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THE GRADUATE SCHOOL

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Medical Scientist Training Program

Degree requirements.

Learn more about the program by visiting the Medical Scientist Training Program

See related Interdisciplinary Clusters and Certificates

Degree Types: MD/PhD

The Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) prepares students for exciting and rewarding careers that combine biomedical investigation and the practice of medicine.

This flexible program permits the efficient and natural combination of medical and scientific training for highly motivated students of superior research potential.

MSTP students typically complete two years of the medical curriculum followed by three or more years of research training. During this time, students complete a dissertation to fulfill the requirements for the PhD degree. Students then return to the medical curriculum to complete one and one-half years of hospital-based clinical clerkships.

Additional resources:

• Department website
• Program handbook(s)

Program Contact

Contact Jena Pitman-Leung Assistant Director

The following requirements are in addition to, or further elaborate upon, those requirements outlined in  The Graduate School Policy Guide .

MD Coursework Requirements

Students must meet coursework and clerkship requirements of Feinberg. MSTP students may receive 12 weeks of credit towards the MD elective requirements from their PhD dissertation research.

PhD Coursework Requirements

The PhD degree requirements of the graduate program in which the student is enrolled (Driskill Graduate Program in Life Sciences, Interdisciplinary Biological Sciences Program, Northwestern University Interdepartmental Neuroscience PhD Program, Biomedical Engineering Program, Department of Chemistry, Department of Material Science and Engineering, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and other academic departments as applicable), generally involving three or more years of research training and dissertation preparation, must be met. MSTP students are required to take at least three to nine graduate-level courses for a grade during their enrollment in The Graduate School depending on the program the student has joined.

Other MD/PhD Degree Requirements

• Examinations:  graduate qualifying examinations for admission to candidacy
• Research/Projects:  thesis research
• PhD Dissertation:  original, independent research presented in a defensible thesis of high quality
• Final Evaluations:  defense of dissertation
• Publish:  a minimum of one first-authored peer-reviewed research article
• Other:  regular participation in MSTP Colleges Curriculum and MSTP Grand Rounds in all years; teaching assignment required by PhD programs

Last Updated: September 12, 2023

Academic Catalog

2023-2024 Edition

Medical Scientist Training Program MD/PhD

Degree requirements.

The following requirements are in addition to, or further elaborate upon, those requirements outlined in  The Graduate School Policy Guide .

MD Coursework Requirements

Students must meet coursework and clerkship requirements of Feinberg. MSTP students may receive 12 weeks of credit towards the MD elective requirements from their PhD dissertation research.

PhD Coursework Requirements

The PhD degree requirements of the graduate program in which the student is enrolled (Driskill Graduate Program in Life Sciences, Interdisciplinary Biological Sciences Program, Northwestern University Interdepartmental Neuroscience PhD Program, Biomedical Engineering Program, Department of Chemistry, Department of Material Science and Engineering, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and other academic departments as applicable), generally involving three or more years of research training and dissertation preparation, must be met. MSTP students are required to take at least three to nine graduate-level courses for a grade during their enrollment in The Graduate School depending on the program the student has joined.

Other MD/PhD Degree Requirements

• Examinations:  graduate qualifying examinations for admission to candidacy
• Research/Projects:  thesis research
• PhD Dissertation:  original, independent research presented in a defensible thesis of high quality
• Final Evaluations:  defense of dissertation
• Publish:  a minimum of one first-authored peer-reviewed research article
• Other:  regular participation in MSTP Colleges Curriculum and MSTP Grand Rounds in all years; teaching assignment required by PhD programs

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PDF of the 2023-2024 The Graduate Catalog.

Director - Leonidas Platanias, MD, PhD

He earned his medical degree and PhD from the University of Patras Medical School in Greece, and began his research career at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. He completed a residency in internal medicine at the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, and a fellowship in hematology-oncology at the University of Chicago Hospitals.

Dr. Platanias’s research focuses on cytokine signaling pathways in malignant cells and developing therapies that that target those pathways. He has published more than 370 papers, and his work has been continuously funded by the NCI for almost 30 years. He is the recipient of R01, U54, T32, and P30 awards from the NCI, and VA I01 Merit Review support.

Among his many career honors, Dr. Platanias received the Seymour and Vivian Milstein Award for Excellence in Inteferon and Cytokine Research. A member of various scientific societies, he served as President of the International Society of Interferon and Cytokine Research and in other national leadership positions. He is an associate editor and editorial board member for several scientific journals, serves on the NCI’s Subcommittee A for Cancer Centers, and has been a chair or member of many review panels, study sections, and site visit teams for the NIH, Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Defense.

Since Dr. Platanias became Director in 2014, the Lurie Cancer Center has experienced dynamic growth in NCI funding, publications, and the number of patients enrolled in early-phase clinical trials, as well as the recruitment of more than 140 new faculty members. Under his leadership, the Lurie Cancer Center received the highest rating in its history from the NCI, an overall exceptional with a near-perfect impact score of 12, on the competitive renewal of its Cancer Center Support Grant in 2018.

Dr. Platanias has been a member of the Association of American Cancer Institutes’ (AACI) Board of Directors since 2018. He co-chairs the AACI’s Conflict of Interest Task Force and has served on the association’s Annual Meeting program committee. Dr. Platanias is also an elected member of the Association of American Physicians.

Physician-Scientist Training Program

The Department of Medicine’s Physician-Scientist Training Program (PSTP) focuses on the transition period from graduation with an MD or combined MD/PhD degree to appointment to a full-time academic position as a physician-scientist.

Find information via the Starzl Academy site

The Starzl Academy serves as an umbrella over PSTP programs across Northwestern Medicine clinical departments and seeks a community that connects individuals to the investigative component of their training throughout their programs, exposing them to the full breadth of opportunity here at Northwestern and encouraging multidisciplinary interaction and collaboration.

Applicants should apply to the Physician-Scientist Training Program (PSTP, 2247140C1) of the McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University through   Electronic Residency Application Service . Applicants may also apply to the Categorical Internal Medicine track (2247140C0) if they would like to be considered for the traditional three-year residency program.

In addition to their application through ERAS, applicants should submit the   online PSTP application . If not already included in ERAS, applicants should also submit a letter of recommendation from their principal research mentor. Additional letters to support an applicant and their research potential may also be submitted if desired.

Lab Members

Meet the Horbinski Lab team members. We welcome requests for information about our work and collaboration opportunities. Find out how to contact us.

Principal Investigator

Craig Horbinski, MD, PhD

Professor Medical Director of Neuropathology Director, Nervous System Tumor Bank

craig.horbinski( at )northwestern.edu   312-503-6127

  View Horbinski's Faculty Profile

Craig Horbinski, MD, PhD, hails from Buffalo, NY, where he completed his combined MD/PhD training at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He then did an Anatomic Pathology residency and a Neuropathology fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh. His first academic appointment was at the University of Kentucky, where he founded and directed the Solid Tumor Molecular Diagnostics laboratory and was director of the Markey Cancer Center Biospecimen and Tissue Procurement Shared Resource Facility. In 2015, Horbinski moved to Northwestern University, where he directs the Neuropathology Division, the Nervous System Tumor Bank and the Mouse Histology and Phenotyping Laboratory. To date, Horbinski has authored over 140 peer-reviewed publications and has obtained extramural research support from multiple sources, including the NIH and ABTA. He has delivered over 60 invited talks and platform presentations on gliomas in a variety of national and international settings, has mentored over a dozen clinical and research trainees on scientific projects and has trained over 30 clinical residents and fellows. Horbinski is an Associate Editor of Neuro Oncology and Neuro Oncology Advances and is on the editorial board of the top three neuropathology journals (Acta Neuropathologica, Brain Pathology, Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology) and reviews for over 20 journals, including Neuro-Oncology, Oncotarget, Lancet Oncology, Cancer Research and Clinical Cancer Research.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Matthew McCord, MD

matthew.mccord( at )nm.org

MD: University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville FL

Matthew McCord, MD, received his BS in biology from Florida Institute of Technology in 2012 and attended medical school at the University of Florida. Before his final year of medical school, he completed the Medical Research Scholars Program at the NIH, where he did brain tumor research under the mentorship of Dr. Mark Gilbert. McCord went on to receive his MD with honors in research in 2018. He completed both his anatomic pathology residency and neuropathology fellowship at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. McCord began research on hypermutation and temozolomide resistance in gliomas during his clinical training, under Horbinski’s mentorship. In 2022, he joined the Horbinski Lab full time to continue his research as a postdoctoral fellow.

