The June 6, 2019 Department of Internal Medicine’s Medical Grand Rounds, “Neuroinflammation During Chronic HIV Infection,” was presented by the 2019 Recipient of the Iva Dostanic, MD, PhD, Physician-Scientist Trainee Award, Shelli Farhadian, MD, PhD, instructor (infectious diseases).
Farhadian began her presentation by discussing a case that she saw in the Yale’s neuro-HIV clinic. The patient had long standing, controlled HIV disease but was suffering from cognitive issues. His brain MRI was abnormal.
This patient inspired Farhadian. “Assuming this presentation is related to his HIV disease, how is it that a well-controlled viral infection can cause ongoing neurological damage?” asked Farhadian.
She cited early literature that mentioned cognitive and neurological deficits in patients with HIV/AIDS. Farhadian then highlighted neuroinflammation during chronic HIV infection and her and other findings when looking at the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in these patients. Additionally, her team has dived deeper into CSF research, looking into single cell RNA sequencing, as discussed the 2018 paper, “Single-cell RNA sequencing reveals microglia-like cells in cerebrospinal fluid during virologically suppressed HIV.”
“This is exciting to us because so many of those open research questions about HIV and the brain have to do with the role of microglia. We are hopeful that we can isolate these cells for further interrogation,” explained Farhadian.
The Iva Dostanic, MD, PhD, Physician-Scientist Trainee Award was created in memory of Dostanic. She was an exceptionally talented physician-scientist who matched at Yale School of Medicine (YSM) for residency in Internal Medicine. Dostanic was accepted into the Internal Medicine Physician – Scientist Pathway, but delayed her residency after she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in May 2011. While undergoing treatment, Dostanic became a research fellow in the Section of Pulmonary, Critical Care, & Sleep Medicine at YSM. Unfortunately, Dostanic’s cancer returned. Before she died, she received the very first Iva Dostanic, MD, PhD, Physician-Scientist Trainee Award in a ceremony held in her room at Yale New Haven Hospital. The award was created to celebrate Dostanic’s intelligence, creativity, work ethic, and passion, said Peter Aronson, MD, C.N.H. Long Professor of Medicine (Nephrology) and professor of cellular and molecular physiology. In December 2011, less than a week after receiving the award, Dostanic passed away.
The Iva Dostanic, MD, PhD, Physician-Scientist Trainee Award and Lecture was established by the Yale Department of Internal Medicine to recognize a physician-scientist trainee who exemplifies the qualities that Dostanic displayed.
In the introduction to yesterday’s lecture, Aronson said it was not the goal of the award to encourage trainees to strive to be another Dostanic but to be inspired by her life. “Iva’s accomplishments before she started here were exceptional. She was a true force of nature. What we do hope is that you will be inspired by Iva’s love of science and medicine and especially by the enormous joy she found in her work, right up until the very last days of her life.”
Farhadian is the eighth person to receive this award. To learn more about Farhadian’s work and watch yesterday’s Medical Grand Rounds, Yale faculty can review the video.