Zachary Harvanek, MD, PhD, a clinical fellow in the Department of Psychiatry and graduate of the Yale Psychiatry Residency Program, is a 2023 recipient of a Yale Physician Scientist Development Award (YPSDA) in collaboration with the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation (YCCI) Scholars Program.
Over the award’s 24-month term, Harvanek will seek to develop his career as a clinical/translational scientist, and will receive a salary to support protected time to conduct research, prepare data for publication, apply for grants, and begin to establish an independent research program.
Harvanek will also be required to attend and submit abstracts to one or two regional/national Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) meetings annually and to attend local YCCI educational events, including but not limited to Yale-Rockefeller Day, YCCI Scholar Day, Scholar Orientation, and the Janeway Society Annual Retreat.
Harvanek will join the Department of Psychiatry as an instructor in the Yale Stress Center. His primary mentors will be Rajita Sinha, PhD, Foundations Fund Professor of Psychiatry and Professor in the Child Study Center and of Neuroscience; Ke Xu, MD, associate professor of psychiatry; and Ania Jastreboff, MD, PhD associate professor of medicine (endocrinology).
His mentorship will be coordinated by a Career Oversight Committee including Lloyd Cantley, MD, C. N. H. Long Professor of Medicine (Nephrology) and Professor of Cellular And Molecular Physiology; E. Jennifer Edelman, MD, MHS, associate professor of medicine (general medicine) and of social and behavioral sciences; and Eugene Shapiro, MD, professor of pediatrics (general pediatrics) and of epidemiology (microbial diseases), all co-directors of education at YCCI. In addition to regular meetings with his primary mentors, Harvanek will have semi-annual meetings with this Career Oversight Committee.
Harvanek’s research centers on the interplay between psychological stress and resilience, epigenetic changes, and long-term health outcomes including those related to obesity, metabolic disease, and aging. The YPSDA Award will support his work investigating how stress reduction and lifestyle interventions impact DNA methylation signatures, gene expression, and epigenetic aging.