Thomas Sears, PhD

thomas.sears( at )northwestern.edu

PhD, Pharmacology and Toxicology: University of California, Davis, CA

Thomas Sears, PhD, received a BSc in Environmental Toxicology at University of California, Davis (UC Davis) where he performed research under the guidance of Dr. Robert Rice, a notable skin toxicologist with an interest in heavy metal-induced skin toxicity. Upon graduating, Sears focused his research interests on cancer pharmacology and entered the Pharmacology and Toxicology Graduate Group at UC Davis where he joined the lab of neuropathologist Dr. Kevin Woolard. Sears’ dissertation research in the lab of Dr. Woolard focused on the use of glioma stem-like models to evaluate how IDH mutations in glioma affect sensitivity to epigenetic inhibitors. Sears joined the Horbinski Lab in September 2020 and will be building upon his dissertation research using advanced glioma models and bioinformatics studies.

Lab Manager

Katy McCortney, MS, QBRS (ASCP)

Lab Manager - Nervous System Tumor Bank

kathleen.mccortney( at )northwestern.edu   312-503-0977

BS, Psychology: Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, IL

Katy McCortney, MS, earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Illinois Wesleyan University where she conducted novel research before joining the Social Neuroscience Lab at The University of Chicago. She joined the team at Northwestern University in 2015 where her role as senior researcher and lab manager for the Nervous System Tumor Bank (NSTB) includes providing guidance and coordinating the biospecimen requests of scientists, working with the biobank team to collect, process, distribute and store brain and spinal cord tumor specimens, as well as managing the biobank’s administrative needs. McCortney also helped establish the NSTB’s postmortem donation program for patients with glioma. This donation program works with patients and their families who wish to donate their brain with the hope of advancing research in brain cancer. McCortney also earned a Master of Science in Health Communication from Northwestern University in 2019. In her free time she trains for and races in triathlons.

Wenxia Wang, BMed, MMed

Lab Manager - Horbinski Lab

wenxia.wang( at )northwestern.edu   312-503-4209

Bachelor of Medicine (BMed/BS): Henan University of Chinese Medicine,China

Wenxia Wang, BMed, MMed, studied Chinese medicine and Western medicine in Henan University of Chinese Medicine and has seven years of clinical experience as a physician in China, specialized in internal medicine and cardiovascular diseases. Wang has participated in research projects across the U.S. for 20 years related to molecular biology, cell culture and animal models. She has published/coauthored many research papers. She started working at Northwestern University in 2011 and joined the Horbinski Lab in July 2020 as the research lab manager. She manages daily operations of research activities, participates and assists lab members in the research projects.

Research Staff

Shejuan An, PhD

Research Associate

shejuan.an( at )northwestern.edu

PhD, Occupational Hygiene and Environmental Hygiene: Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China

Shejuan An, PhD, earned her PhD at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, where she studied Environmental Toxicology and Carcinogenesis. An focused on translational research in lung cancer for eight years at Guangdong General Hospital, Guangdong Lung Cancer Institute in China. She came to the United States as a visiting scholar at the George Washington University in October of 2013. She started working at Northwestern University in 2018 and joined the Horbinski Lab in March 2021, where she studies FDA approved drugs for repurpose in meningioma.

Mariah Flowers, MS

Laboratory Technician

mariah.flowers( at )northwestern.edu

BS, Biological Sciences: DePaul University

Mariah Flowers earned her bachelor’s degree in biological sciences at DePaul University. During her time at DePaul, she volunteered in the Emergency Department at Northwestern Memorial Hospital where she assisted with transporting patients and provided food or blankets to those in the waiting room. She also held various leadership positions in her sorority and was selected to serve on multiple committees. She then earned her master’s degree in medical physiology at Case Western Reserve University where she worked on clinical research under the cardiothoracic surgery department at the University Hospitals network. In the future, she plans to continue her education and will be applying to medical school.

Alicia Steffens, HTL(ASCP)

Histology Technician

alicia.steffens( at )northwestern.edu

BS, Biological Sciences: Illinois State University

Alicia Steffens earned her bachelor degree in biological sciences from Illinois State University before continuing on to complete IUPUI's Histotechnology program in 2015. Her career began in a clinical setting with a strong focus on embedding and microtomy skill. She then moved to a research setting, which includes her role in the Nervous System Tumor Bank where she is the principal histotechnologist. In her role here, her skills include special staining and immunohistochemistry.

Jordain Walshon

jordain.walshon( at )northwestern.edu

BS, Biomedical Sciences: Western Michigan University

Jordain Walshon earned her bachelor degree in biomedical science with minors in chemistry and psychology from Western Michigan University. During her time at Western, Walshon skated on the Synchronized Skating team. In the future she would like to continue education for Pathologists' Assistant or work related to Neuropathology.

Mark Youngblood, MD, PhD

Neurosurgery resident

mark.youngblood( at )northwestern.edu

MD/PhD: Yale University

Mark Youngblood, MD, PhD, is originally from Tallahassee, Florida, and competed a BS in Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech. After working for three years at Intel designing microprocessors, he joined the MD/PhD program at Yale, focusing on meningioma epigenetics in the laboratory of Murat Gunel. His dissertation investigated changes in chromatin architecture associated with distinct driver mutations in these tumors, as well as the prognostic and clinical significance of these alterations. He is currently a resident in neurosurgery at Northwestern, and interested in improving diagnostic and treatment approaches for meningiomas.

Michael Drumm, PhD

Graduate Student, Medical Scientist Training Program

michael.drumm( at )northwestern.edu

AB, Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology: Harvard University

Michael Drumm, PhD, graduated from Harvard in 2015 with an AB in Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology, where he did research on neurodevelopmental disorders. Upon graduation, he studied bladder and prostate cancer at Massachusetts General Hospital in the Department of Radiation Oncology for two years. In 2017, Michael enrolled in the Medical Scientist Training Program at Northwestern University, and following the completion of the first two years of medical school, joined the Horbinski Lab in May 2019. Michael earned his PhD in April 2023 and is continuing his medical school education.

Rodrigo Javier

Rodrigo Javier is an experienced biobank technician who has been with the Horbinski Lab since 2017. In addition to biobanking, Rodrigo is highly skilled in patient-derived xenograft models of cancer. His current research project focuses on whether the ketogenic diet may be particularly effective against IDH mutant gliomas.

Heather Smith, MD, PhD

heather.smith( at )northwestern.edu

MD: University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX

Heather Smith, MD, PhD, received her BS in neuroscience and business administration at the University of Texas at Dallas in 2006, where she studied neuroprosthetics under the guidance of Lawrence Cauller, PhD. She then went on to a combined MD/PhD program, where she split her time between the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and the University of Texas in Austin. She completed her PhD in neuroscience in 2015 under the guidance of Kristen Harris, a leading expert on synaptic ultrastructure, with an interest in the influence of mitochondria on sustained increases in synaptic vesicle release following long-term potentiation as well as changes in synaptic ultrastructure during early post-natal development. She received her MD with honors in 2017 from the University of Texas Medical Branch. After a year of neurosurgery residency, she switched to pathology in order to focus on her passion for studying disease processes using microscopy and completed her residency in anatomic pathology at University of Chicago in 2022. She joined the Horbinski Lab in 2022 and began her neuropathology fellowship at Northwestern in 2023.

Vineeth Thirunavu

Medical Student

vineeth.thirunavu( at )northwestern.edu

BA, Neuroscience: Washington University, St. Louis

Vineeth Thirunavu graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 2019 with a BA in Neuroscience. He enrolled in the MD program at Northwestern in 2019 and recently completed his third year. He joined the Horbinski Lab in June 2022 to begin a research year studying the therapeutic potential of histone deacetylase inhibitors in high-risk meningiomas and the utility of Ki-67 as a prognostic tool for meningioma outcomes. He plans on applying to neurosurgery residencies in 2023.

Anh Tran, PhD

PhD, Cancer Biology: University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL

Anh N. Tran, PhD, graduated from Vietnam National University, Hanoi in 2011 with a bachelor degree in Biology and a thesis on ex vivo angiogenesis models for cancer drug testing. Upon graduation, he worked at Vietnam Academy of Technology and Science where he studied the production of recombinant human Interleukin-2. He came to the United States to study the effects of the GTP cyclohydrolase I/ Tetrahydrobiopterin pathway on glioblastoma initiating cells, and earned his doctorate degree at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2018. Anh joined the Horbinski Lab in September of 2018, where he studies glioblastoma and meningioma.

