MD/PhD Training Fellowship

The HSCI Medical Scientist Training Fellowship is awarded to Harvard Medical School students who demonstrate strong interest in stem cell research.

Chanthia C. Ma: 2020-2021 recipient

Chanthia C. MaThe tenth recipient of the HSCI Medical Scientist Training Fellowship award is Chanthia C. Ma, currently an MD/PhD (MSTP) candidate at Harvard Medical School through the Biological and Biomedical Sciences PhD and the Health Sciences and Technology MD programs. Ma graduated magna cum laude in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology from Yale. As an undergrad, she worked in the labs of Professor Hal Blumenfeld at Yale School of Medicine, where she studied the neural circuitry of epilepsy and consciousness through electrical and optogenetic stimulation, and Professor Thomas Rando at Stanford School of Medicine, where she studied the response and qualities of muscle stem cells in response to injury. For her PhD research, she plans on exploring various mechanisms of development and aging, with a special interest in the brain.

Kaitavjeet Chowdhary: 2019-2020 recipient

Kaitavjeet ChowdharyThe ninth recipient of the HSCI Medical Scientist Training Fellowship award is Kaitavjeet Chowdhary, currently an MD/PhD (MSTP) candidate at Harvard Medical School through the Immunology PhD and the Health Sciences and Technology MD programs. Chowdhary graduated magna cum laude in Chemical & Physical Biology from Harvard College. As an undergraduate, he worked in the lab of Professor Kevin Eggan, where he studied the pathogenesis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis using human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons. Chowdhary is now pursuing his PhD under the guidance of Professors Christophe Benoist and Diane Mathis, where he is using a combination of computational and experimental approaches to understand mechanisms controlling immunologic tolerance.

Shyam Akula: 2017–18 recipient

Shyam Akula

Sebastian Koochaki: 2016–17 recipient

Sebastian Koochaki

Sarah Shareef: 2015–16 recipient

The sixth recipient of the HSCI Medical Scientist Training Fellowship award is Sarah Shareef, currently an MD/PhD (MSTP) candidate at Harvard Medical School through the Systems Biology PhD and the Health Sciences and Technology MD programs. Shareef graduated in Engineering and Applied Sciences (SB) with a secondary in Global Health and Health Policy and a masters in Biomedical Engineering (SM) from the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Shareef is now pursuing her PhD under the guidance of Bradley Bernstein, MD PhD. Shareef’s work in the Bernstein lab is focused on using chromatin immunoprecipitation and single-cell RNA sequencing to understand epigenetic changes during cancer initiation.

Adrian Veres: 2014–15 recipient 

The fifth recipient of the HSCI Medical Scientist Training Fellowship award is Adrian Veres, currently an MD/PhD candidate at Harvard Medical School through the Systems Biology PhD and the Health Sciences and Technology MD programs. Veres graduated summa cum laude in Chemistry & Physics from Harvard College. As an undergraduate student, he worked with Roy Kishony, PhD, (HMS Systems Biology) on experimental and computational methods to study the evolutionary dynamics of antibiotic resistance. Veres is now pursuing his PhD under the guidance of HSCI Co-director Doug Melton, PhD. Veres’ work in the Melton lab is focused on using single-cell RNA sequencing to map cell fates and high-throughput screens to find ways of manipulating fate decisions.

James H. Harris: 2013–14 recipient

The fourth recipient of the HSCI Medical Scientist Training Fellowship award is James M. Harris, currently an MD/PhD (MSTP) candidate at Harvard Medical School. Harris’s undergraduate thesis, “The role of pushover in compensatory dendritic regeneration in the cricket, Gryllus Bimaculatus,” contributed to his magna cum laude degree with honors in Neuroscience from Bowdoin College, Maine, in 2008, where he was also awarded the James Malcolm Moulton Prize in Biology. Harris has since been invited as a guest speaker for the American Society of Hematology, and has worked for three years as a research assistant primarily in the North lab at Beth Israel, but also in the Goessling Lab at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Harris has authored seven papers and presented posters at multiple symposiums. He now works in the Arlotta Lab at Harvard University, and continues to make great strides in his research.

Srinivas Viswanathan: 2009–11 recipient

The third recipient of the HSCI Medical Scientist Training Fellowship award was Srinivas Viswanathan, PhD. Viswanathan completed both his graduate and postdoctoral research in the Daley lab at Children’s Hospital Boston, exploring the role of lin-28 in microRNA biogenesis as a central figure in cancer and cellular reprogramming. His inducible mouse model of Lin-28 expression has shown a fascinating cancer-stem cell phenotype. Viswanathan left the Daley lab to complete his medical studies and finished his MD-PhD program in May 2011. He received a stipend and tuition support from the HSCI for the final two years of his MD studies.

 

Zuzana Tothova: 2007–09 recipient

The second recipient of the HSCI award was Zuzana Tothova, MD, PhD, who completed her doctorate at Harvard Medical School in May 2007. Her dissertation work, entitled "Role of forkhead transcriptional factors in hematopoiesis and leukemogenesis," took place in the Gilliand lab at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Tothova reentered clinical rotations in the summer of 2007 and continued her medical school education. Tothova received HSCI tuition and stipend support for her MD Program from 2007-2009. Her long-term goal is to pursue a career as a physician scientist interested in normal and malignant stem cell biology. Zuzana received her MD from Harvard medical School in June 2009.

Ashutosh Jadav: 2005–07 recipient 

The first HSCI Medical Scientist Fellowship award was given in 2005 to Ashutosh Jadhav, MD, PhD, whose thesis work was carried out in the Cepko lab, part of the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, where he studied the development of the mammalian retina. The title of his thesis was "Regulation of vertebrate retinal development by the Notch signaling pathway." Jadhav completed his PhD in Genetics in the Division of Medical Sciences at Harvard University in April 2005 and completed his medical degree at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology in June 2007. Jadhav received tuition and stipend support from HSCI for his MD program’s final two years, 2005-07. He then started his clinical training at Massachusetts General Hospital in the Department of Neurology.