Eric Cramer

MD/PhD Student

Oregon Health & Science University; Co-chair APSA Website Operations

APSA Opening Statement

Eric Cramer is a second year graduate student in the Biomedical Engineering Department at Oregon Health and Science University’s MD/PhD program. He is originally from the San Francisco Bay Area in California, and attended Stanford University, where he earned his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Biomedical Computation while competing competitively on the NCAA D1 Wrestling team. His graduate research focuses on integrating deep learning with agent-based modeling to describe the complex systems behavior of the tumor microenvironment. Since joining in 2021 as a student member, Eric has greatly appreciated the resources and connections made possible by APSA’s initiatives, and has served on the Executive Council as co-chair of the Website Operations Committee since 2023. He is excited to continue working with other members of the APSA team to increase available resources and opportunities that support physician-scientist trainees and applicants by facilitating their web presence. Outside of academia and medicine, you can find Eric competing in triathlons, backpacking or camping, and spending time with his friends and family.

José M. Barral Sánchez, MD, PhD

Professor and Chair, Department of Biomedical Science; Director, KPSOM-Caltech MD-PhD Program

Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine

Keynote Speaker 1

Dr. Barral Sanchez obtained his medical degree from the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey in México and his PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Subsequently, he performed his post-doctoral studies on in vivo protein folding and molecular chaperones at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany. Dr. Barral Sanchez’s work has been published in prestigious journals, including Nature, Science, and Cell.

At the University of Texas Medical Branch Dr. Barral Sanchez served as tenured Professor and Vice Chair for Operations in the Department of Neuroscience, Cell Biology & Anatomy in the School of Medicine, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and Director of the MD-PhD Combined Degree Program. Dr. Barral Sanchez’s commitment to education and research has been recognized by numerous awards and appointments, including the University of Texas Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award, induction into the University of Texas Kenneth I. Shine, M.D., Academy of Health Science Education, and selection as a Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences.

Dr. Barral Sanchez is the Chair of the Department of Biomedical Science at the Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine. In this role, Dr. Barral Sanchez provides overall leadership for faculty members in this department and oversees education of medical students in the basic biomedical sciences. He collaborates with the Departments of Health Systems Science and Clinical Science in the development of educational activities that incorporate concepts and skills from each of these three major disciplines into the curriculum. Dr. Barral Sanchez has recently been named as Vice Dean for the University of California San Francisco Regional Campus at Fresno and the Y. Frank and Roxie Moradian Chair in Medicine.

Amir Zarrinpar, MD, PhD

UCSD, IM PSTP

Q&A with Research-Track Residency Program Directors

TBA

Gabriel Haddad, MD

Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics and Neurosciences, Vice Dean for Children’s Academic Programs and Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego; Physician-in-Chief, Chief Scientific Officer at Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego

Q&A with Research-Track Residency Program Directors

Dr. Haddad received his medical education and initial medical training at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon, followed by additional training at the University of Texas in Houston. He then moved to Columbia University in New York to do his fellowship and joined the faculty. At Columbia University, he was the director of the Sleep Laboratory in the Division and trained many fellows. He started his faculty career there and advanced the field of the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and the understanding of its pathophysiology. He was also the first to describe a disease that is now known as Haddad’s syndrome, involving poor drive to breathe (secondary to central pathology), Hirschsprung’s disease and abnormally low variability in heart rate. After 13 years at Columbia, he was recruited to Yale University to be the Division Chief of Respiratory Medicine Shortly after he became also Professor of Cellular & Molecular Physiology at the same institution. After 14 years at Yale, he was recruited to Albert Einstein College of Medicine to be the Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics and to Montefiore Hospital to be Pediatrician in Chief. In 2005, he was recruited West to become Chair of Pediatrics at the University of California San Diego and physician-in-Chief at Rady Children’s Hospital where he has been since then. Dr. Haddad has published over 400 peer-reviewed articles and chapters, and authored numerous medical texts including the landmark Basic Mechanisms of Pediatric Respiratory Disease (2002), Brain Hypoxia and Ischemia (2008), Genetic Models in Cardiorespiratory Biology (2001) and Tissue Oxygen Deprivation: From Molecular to Integrated Function (1996). He has been Chair of the Respiratory Neurobiology and Sleep Assembly of the American Thoracic Society and Chair at the NIH for a number of conferences on SIDS and Sleep, including the Chair of the Board of the National Sleep Center at the NIH. He sat on numerous national committees such as the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and March of Dimes, and is a member of 19 distinguished medical societies, many in a leadership role. He has held numerous editorial appointments; is a reviewer for >40 respected medical journals; is the recipient of numerous awards and honors; and has been invited to speak at national and international conferences. He has mentored many graduate students, residents, fellows and junior faculty many of whom have their own laboratory, are division chiefs and others are chairs of clinical or basic science Departments. He was elected to the Association of American Physicians in 2008. He has been a member of the Board of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital since 2011 and currently is Vice Chair of the Board of Governors.