Dusten Unruh, PhD, MT (ASCP)

PhD, Pathobiology & Molecular Medicine: UC, Cincinnati, OH

Dusten Unruh, PhD, MT (ASCP), graduated from North Dakota State University in 2009 with a BS in Clinical Laboratory Science and minor in Chemistry. He became an American Society for Clinical Pathology certified Medical Technologist, which led to his matriculation into graduate school. He earned his PhD at University of Cincinnati, where he studied vascular biology and the effects of cancer-produced Tissue Factor. Unruh joined the Horbinski Lab in November 2015, and now he studies how tissue factor expression and mutant IDH1 affect glioma biology and hemostasis.

Principal Investigator

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Congratulations and welcome to all trainees who matched to McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University programs in 2024. We are delighted to welcome 241 amazing and accomplished recruits to the Northwestern family. Of the newly matched residents, 41 percent hail from top 25 medical schools and 24 percent are from groups traditionally underrepresented in medicine. See the list of our incoming residents below, organized by program.

  Anesthesiology

• Ryuji Arimoto, MD, University of Chicago Division of the Biological Sciences The Pritzker School of Medicine
• Nestor Bedoya, MD, Ichan School of Medicine at Mount Sinai 
• MaryJo Bekash, MD, University of Miami Leonard N. Miller School of Medicine
• Jacob Braaten, MD , University of Minnesota Medical School 
• Erin Ellis, MD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
• Jacob Feiertag, MD, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine
• Brian Florenzo, MD, University of Virginia School of Medicine
• Morgan Greenwood, MD, University of Illinois College of Medicine
• Tyler Hall, MD, MBA, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine 
• David Hollis, MD, MBA, Tufts University School of Medicine 
• Felissa Hong, MD, Univeristy of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health 
• Grant Hurt, MD, University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine
• Oluwagbemisola Ibikunle, MD, Harvard Medical School
• Venkatraman Kothandaraman, MD, University of Virginia School of Medicine
• Yasuko Mano, MD, MPH, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California
• Deema Martini, MD, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine 
• Sarah McDonough, MD, MPH, Tulane University School of Medicine
• Val Molloy, MD, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine 
• Uchehi Nna, MD, MBA, University of Massachusetts T.H. Chan School of Medicine
• Adetomiwa Owoseni, MD, Harvard School of Medicine
• Vanessa Ramirez-Allen, MD, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School
• Francesca Shilati, MD, MBA, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
• Tyler Yoshida, MD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
• Morgan Zugelder, MD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine 

  Dermatology

• Clayton Burruss, MD, University of Kentucky College of Medicine
• Christian Cerda-Smith, MD, PhD, Duke University School of Medicine
• Odera Ekeh, MD, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
• Simon Gunter, MD, MBA, Harvard Medical School
• Paolo Vignali, MD, PhD, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine 

  Emergency Medicine

• Amy Barzgari, MD, University of Illinois College of Medicine - Rockford
• Charles Feinberg, MD, University of Massachusetts T.H. Chan School of Medicine
• Austin Fellows, MD, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine
• Noah Ford, MD, Loma Linda University School of Medicine
• Gabriel Forest, MD, Medical College of Wisconsin
• Kurt Frick, MD, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine
• Kendra Jeans, MD, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
• Meghana Partha, MD, University of Arizona College of Medicine Tucson
• Ashley Segobiano, MD, University of Missouri Kansas City School of Medicine
• Samuel Slusky, MD, MPH, McGover Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
• Melissa Smith, MD, University of Colorado School of Medicine
• Aanchal Thadani, MD, Baylor College of Medicine
• John Thibault, MD, University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine
• Arno Uvin, MD, Boston University School of Medicine
• Kali Weiss, MD, Univeristy of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine  

  Family Medicine

• Rachel Carlson, MD, University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford
• Andrew Gonzales, MD, Northwestern Univeristy Feinberg School of Medicine
• Michael Kranz, MD, Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine at TCU
• Jacqueline Madden, MD. Rush Medical College of Rush University Medical Center
• Reise Malone, MD, South Illinois University School of Medicine
• Anthony Pace, DO, Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine
• Rajavi Patel, MD, Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine
• Rachel Reed, MD, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine  

Lake Forest

• Juan Aguirre Villalobos, MD, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health 
• Oscar Castro, MD, Saint Louis University School of Medicine 
• Jeriann Collymore, MD, MPH, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine
• Aubrey Haughn, MD, Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine 
• Kipp Morgan, MD, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
• Eduardo Orozco-Rodriguez, MD, University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria 
• Angelica Sanchez, MD, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine 
• Laurine Tiema-Benson, MD, Chicago Medical School of Rosalind Franklin Univeristy of Medicine & Science

  Internal Medicine

Internal medicine.

• Mariam Ardehali, MD, Duke University School of Medicine 
• Fatemeh Behnia, MD, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas Southwestern Medical School
• Ikeoluwapo Bolakale-Rufai, MBBS, University of Ibadan
• Hector Cajigas, MD, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine
• Alexie Carletti, MD, MPH, Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine
• Victoria Cates, MD, University of Colorado School of Medicine
• Keerthana Chakka, MD, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas Southwestern Medical School
• Sean Halloran, MD, MBA, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth
• Keertana Jain, MD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
• Anthony Kalousdian, MD, America University of Bierut
• Anthony Kang, MD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine 
• Prasanth Kotha, MD, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
• Daniel Leary, MD, Rush Medical College of Rush University Medical Center 
• Mary Lipa, MD, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine 
• Yupeng Liu, MD, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine
• Cherie Lo, MD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
• Caleb Middlebrook, MD, Drexel University College of Medicine 
• Benjamin Moy, MD, University of Michigan Medical School
• Cedrick Mutebi, MD, Wayne State University School of Medicine
• Zachary Neronha, MD, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine
• Ameer Odeh, MD, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine
• Chiagoziem Ogbonna, MD, Wake Forest University School of Medicine 
• Seong Park, MD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine 
• Leena Penumalee, MD, University of Chicago Division of The Biological Sciences The Pritzker School of Medicine
• Nepheli Raptis, MD, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine
• Malavika Satheesh, BS, MD, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry
• Samuel Schellengberg, MD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine 
• John Sollee, MD, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University
• Jacob Stout, MD, Duke University School of Medicine
• Kalya Thompson, MD, MBA, Duke University School of Medicine
• Samer Yassin, MD, Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University
• Nathan Yee, MD, University of Massachusetts Medical School
• Veronica Zheng, MD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine 

Internal Medicine - Dermatology

• Amar Desai, BS, MD, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School

Internal Medicine - Physician-Scientist Training Program

• Natasha Edman, MD, PhD, University of Washington School of Medicine
• Samuel Krabbenhoft, MD, PhD, University of Wisconsion School of Medicine and Public Health 
• Mina Shirazi, MD, PhD, Chariete-Universitatsmedizin Berlin
• Roger Smith, MD, PhD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
• Jesus Zamora-Pineda, MD, PhD, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine

  Neurological Surgery

• Edgar Petosyan, MD, First Moscow State Medical University named after I.M. Sechenov
• Sharbel Romanos, MD, University of Chicago Division of the Biological Sciences The Pritzker School of Medicine 
• Daniel Zhang, MD, Rush Medical College of Rush University Medical Center 

  Neurology

• Derrick Barnagian, MD, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine 
• Cassandra Helfer, MD, Baylor College of Medicine 
• Pallavi Krishna Rao, MD, Baylor College of Medicine 
• Nydia Kung, MD, University of Chicago Division of the Biological Sciences The Pritzker School of Medicine
• Tarini Mitra, MD, Medical College of Wisconsin
• Tirstan Ponzo, MD, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine 
• Emma Radley, MD, Rush Medical College of Rush Universtiy Medical Center
• Rolf Veragen Metman, MD, Rush Medical College of Rush University Medical Center 
• Sean Woodward, MD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine 
• Patricia Zulueta, MD, Albert Einstein College of Medicine 

