned and growing program on human papillomavirus-related neoplasia. CTSI expresses its deep gratitude to Joel for his outstanding leadership over the years and his many, seminal contributions to pre-doctoral student research at UCSF.
Joel hands the reins of the DDCF program to co-director Christopher Stewart, MD, professor of pediatrics and the TL1 program to co-director Peter Chin-Hong, MD, professor of medicine.