David A. Schwartz, MD

UColorado, Program to Advance Physician Scientists & Translational Research

Q&A with Research-Track Residency Program Directors

David Schwartz is a Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Immunology and Associate Dean for Translational Science at the University of Colorado. In his role as Associate Dean, he directs a campus-wide program to promote translational and programmatic research and support the career development of physician-scientists at all stages of career development. He previously served as the Chair of Medicine at the University of Colorado and the Director of the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences at the NIH. He has made numerous contributions toward understanding the role of the environment and human genome in the development of complex human diseases. These efforts have provided new insights into the genetics, epigenetics, and genomics of interstitial lung disease, asthma, and innate immunity. His work has led to the recognition that genetic susceptibility, and specifically MUC5B, plays a role in the etiology of pulmonary fibrosis. Dr. Schwartz’ lab was the first to clone the human TLR4 gene and demonstrate that variation in this gene decreased immune responsiveness to endotoxin, enhanced the risk of Gram negative sepsis, and protected individuals from the development of coronary artery disease.

Michael Lenaeus, MD, PhD

University of Washington, IM PSTP

Q&A with Research-Track Residency Program Directors

TBA

Manish Kohli, MD

Professor, Department of Medicine; Jack and Hazel Robertson Presidential Endowed Chair at the University of Utah-Huntsman Cancer

Q&A with Research-Track Residency Program Directors

Dr. Kohli’s responsibilities involve chairing national (NCI-NIH; CDMRP; NSF) and International study sections that involve cutting edge biotechnology focus in cancer. His research in cancer focuses on advancing innovative clinical strategies to treat relapsed or refractory patients in a multi-disciplinary setting that involves:

Fusing ultra-sensitive bio-engineering detection technologies with omic-based tumor biology.

Developing real-world biobanks and datasets to implement data sciences that lead to molecular evidence-based algorithms and clinical trial designs with the potential to impact clinical practice.

With rapid advancements in biological sciences and computing power, our ongoing multi-disciplinary teams apply novel approaches to develop in silico multi-omic, machine learning algorithms to pursue innovative biomarker-based enrichment-type clinical trial designs. We also develop enhance our academic enterprise by filing for patents.

Our goal is to integrate various scientific disciplines to provide individualized patient care in the field of cancer.

Health Economic Outcome Research: Recognizing the rising cost of cancer care over the past five years and its impact on increasing inequities for patients who cannot afford high costs one of our research themes also focuses on health economic outcome research (HEOR) in cancer medicine.

Devin Wiley, MD, PhD

Engineer, Logic Technology Development Division - Intel Corporation; Co-founder, Circumvent Pharmaceuticals; Co-founder, Poynter Technologies

Q&A with Physician Scientists in Industry

Dr. Devin Wiley is an engineer and entrepreneur with expertise spanning the fields of nanotechnology, microelectronics manufacturing and development, and neurotherapeutic development. Dr. Wiley is currently a senior engineer and Head of Integrated Lithography at Intel Corporation responsible for identifying, approving, and developing final designs for state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence-associated integrated circuit architectures. His work includes driving development and qualification of new lithography processes and tools, and preparing new technologies for transfer to High Volume Manufacturing Facilities - including most recently Intel's new 18A chip technology. Dr. Wiley heads lithography resist chemistry development for contact/holes in both the current and new high-Numeric Aperture Extreme Ultraviolet (hi-NA EUV) toolset. Dr. Wiley has combined this expertise in microelectronics manufacturing with expertise in the nanoparticle therapeutic space to founding Velanidi Technologies (now Poynter Technologies), which enables 'bio-lithographically compatible' printing of single capture agents (e.g. DNA-Antibody fragment conjugates) to individual binding pads linked to state-of-the-art integrated circuits and transistor nodes — enabling the detection and addressing of single molecular binding events on a large scale. This technology has applications to drug development, diagnostics, and potentially future therapeutics when administered as a nano-to-micron sized particles. Dr. Wiley has also spent the last ten years as a co-founder of Circumvent Pharmaceuticals, which is dedicated to developing a first therapeutic option for CLN1 Batten Disease, an ultrarare form of pediatric neurodegeneration. As a co-founder, Dr. Wiley has led financing efforts through private equities (including the Y-combinator accelerator program) and grants (through both family foundations and the NIH SBIR/STTR programs), raising nearly $10M to date. At Circumvent, Dr. Wiley leads efforts that span chemistry manufacturing and controls (CMC), drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (DMPK), toxicology and safety pharmacology, IND-and-CTA enabling studies, and regulatory engagement including driving informal and formal meetings with the FDA/EMA toward IND/CTA submission. Dr. Wiley has served on the Clinical Advisory Board at Intel, which focused on pathfinding of microelectronics-based technologies for clinical applications. Additionally, he serves as the Chair of the Oregon Health and Sciences University Hillsboro Medical Foundation, which notably raises $1M+ per year through the 'Salud' program that provides mobile healthcare access to seasonal vineyard workers in the Willamette Valley Wine Industry. Dr. Wiley received his M.D. From the USC Keck School of Medicine, and his Ph.D. from Caltech in Chemical Engineering. Outside of work, Dr. Wiley enjoys white water rafting, playing the piano, cooking, and spending time with his wife and three children.