Child Neurology

• Robyn DeAbrue, MD, Medical University of South Carolina College of Medicine
• Samarth Doshi, MD, University of Virginia School of Medicine
• Cindy Ho, MD, Ohio State University College of Medicine
• Caitlin Wessel, MD, University of Louisville School of Medicine
• Leen Younis, MD, University of Jordan Faculty of Medicine

  Obstetrics & Gynecology

• Nicole Diaz, MD, Duke University School of Medicine 
• Matthew Grande, MD, Univeristy of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine 
• Leslie McCauley, MD, University of Chicago Division of the Biological Sciences The Pritzker School of Medicine
• Sophia McFarlane, MD, MPH, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medline 
• Khloe Pastore, MD, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine
• Nivedita Potapragada, MD, MBA, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine 
• Jenna Powers, MD, Emory University School of Medicine 
• Anna Roselle, MD, Harvard Medical School
• Natalie Sadlak, MD, Harvard Medical School
• Allie Valenzuela, MD, MPH, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine 
• Lena Volpe, MD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine 
• Madeleine Walsh, MD, New York University Grossman School of Medicine 

  Ophthalmology

• Kyle Chan, MD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine 
• Michael Drakopoulos, MD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine 
• Gina Johnson, MD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine 
• David Swain, MD, PhD, Boston University School of Medicine 

  Orthopaedic Surgery

• Christine DeFilippo, MD, University of Texas Medical Branch School of Medicine 
• Cody Goedderz, MD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine 
• Alexander Nueville, MD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
• John Peabody, MD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine 
• Dominic Ridofi, MD, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine 
• Willa Sasso, MD, Indiana University School of Medicine 

  Otolaryngology

• Desmond Garner, MD, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
• Jorge Gutierrez, MD, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine 
• Paavali Hannikainen, MD, Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University
• Ashley Young, MD, MBA, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine 

  Pathology

• Jeanne Cardenas, MD, MBA, McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston 
• Hugo Carrillo Ng, MD, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia
• Stansislav Fridland, MD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
• Emmanuel Garcia, MD, University of Santo Tomas
• Eric Nayman, MD, Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine 
• Frank Rojas Alvarez, MD, Universidad de Carabobo, Aragua
• Gianfranco Eddu Umeres Francia, MD, Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC) Escuela de Medicina

  Pediatrics

• Jasmene Abernathy, MD, Meharry Medical College 
• Rishika Bheem, MD, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences
• Angie Chen-Patterson, MD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
• Natalie Conboy, MD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
• Catherine Cunnigham, MD, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine 
• Oscar Dominguez, MD, Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University
• Colin Dunne, MD, University of Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine 
• Virginia Evans, MD, Eastern Virginia Medical School 
• Meredith Fischer, MD, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine 
• Sonya Flaten, MD, Creighton University School of Medicine
• Alyssa Freeman, MD, University of Nebraska College of Medicine 
• Sara Furukawa, MD, Drexel University College of Medicine 
• Ryann Garcia, MBBCh, Trinity College Dublin School of Medicine 
• Chad Hanaoka, MD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine 
• Jeffrey Hansen, MD, PhD, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine 
• Frances Ho, MD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine 
• Ashley Ikwuagwu, MD, McGovern Medical School of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
• Tyler Kalinich, MD, University of Illinois College of Medicine - Peoria
• Aliyah Keval, MD, Medical College of Wisconsin
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Study discovers potential biomarkers of environmental exposures in parkinson’s disease  .

A team of Northwestern Medicine investigators has discovered novel DNA methylation patterns in the blood of patients with Parkinson’s disease, according to findings published in Annals of Neurology.   

The study, led by Paulina Gonzalez-Latapi, MD, MS , assistant professor in the Ken and Ruth Davee Department of Neurology ’s Division of Movement Disorders , demonstrates the potential of utilizing DNA methylation as a biomarker and diagnostic tool for identifying disease risk in patients.  

Parkinson’s disease occurs when specific regions of the brain lose their ability to make dopamine and, ultimately, regulate movement. The condition impacts more than six million people worldwide, according to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.  

In addition to currently known genetic causes of Parkinson’s, recent work has also suggested that environmental factors can increase one’s risk of developing the disease. Understanding the impact of environmental exposures and genetic mutations on disease risk, however, has remained understudied.  

In the current study, the investigators studied DNA methylation profiles from the blood samples of 196 patients with Parkinson’s disease and 86 healthy controls enrolled in the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative ( PPMI ) study.  

“DNA methylation in some ways serves as a memory of prior environmental exposures that ultimately alter methylation signatures in our cells and body,” Gonzalez-Latapi said.  

First, the investigators analyzed genome-wide methylation data to identify methylation changes in participants’ whole blood samples (consisting of red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets) over the three-year study period. They then integrated these data with gene expression data obtained through RNA sequencing. 

By utilizing approaches, the team discovered 75 differentially expressed genes with different methylation patterns in Parkinson’s patients compared to healthy controls.  

Notably, they found consistent differences in DNA methylation within the CYP2E1 gene from the beginning and throughout the three-year study period. The CYP2E1 protein is known to metabolize substrates, including pesticides, the exposure of which has been previously connected to the development of Parkinson’s disease, according to Gonzalez-Latapi.  

“It’s a significant step towards unraveling the complex interactions at play in Parkinson’s disease and could pave the way for pinpointing potential biomarkers for early detection and progression,” Gonzalez-Latapi said. 

“The characterization of DNA methylation and gene expression patterns in blood holds the potential to help us understand complex interactions between environmental and genetic factors in development of Parkinson’s disease. From a broader perspective, such patient-based studies will help categorize Parkinson’s disease patients through a biological lens that will ultimately facilitate the development of more precise treatments for patients with different subtypes of disease,” said Dimitri Krainc MD, PhD , the Aaron Montgomery Ward Professor and chair of the Ken and Ruth Davee Department of Neurology, who was senior author of the study.  

Moving forward, Gonzalez-Latapi said her team aims to study DNA methylation data from patients who are in the prodromal phase of Parkinson’s — those who are at risk of developing the disease but are not yet symptomatic. They also hope to study how environmental exposures, such as pesticide exposure, impact methylation changes in patients over time, she added.  

Co-authors of the study include Bernabe Ignacio Bustos, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Krainc laboratory; Siyuan Dong, MS, a statistical analyst with the Biostatistics Collaboration Center ; Steven Lubbe, PhD, assistant professor in the Ken and Ruth Davee Department of Neurology’s Division of Movement Disorders; and Tanya Simuni, MD , the Arthur C. Nielsen, Jr., Research Professor of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders and director of the Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Center.  

PPMI is funded by the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and funding partners. This work was also supported by a PPMI Early Investigator Award.  

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Driving Innovations in Biostatistics with Denise Scholtens, PhD

“I'm continually surprised by new data types. I think that we will see the emergence of a whole new kind of technology that we probably can't even envision five years from now…When I think about where the field has come over the past 20 years, it's just phenomenal.”  —  Denise Scholtens, PhD  

• Director, Northwestern University Data Analysis and Coordinating Center (NUDACC)  
• Chief of Biostatistics in the Department of Preventive Medicine  
• Professor of Preventive Medicine in the Division of Biostatistics and of Neurological Surgery  
• Member of Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (NUCATS)  
• Member of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center  

Episode Notes 

Since arriving at Feinberg in 2004, Scholtens has played a central role in the dramatic expansion of biostatistics at the medical school. Now the Director of NUDACC, Scholtens brings her expertise and leadership to large-scale, multicenter studies that can lead to clinical and public health practice decision-making.    

• After discovering her love of statistics as a high school math teacher, Scholtens studied bioinformatics in a PhD program before arriving at Feinberg in 2004.  
• Feinberg’s commitment to biostatistics has grown substantially in recent decades. Scholtens was only one of five biostatisticians when she arrived. Now she is part of a division with almost 50 people.  
• She says being a good biostatistician requires curiosity about other people’s work, knowing what questions to ask and tenacity to understand subtitles of so much data.   
• At NUDACC, Scholtens and her colleagues specialize in large-scale, multicenter prospective studies and clinical trials that lead to clinical or public health practice decision-making. They operate at the executive level and oversee all aspects of the study design.  
• Currently, Scholtens is involved with the launch of a large study, along with The Ohio State University, that received a $14 million grant to look at the effectiveness of aspirin in the prevention of hypertensive disorders in pregnancy.  
• Scholtens first started her work in data coordinating through the Hyperglycemia Adverse Pregnancy Outcome (HAPO) study, which looked at 25,000 pregnant individuals. This led to a continued interest in fetal and maternal health.   
• When it comes to supportive working environments, Scholtens celebrates the culture at Feinberg, and especially her division in biostatistics, for being collaborative as well as genuinely supportive of each other’s projects. She attributes this to strong leadership which established a culture with these guiding principles.   

Additional Reading  

• Read more about the ASPIRIN trial and other projects taking place at NUDACC   
• Discover a study linking mothers’ obesity-related genes to babies’ birth weight, which Scholtens worked in through the HAPO study   
• Browse all of Scholtens recent publications 

Recorded on February 21, 2024.

Continuing Medical Education Credit

Physicians who listen to this podcast may claim continuing medical education credit after listening to an episode of this program..

Target Audience

Academic/Research, Multiple specialties

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this activity, participants will be able to:

• Identify the research interests and initiatives of Feinberg faculty.
• Discuss new updates in clinical and translational research.

Accreditation Statement

The Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Credit Designation Statement

The Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine designates this Enduring Material for a maximum of 0.50  AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™.  Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

American Board of Surgery Continuous Certification Program

Successful completion of this CME activity enables the learner to earn credit toward the CME requirement(s) of the American Board of Surgery’s Continuous Certification program. It is the CME activity provider's responsibility to submit learner completion information to ACCME for the purpose of granting ABS credit.

All the relevant financial relationships for these individuals have been mitigated.

Disclosure Statement

Denise Scholtens, PhD, has nothing to disclose.  Course director, Robert Rosa, MD, has nothing to disclose. Planning committee member, Erin Spain, has nothing to disclose.  FSM’s CME Leadership, Review Committee, and Staff have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose.

Read the Full Transcript

[00:00:00] Erin Spain, MS: This is Breakthroughs, a podcast from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. I'm Erin Spain, host of the show. Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine is home to a team of premier faculty and staff biostatisticians, who are the driving force of data analytic innovation and excellence here. Today, we are talking with Dr. Denise Scholtens, a leader in biostatistics at Northwestern, about the growing importance of the field, and how she leverages her skills to collaborate on several projects in Maternal and Fetal Health. She is the Director of the Northwestern University Data Analysis and Coordinating Center, NUDACC, and Chief of Biostatistics in the Department of Preventive Medicine, as well as Professor of Preventive Medicine and Neurological Surgery. Welcome to the show.  

[00:01:02] Denise Scholtens, PhD: Thank you so much.  

[00:01:02] Erin Spain, MS: So you have said in the past that you were drawn to this field of biostatistics because you're interested in both math and medicine, but not interested in becoming a clinician. Tell me about your path into the field and to Northwestern.  

[00:01:17] Denise Scholtens, PhD: You're right. I have always been interested in both math and medicine. I knew I did not want to be involved in clinical care. Originally, fresh out of college, I was a math major and I taught high school math for a couple of years. I really enjoyed that, loved the kids, loved the teaching parts of things. Interestingly enough, my department chair at the time assigned me to teach probability and statistics to high school seniors. I had never taken a statistics course before, so I was about a week ahead of them in our classes and found that I just really enjoyed the discipline. So as much as I loved teaching, I did decide to go ahead and invest in this particular new area that I had found and I really enjoyed. So I wanted to figure out how I could engage in the field of statistics. Decided to see, you know, exactly how studying statistics could be applied to medicine. At the time, Google was brand new. So I literally typed in the two words math and medicine to see what would come up. And the discipline of biostatistics is what Google generated. And so here I am, I applied to grad school and it's been a great fit for me.  

[00:02:23] Erin Spain, MS: Oh, that's fantastic. So you went on to get a PhD, and then you came to Northwestern in 2004. And so tell me a little bit about the field then and how it's changed so dramatically since.  

[00:02:36] Denise Scholtens, PhD: So yes, I started here at Northwestern in 2004, just a few months after I had defended my thesis. At the time there was really an emerging field of study called bioinformatics. So I wrote my thesis in the space of genomics data analysis with what at the time was a brand new technology, microarrays. This was the first way we could measure gene transcription at a high throughput level. So I did my thesis work in that space. I studied at an institution with a lot of strengths and very classical statistics. So things that we think of in biostatistics like clinical trial design, observational study analysis, things like that. So I had really classic biostatistics training and then complimented that with sort of these emerging methods with these high dimensional data types. So I came to Northwestern here and I sort of felt like I lived in two worlds. I had sort of classic biostat clinical trials, which were certainly, you know, happening here. And, that work was thriving here at Northwestern, but I had this kind of new skillset, and I just didn't quite know how to bring the two together. That was obviously a long time ago, 20 years ago. Now we think of personalized medicine and genomic indicators for treatment and, you know, there's a whole variety of omics data variations on the theme that are closely integrated with clinical and population level health research. So there's no longer any confusion for me about how those two things come together. You know, they're two disciplines that very nicely complement each other. But yeah, I think that does speak to how the field has changed, you know, these sort of classic biostatistics methods are really nicely blended with a lot of high dimensional data types. And it's been fun to be a part of that.  

[00:04:17] Erin Spain, MS: There were only a handful of folks like you at Northwestern at the time. Tell me about now and the demand for folks with your skill set.  

[00:04:26] Denise Scholtens, PhD: When I came to Northwestern, I was one of a very small handful of biostatistics faculty. There were five of us. We were not even called a division of biostatistics. We were just here as the Department of Preventive Medicine. And a lot of the work we did was really very tightly integrated with the epidemiologists here in our department and we still do a lot of that for sure. There was also some work going on with the Cancer Center here at Northwestern. But yeah, a pretty small group of us, who has sort of a selected set of collaborations. You know, I contrast that now to our current division of biostatistics where we are over 20s, pushing 25, depending on exactly how you want to count. Hoping to bring a couple of new faculty on board this calendar year. We have a staff of about 25 statistical analysts. And database managers and programmers. So you know, when I came there were five faculty members and I think two master's level staff. We are now pushing, you know, pushing 50 people in our division here so it's a really thriving group.  

[00:05:26] Erin Spain, MS: in your opinion, what makes a good biostatistician? Do you have to have a little bit of a tough skin to be in this field?  

Denise Scholtens, PhD: I do think it's a unique person who wants to be a biostatistician. There are a variety of traits that can lead to success in this space. First of all, I think it's helpful to be wildly curious about somebody else's work. To be an excellent collaborative biostatistician, you have to be able to learn the language of another discipline. So some other clinical specialty or public health application. Another trait that makes a biostatistician successful is to be able to ask the right questions about data that will be collected or already have been collected. So understanding the subtleties there, the study design components that lead to why we have the data that we have. You know, a lot of our data, you could think of it in a simple flat file, right? Like a Microsoft Excel file with rows and columns. That certainly happens a lot, but there are a lot of incredibly innovative data types out there: wearables technology, imaging data, all kinds of high dimensional data. So I think a tenacity to understand all of the subtleties of those data and to be able to ask the right questions. And then I think for a biostatistician at a medical school like ours, being able to blend those two things, so understanding what the data are and what you have to work with and what you're heading toward, but then also facilitating the translation of those analytic findings for the audience that really wants to understand them. So for the clinicians, for the patients, for participants and the population that the findings would apply to.   

Erin Spain, MS: It must feel good, though, in those situations where you are able to help uncover something to improve a study or a trial.  

[00:07:07] Denise Scholtens, PhD: It really does. This is a job that's easy to get out of bed for in the morning. There's a lot of really good things that happen here. It's exciting to know that the work we do could impact clinical practice, could impact public health practice. I think in any job, you know, you can sometimes get bogged down by the amount of work or the difficulty of the work or the back and forth with team members. There's just sort of all of the day to day grind, but to be able to take a step back and remember the actual people who are affected by our own little niche in this world. It's an incredibly helpful and motivating practice that I often keep to remember exactly why I'm doing what I'm doing and who I'm doing it for.  

[00:07:50] Erin Spain, MS: Well, and another important part of your work is that you are a leader. You are leading the center, NUDACC, that you mentioned, Northwestern University Data Analysis and Coordinating Center. Now, this has been open for about five years. Tell me about the center and why it's so crucial to the future of the field.  