Alana Dixson, MD, PhD

Co-Founder Viral Science, LLC; Co-Founder Creole Sushi, LLC

Q&A with Physician Scientists in Industry

TBA

Adam Raff, MD, PhD, FAAD

Vice President, Head of Translational Medicine, Montai Therapeutics

Q&A with Physician Scientists in Industry

Dr. Raff is a physician-scientist and board-certified dermatologist at the forefront of AI-driven drug discovery. As Vice President, Head of Translational Medicine at Montai Therapeutics, he leverages AI to decode untapped chemistry and develop breakthrough medicines for chronic diseases. Dr. Raff previously served as Vice President of Clinical Development at EQRx and Director of Translational Medicine at LEO Pharma. He is an Instructor at Harvard Medical School and maintains a clinical dermatology practice at Beth Israel Lahey Health. He received his MD/PhD at the University of Southern California, completed his dermatology residency at Harvard, and his post-doctoral fellowship as an NIH-funded T32 fellow under Dr. R. Rox Anderson at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine. Dr. Raff is a member of the Advancing Innovation in Dermtology (AID) Research Leadership Council and previously served as Director of the Hacking Dermatology Initiative.

Carol Meltzer, MD

Dean, USC Keck School of Medicine

Keynote Speaker 2

Carolyn C. Meltzer, MD, is Dean of the Keck School of Medicine of USC and holds the May S. and John H. Hooval Dean’s Chair in Medicine. Dr. Meltzer oversees the operations and academic affairs of the Keck School, which is home to 26 basic science and clinical academic programs and 14 major research institutes. She serves as the academic leader of the Keck School faculty and staff, who perform biomedical research and clinical care, and train medical students, graduate students, postdoctoral trainees, and undergraduates. The Keck School, in collaboration with the health systems of Keck Medicine of USC and Los Angeles Medical Center, sponsors more than 1,200 resident physicians in more than 70 specialty or subspecialty programs.

Prior to joining USC, Dr. Meltzer served as the William P. Timmie Professor and Chair of the Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences at Emory University. She also served in two additional leadership roles at Emory’s School of Medicine: Executive Associate Dean of Faculty Academic Advancement, Leadership, and Inclusion, and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer.

Dr. Meltzer has a lengthy history of service to the medical profession on a national level, serving on numerous professional and advisory boards. She currently serves on the Council of Deans Administrative Board for the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), Board of Directors of the Radiological Society of North America, and the Board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM).

A physician-scientist, Dr. Meltzer is expert in neuroradiology and nuclear medicine and has performed landmark research on the brain’s structure and function during normal aging, Alzheimer’s disease, and neuropsychiatric disorders across the lifespan. She also led the clinical evaluation of the world’s first human combined PET-CT scanner for cancer staging and treatment. Dr. Meltzer has received numerous awards and honors, including election as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the distinguished service award from the American Medical Association, the gold medal award from the Association of Academic Radiology, and the outstanding researcher award and gold medal from the American Society of Neuroradiology. She is a member of the Academy Council of Distinguished Investigators and gold medal awardee in the Academy for Radiology and Biomedical Imaging Research. Dr. Meltzer earned her medical degree from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed her graduate medical education at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. She holds an undergraduate degree in biology and neurobiology with honors from Cornell University.

On a personal note, Dr. Meltzer’s photography has been the creative complement to her medical imaging career. Her art has been featured in more than 50 solo and group exhibits in the United States and Europe, presented in the Yale University Beinecke Library Archive,and published in South x Southeast Photomagazine, the American Journal of Neuroradiology, and Edge of Humanity Magazine.