[00:08:08] Denise Scholtens, PhD: We specialize at NUDACC in large scale, multicenter prospective studies. So these are the clinical trials or the observational studies that often, most conclusively, lead to clinical or public health practice decision making. We focus specifically on multicenter work. Because it requires a lot of central coordination and we've specifically built up our NUDACC capacity to handle these multi center investigations where we have a centralized database, we have centralized and streamlined data quality assurance pipelines. We can help with central team leadership and organization for large scale networks. So we have specifically focused on those areas. There's a whole lot of project management and regulatory expertise that we have to complement our data analytics strengths as well. I think my favorite part of participating in these studies is we get involved at the very beginning. We are involved in executive level planning of these studies. We oversee all components of study design. We are intimately involved in the development of the data capture systems. And in the QA of it. We do all of this work on the front end so that we get all of the fun at the end with the statistics and can analyze data that we know are scientifically sound, are well collected, and can lead to, you know, really helpful scientific conclusions.  

[00:09:33] Erin Spain, MS: Tell me about that synergy between the clinicians and the other investigators that you're working with on these projects.  

[00:09:41] Denise Scholtens, PhD: It is always exciting, often entertaining. Huge range of scientific opinion and expertise and points of view, all of which are very valid and very well informed. All of the discussion that could go into designing and launching a study, it's just phenomenally interesting and trying to navigate all of that and help bring teams to consensus in terms of what is scientifically most relevant, what's going to be most impactful, what is possible given the logistical strengths. Taking all of these well informed, valid, scientific points of view and being a part of the team that helps integrate them all toward a cohesive study design and a well executed study. That's a unique part of the challenge that we face here at NUDACC, but an incredibly rewarding one. It's also such an honor and a gift to be able to work with such a uniformly gifted set of individuals. Just the clinical researchers who devote themselves to these kinds of studies are incredibly generous, incredibly thoughtful and have such care for their patients and the individuals that they serve, that to be able to sit with them and think about the next steps for a great study is a really unique privilege.  

[00:10:51] Erin Spain, MS: How unique is a center like this at a medical school?  

[00:10:55] Denise Scholtens, PhD: It's fairly unique to have a center like this at a medical school. Most of the premier medical research institutions do have some level of data coordinating center capacity. We're certainly working toward trying to be one of the nation's best, absolutely, and build up our capacity for doing so. I'm actually currently a part of a group of data coordinating centers where it's sort of a grassroots effort right now to organize ourselves and come up with, you know, some unified statements around the gaps that we see in our work, the challenges that we face strategizing together to improve our own work and to potentially contribute to each other's work. I think maybe the early beginnings of a new professional organization for data coordinating centers. We have a meeting coming up of about, I think it's 12 to 15 different institutions, academic research institutions, specifically medical schools that have centers like ours to try to talk through our common pain points and also celebrate our common victories.  

[00:11:51] Erin Spain, MS: I want to shift gears a little bit to talk about some of your research collaborations, many of which focus on maternal and fetal health and pregnancy. You're now involved with a study with folks at the Ohio State University that received a 14 million grant looking at the effectiveness of aspirin in the prevention of hypertensive disorders in pregnancy. Tell me about this work.  

[00:12:14] Denise Scholtens, PhD: Yes, this is called the aspirin study. I suppose not a very creative name, but a very appropriate one. What we'll be doing in this study is looking at two different doses of aspirin for trying to prevent maternal hypertensive disorders of pregnancy in women who are considered at high risk for these disorders. This is a huge study. Our goal is to enroll 10,742 participants. This will take place at 11 different centers across the nation. And yes, we at NUDACC will serve as the data coordinating center here, and we are partnering with the Ohio State University who will house the clinical coordinating center. So this study is designed to look at two different doses to see which is more effective at preventing hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. So that would include gestational hypertension and preeclampsia. What's really unique about this study and the reason that it is so large is that it is specifically funded to look at what's called a heterogeneity of treatment effect. What that is is a difference in the effectiveness of aspirin in preventing maternal hypertensive disorders, according to different subgroups of women. We'll specifically have sufficient statistical power to test for differences in treatment effectiveness. And we have some high priority subgroups that we'll be looking at. One is a self-identified race. There's been a noted disparity in maternal hypertensive disorders, for individuals who self identify according to different races. And so we will be powered to see if aspirin has comparable effectiveness and hopefully even better effectiveness for the groups who really need it, to bring those rates closer to equity which is, you know, certainly something we would very strongly desire to see. We'll also be able to look at subgroups of women according to obesity, according to maternal age at pregnancy, according to the start time of aspirin when aspirin use is initiated during pregnancy. So that's why the trial is so huge. For a statistician, the statisticians out there who might be listening, this is powered on a statistical interaction term, which doesn't happen very often. So it's exciting that the trial is funded in that way.  

[00:14:27] Erin Spain, MS: Tell me a little bit more about this and how your specific skills are going to be utilized in this study.  

[00:14:32] Denise Scholtens, PhD: Well, there are three biostatistics faculty here at Northwestern involved in this. So we're definitely dividing and conquering. Right now, we're planning this study and starting to stand it up. So we're developing our statistical analysis plans. We're developing the database. We are developing our randomization modules. So this is the piece of the study where participants are randomized to which dose of aspirin they're going to receive. Because of all of the subgroups that we're planning to study, we need to make especially sure that the assignments of which dose of aspirin are balanced within and across all of those subgroups. So we're going to be using some adaptive randomization techniques to ensure that that balance is there. So there's some fun statistical and computer programming innovation that will be applied to accomplish those things. So right now, there are usually two phases of a study that are really busy for us. That's starting to study up and that's where we are. And so yes, it is very busy for us right now. And then at the end, you know, in five years or so, once recruitment is over, then we analyze all the data,  

[00:15:36] Erin Spain, MS: Are there any guidelines out there right now about the use of aspirin in pregnancy. What do you hope that this could accomplish?  

 Prescribing aspirin use for the prevention of hypertension during pregnancy is not uncommon at all. That is actually fairly routinely done, but that it's not outcomes based in terms of which dosage is most effective. So 81 milligrams versus 162 milligrams. That's what we will be evaluating. And my understanding is that clinicians prescribe whatever they think is better, and I'm sure those opinions are very well informed but there is very little outcome based evidence for this in this particular population that we'll be studying. So that would be the goal here, would be to hopefully very conclusively say, depending on the rates of the hypertensive disorders that we see in our study, which of the two doses of aspirin is more effective. Importantly, we will also be tracking any side effects of taking aspirin. And so that's also very much often a part of the evaluation of You know, taking a, taking a drug, right, is how safe is it? So we'll be tracking that very closely as well. Another unique part of this study is that we will be looking at factors that help explain aspirin adherence. So we are going to recommend that participants take their dose of aspirin daily. We don't necessarily expect that's always going to happen, so we are going to measure how much of their prescribed dose they are actually taking and then look at, you know, factors that contribute to that. So be they, you know, social determinants of health or a variety of other things that we'll investigate to try to understand aspirin adherence, and then also model the way in which that adherence could have affected outcomes.  

Erin Spain, MS: This is not the first study that you've worked on involving maternal and fetal health. Tell me about your interest in this particular area, this particular field, and some of the other work that you've done.  

[00:17:31] Denise Scholtens, PhD: So I actually first got my start in data coordinating work through the HAPO study. HAPO stands for Hyperglycemia Adverse Pregnancy Outcome. That study was started here at Northwestern before I arrived. Actually recruitment to the study occurred between 2000 and 2006. Northwestern served as the central coordinating center for that study. It was an international study of 25,000 pregnant individuals who were recruited and then outcomes were evaluated both in moms and newborns. When I was about mid career here, all the babies that were born as a part of HAPO were early teenagers. And so we conducted a follow up study on the HAPO cohort. So that's really when I got involved. It was my first introduction to being a part of a coordinating center. As I got into it, though, I saw the beauty of digging into all of these details for a huge study like this and then saw these incredible resources that were accumulated through the conduct of such a large study. So the data from the study itself is, was of course, a huge resource. But then also we have all of these different samples that sit in a biorepository, right? So like usually blood sample collection is a big part of a study like this. So all these really fun ancillary studies could spin off of the HAPO study. So we did some genomics work. We did some metabolomics work. We've integrated the two and what's called integrated omics. So, you know, my work in this space really started in the HAPO study. And I have tremendously enjoyed integrating these high dimensional data types that have come from these really rich data resources that have all, you know, resulted because of this huge multicenter longitudinal study. So I kind of accidentally fell into the space of maternal and fetal health, to be honest. But I just became phenomenally interested in it and it's been a great place.  

[00:19:24] Erin Spain, MS: Would you say that this is also a population that hasn't always been studied very much in biomedical science?  

[00:19:32] Denise Scholtens, PhD: I think that that is true, for sure. There are some unique vulnerabilities, right, for a pregnant individual and for the fetus, right, and in that situation. You know, the vast majority of what we do is really only pertaining to the pregnant participant but, you know, there are certainly fetal outcomes, newborn outcomes. And so, I think conducting research in this particular population is a unique opportunity and there are components of it that need to be treated with special care given sort of this unique phase of human development and this unique phase of life.  

[00:20:03] Erin Spain, MS: So, as data generation just really continues to explode, and technology is advancing so fast, faster than ever, where do you see this field evolving, the field of biostatistics, where do you see it going in the next five to ten years?  

[00:20:19] Denise Scholtens, PhD: That's a great question. I think all I can really tell you is that I'm continually surprised by new data types. I think that we will see an emergence of a whole new kind of technology that we probably can't even envision five years from now. And I think that the fun part about being a biostatistician is seeing what's happening and then trying to wrap your mind around the possibilities and the actual nature of the data that are collected. You know, I think back to 2004 and this whole high throughput space just felt so big. You know, we could look at gene transcription across the genome using one technology. And we could only look at one dimension of it. Right now it just seems so basic. When I think about where the field has come over the past 20 years, it's just phenomenal. I think we're seeing a similar emergence of the scale and the type of data in the imaging space and in the wearable space, with EHR data, just. You know, all these different technologies for capturing, capturing things that we just never even conceived of before. I do hope that we continue to emphasize making meaningful and translatable conclusions from these data. So actionable conclusions that can impact the way that we care for others around us. I do hope that remains a guiding principle in all that we do.  

[00:21:39] Erin Spain, MS: Why is Northwestern Medicine and Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine such a supportive environment to pursue this type of work?  

[00:21:47] Denise Scholtens, PhD: That's a wonderful question and one, honestly, that faculty candidates often ask me. When we bring faculty candidates in to visit here at Northwestern, they immediately pick up on the fact that we are a collaborative group of individuals who are for each other. Who want to see each other succeed, who are happy to share the things that we know and support each other's work, and support each other's research, and help strategize around the things that we want to accomplish. There is a strong culture here, at least in my department and in my division that I've really loved that continues to persist around really genuinely collaborating and genuinely sharing lessons learned and genuinely supporting each other as we move toward common goals. We've had some really strong, generous leadership who has helped us to get there and has helped create a culture where those are the guiding principles. In my leadership role is certainly something that I strive to maintain. Really hope that's true. I'm sure I don't do it perfectly but that's absolutely something I want to see accomplished here in the division and in NUDACC for sure.  

[00:22:50] Erin Spain, MS: Well, thank you so much for coming on the show and telling us about your path here to Northwestern and all of the exciting work that we can look forward to in the coming years.  

[00:22:59] Denise Scholtens, PhD: Thank you so much for having me. I've really enjoyed this.  

[00:23:01] Erin Spain, MS: You can listen to shows from the Northwestern Medicine Podcast Network to hear more about the latest developments in medical research, health care, and medical education. Leaders from across specialties speak to topics ranging from basic science to global health to simulation education. Learn more at feinberg. northwestern.edu/podcasts.  

EQuaTR Conference Explores Clinical Research in Age of AI

The Enhancing Quality in the Translational Research Workforce Conference ( EQuaTR ) — held April 10 on the Northwestern Medicine campus — created the type of interactive platform that is a hallmark of collaborative events co-hosted by the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences ( NUCATS ) Institute, the Institute for Translational Medicine ( ITM ), and the University of Illinois at Chicago Center for Clinical and Translational Science ( CCTS ).

Open to professionals in clinical and translational research, the conference is led by Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine’s Sharon Rosenberg, MD , in collaboration with an advisory board tasked with developing an annual conference agenda that aims to engage the larger medical community while simultaneously providing breakout sessions to connect in smaller settings.

EQuaTR allows the Chicagoland CTSA hubs and research community to come together to join in learning and networking. The speakers and breadth of knowledge shared was outstanding.”

Sharon Rosenberg, MD, EQuaTR Faculty Director

“EQuaTR allows the Chicagoland Clinical and Translational Science Award hubs and research community to come together to join in learning and networking. The speakers and breadth of knowledge shared was outstanding and I especially enjoyed seeing attendees make new connections within the Chicagoland research community,” said Rosenberg, a professor of Pulmonary and Critical Care in the Department of Medicine who has been a part of the NUCATS Institute for nearly a decade. 

This year’s conference highlighted clinical research in the digital age, exploring how technological advances such as AI will change the research and data process for clinical research staff. 

After Rosenberg provided opening remarks, Ken Getz, executive director and professor of the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, discussed the current overview of the clinical research landscape. His presentation entailed how digital technologies and analytics are driving patient optimization and the debate on whether guardrails should be implemented in generative AI use cases. Following Getz, Abel Kho, MD , founding Director of the Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine , deliberated the impact and prevalence of AI in research.

It was interesting to hear how AI is being used in medicine specifically and to get more background information about how AI systems are built and maintained.”

Taylor Knowles, a research study coordinator in Feinberg’s Division of Allergy and Immunology, is appreciative of EQuaTR’s commitment to connecting clinical professionals with field leaders. She enjoyed Kho’s keynote presentation as it seemed highly relevant to the current research landscape. 

“It was interesting to hear how AI is being used in medicine specifically and to get more background information about how AI systems are built and maintained,” Knowles said.

Following the plenaries, conference attendees were assigned to two breakout sessions. Claire Donahue, MPH, clinical operations manager at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Aditya Sanzgiri, director of research compliance at the University of Chicago, anal yzed informed consent in the digital era and the benefits of utilizing econsent when recruiting participants; Norrina Allen, PhD, MPH, FAHA , offered insights on harnessing the power of remote data collection. In addition, a panel discussion was held regarding how to successfully prepare for an FDA inspection. 

I resolved to the comfort of knowing that the issues and contemporary interests being communicated from the local, coordinator level are being effectively considered by the leadership and committee members who curated this event.”

Quadis Evans, senior clinical research coordinator at the University of Chicago’s Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, felt EQuaTR was an “eye-opening” experience that fostered an overwhelming sense of community among clinical and translational research professionals. He valued the discussions had with vendor representatives and is excited to apply what he’s learned from the conference to the growth of the clinical trial portfolio.

“I resolved to the comfort of knowing that the issues and contemporary interests being communicated from the local, coordinator level are being effectively considered by the leadership and committee members who curated this event program. I felt very seen. Every shared experience felt relatable and relevant to my own journey as a researcher,” Evans said.

EQuaTR concluded with an open floor networking opportunity.

EQuaTR is supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through Grant Number UL1TR001422 that supports NUCATS; Grant Number UL1TR002389 that supports ITM, and Grant Number UL1TR002003 that supports CCTS. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.

Written by Alex Miranda

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Uplifting their future colleagues

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Mentorship was instrumental in getting Rishi Jain ’23 to where he is today, as a first-year medical student at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

“My ability to apply to a program like Northwestern’s and the knowledge early on that I wanted to pursue something like health care came from having a great support system,” Jain said.

Jain remembers the dedication of his high school mentor, who, on top of a demanding Ph.D. program and a role as the school’s cross-country coach, always made time for tutoring him and other STEM students.

“His enthusiasm and motivation have stuck with me,” Jain said. “For him, being a good mentor not only meant career advice, but being a friend, someone to fall back on in terms of any challenges in life.”

Not long after Jain arrived at Northwestern as an undergraduate, Irene Quan ’23, approached him and several of his classmates with an idea: They could be part of the support system for others hoping to embark on careers in health care.

In 2021, the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences students founded the student organization Project MED (Medicine, Exposure, Development). Spearheaded by Quan, the student organization focuses on educating and preparing Chicago-area high schoolers for careers in health care, particularly those from underserved communities. This year, the organization has a new chapter at Feinberg.

“Those opportunities for me when I was a kid were extremely foundational, so being able to see that carry on to the people we serve now has been really great,” said Valentina Velasco ’23, a first-year student in Feinberg’s MD/MPH program who also co-founded Project MED.

Since its inception, Project MED has taken a three-pronged approach: learn, lead and launch. Learn comes in the form of the group’s events, such as speaker panels and workshops that teach students about health topics and professions. Recent events included a brain dissection with a corresponding neuroscience lesson and a physical therapy speaker panel.

Project MED’s second pillar, lead, covers the group’s near-peer mentorship program, which pairs Northwestern undergraduate students with local high schoolers who aspire to medical careers. Its third and final pillar, launch, comprises a database that connects students with more than 750 opportunities for research, volunteering or shadowing that can help them jumpstart their pre-professional careers.

A new chapter

Thanks to the Project MED founders who have moved on to Feinberg, the organization’s undergraduate chapter now has a complementary one at the medical school.

The newly minted medical students plan to use what they learn in class to create engaging lectures and small group discussions for Project MED students. Given Feinberg’s various degree programs, working with the medical school also offers a chance to expand students’ exposure to different health care careers — Project MED is currently partnering with students in Feinberg’s physician assistant program to offer high school students problem-based learning sessions.

On a logistical level, they hope the Feinberg chapter can streamline the process for Project MED activities involving the school and standardize programming so it can be made available to more area students.

The year of growth for Project MED doesn’t stop there. The organization now partners with six area high schools, and it’s even looking to launch chapters at other postsecondary institutions. Additionally, the undergraduate chapter recruited a record number of student mentors this year — 52 students looking to help the ones who will come after them.

“We have a lot of people that are really interested in passing down those lessons they’ve learned, especially if they relate to that experience of being in less well-resourced high schools and wanting to give back to their communities,” said Aru Singh, a fourth-year neuroscience student in Weinberg and one of Project MED’s founders, who currently leads the undergraduate chapter.

Paving the path for future health care professionals

For Quan, the effect Project MED’s work can have hit home when she helped chaperone one of Project MED’s first anatomy lab field trips at Feinberg. Now a first-year student in the medical school’s MD/MPH program, Quan still remembers seeing the joy on students’ faces as they left the lab.

“One student, she was talking to her friend and taking off her equipment, and she was saying, ‘This was the coolest thing ever. This is everything I’ve wanted to do,’” Quan said. “And I thought that was just a pure moment of happiness, excitement. Honestly, I felt that after the lab, too, so being able to see that in some of our students was super uplifting.”

Since 2021, the organization has coordinated dozens of workshops, presentations and speaker panels for more than 330 high school students. Its founders hope it continues to operate long after they’ve secured their own medical degrees.

“Even if it's one student, or just a dozen students, each of those individual success stories is very meaningful in itself,” Jain said. “You’re paving the path for students to do what they want to do, to join you in your field. That’s a very fulfilling feeling, that you’re uplifting your future colleagues, your peers and people who you want to see working right next to you one day.”

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CENTER FOR ROBOTICS AND BIOSYSTEMS AT MCCORMICK SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

• News & Events

CRB Students Awarded Fellowships

Two students have been awarded The National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG)  Fellowships under the Department of Defense (DOD) . These highly competitive fellowships were originally established in 1989 to encourage the number of U.S. citizens and nationals to pursue doctoral degrees in science and engineering.

Avtges’ NDSEG Fellowship is sponsored by the Army Research Office (ARO) . The fellowship includes stipend and tuition for three years, a travel stipend, and a mentor from the ARO. His research focuses on reinforcement learning in robotics with a focus in soft-actuated robots and learning behaviors in real-time.

“I’m extremely thankful to the department and the Center for Robotics and Biosystems for the advisorship in my research and proposal writing. I’m excited for the research the NDSEG fellowship will support, and to be awarded it alongside fellow Mechanical Engineering students.” - James Avtges

Kota’s NDSEG Fellowship is sponsored by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory or Space Force , under the direction of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research & Engineering. The fellowship includes $43,200 per year for three years, a travel stipend, and a mentor from the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL). 

“Receiving the NDSEG Fellowship is an incredible honor and a testament to the support system at Northwestern. The guidance I received from various CRB professors and past NDSEG fellows was invaluable during the application process, and I’m proud to share this achievement alongside James Avtges and Malichi Landis.”  - Rohan Kota

The goal of the GRFP program is to broaden participation of the full spectrum of diverse talents in STEM. The five-year fellowship provides three years of financial support inclusive of an annual stipend of $37,000.

“ Receiving the Fellowship is an incredible honor and is not only validation of the dedication I’ve put into my academic and research pursuits, but also a testament to the support of my mentors. I am inspired to see that my research interests and vision for the field aligned with the mission of the NSF".  - Fiona Neylon.

John N. Nicholson was a physician who practiced in the Chicago area for more than 50 years and whose legacy is to assist outstanding grad and PhD students in the sciences, management, and engineering. Curtis was awarded this unique fellowship that includes full tuition payment and a stipend for 9 months with the option to reapply. 

“I'm thrilled to have been awarded the Dr. John N. Nicholson Fellowship. As a Chicagoan of Greek descent, it is my honor to continue the legacy of a Greek-American community leader and Chicago local. The fellowship will allow me to continue my research in robotic swarms and multi-robot systems”.   - Drew Curtis 

Join the Center for Robotics and Biosystems in congratulating these students. 

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY

Physics and astronomy welcomes new faculty member.

April 15, 2024

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Sheila Gujrathi, Grace Wang to Address 2024 Northwestern Engineering Graduates

Gujrathi and wang will speak during ceremonies on june 10.

Two distinguished alumni will address Northwestern Engineering’s Class of 2024 as part of the McCormick School of Engineering’s graduation ceremonies on Monday, June 10, at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

Sheila Gujrathi (’92, MD ’96), a biotechnology executive and physician scientist, will speak at the McCormick Undergraduate Convocation. Grace Wang (PhD ’01), president of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), will speak at the McCormick PhD Hooding and Master’s Degree Recognition Ceremony.

“Sheila and Grace are outstanding examples of how a Northwestern Engineering education can lead to impactful careers in both industry and academia,” said Christopher Schuh , dean of the McCormick School of Engineering. “I am excited for them to join us and share their wisdom and experiences with the Class of 2024.”

Sheila Gujrathi 

Gujrathi is a biotechnology entrepreneur and executive, healthcare investor, and drug developer with more than 25 years of experience in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. She has founded, built, and run numerous biotech companies and led the development and approval of multiple life-changing pharmaceutical drugs for patients with immunology and oncology diseases. 

In addition to founding and investing in her own companies in the biotech industry, Gujrathi currently serves as a chairwoman, board director, strategic adviser, and consultant to multiple startup companies and investment healthcare funds. She is chairwoman of the board of directors for Ventyx Biosciences, ADARx Pharmaceuticals, and ImmPACT Bio, and director of Janux Therapeutics. She previously served as chair of the board of directors of Turning Point Therapeutics, which was acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb. 

Gujrathi is the cofounder and former CEO of Gossamer Bio. Prior to Gossamer Bio, she served as chief medical officer of Receptos (acquired by Celgene). Before that, she was vice president of the global clinical development group in immunology at Bristol Myers Squibb, and held multiple roles in immunology and oncology at Genentech.

Gujrathi completed the accelerated Honors Program in Medical Education at Northwestern University, graduating with her MD and BS in biomedical engineering with highest distinction. She completed her internal medicine internship and residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School and had additional fellowship training in allergy and immunology at the University of California, San Francisco, and Stanford University.

Wang began as WPI’s 17th president in April 2023. She is also a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at WPI. 

Wang came to WPI from The Ohio State University, where she served as executive vice president for research, innovation, and knowledge, and as a professor of materials science and engineering. Prior to that, Wang served in leadership roles at the State University of New York (SUNY), including vice chancellor for research and economic development, senior vice chancellor for research and economic development, and interim provost.

Before SUNY, Wang served as deputy assistant director for engineering and later as acting assistant director for engineering at the US National Science Foundation where she oversaw a funding portfolio of more than $900 million, investing in frontier engineering research, supporting engineering education, and fostering innovation and technology commercialization.

A holder of seven US patents, Wang was appointed by the White House in 2022 to serve on the National Quantum Initiative Advisory Committee. She is a council member of the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. She is a member of the board of governors for the New York Academy of Sciences. She also serves on the Board of Massachusetts High Technology Council.

Wang earned a PhD in materials science and engineering at Northwestern University. 

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