Accolades, Awards & Honors

Starting this year, 2024, watch this page for updated information on awards, accolades and honors for the YCC/Smilow community. They will be posted here and in the DirectConnect newsletter.

OCTOBER

• Tara Sanft, MD, chief, Patient Experience Officer at Smilow Cancer Hospital, was recently named an Associate Editor for the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (JNCI). Dr. Sanft is medical director of the Cancer Survivorship Clinic.

• At the American Society of Clinical Pathology meeting in Chicago in early September Yale experts — Xuchen Zhang, MD, PhD and Dhanpat Jain, MD, MD — presented.

• Xuan “Novak” Yang, a current PhD student and Cancer Biology Training Program graduate, was one of 23 researchers to receive the National Institutes of Health F99/K00 Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Transition Award. that aims to encourage and retain outstanding graduate students interested in research careers.

•The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) hosted a Special Conference: Advances in Pancreatic Cancer Research in Boston in mid-September that included Yale researchers Diana Martinez-Saucedo, PhD; Cathy Garcia; Christian Ruiz, PhD: and Sherry Agabiti, PhD.

• Investigators from YCC recently were awarded a research grant from the American Cancer Society (ACS) and Yosemite, an oncology-focused venture capital firm. YCC's proposal “Artificial Intelligence to reduce breast cancer overtreatment among older women," will develop ways to identify older women with low-risk breast cancer, who might benefit from active surveillance rather than immediate treatment. Dr. Winer is joined in this research with co-investigators Sanjay Aneja, MD; Ilana Richman, MD, MHS, Elizabeth Berger, MD, MS, FACS, and Rachel Greenup, MD, MPH. Lucila Ohno-Machado, MD, MBA, PhD, is a collaborator on the grant.

• Smilow/Yale experts recently presented in Barcelona, Spain at the annual meeting of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO). They included physician-scientists Sara Pai, MD, PhD, a surgeon at Smilow who also leads several immunotherapy clinical trials; Patricia LoRusso, DO, Chief of Experimental Therapeutics involved with multiple clinical trials; David Braun, MD, PhD, a kidney cancer specialist and a member of the Center of Molecular and Cellular Oncology (CMCO) at YCC; Barbara Burtness, MD, Chief Translational Research Officer at YCC and Chief Head & Neck Cancers/Sarcoma; Maryam Lustberg, MD, PhD, who is Director of the Center for Breast Cancer and Chief of Breast Medical Oncology; and Hermine Poghosyan, PhD, MPH, BSN, an associate professor at the School of Nursing.

SEPTEMBER

The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology gave its Herbert Tabor Research Award to Joseph Schlessinger, PhD, a professor of pharmacology at Yale University School of Medicine, whose research provided the conceptual foundation for targeted cancer therapies. His lab explores the mechanism of activation of receptor tyrosine kinase and their signaling pathways during homeostasis as well as in cancer and other diseases. He is a member of YCC’s Cancer Signaling Networks Research Program.

The 2024 Yale Lung Cancer SPORE Awards Developmental Research awardees included Anne Chiang, MD, PhD and Arnaud Augert, PhD: Generation and characterization of novel preclinical models to identify tumor intrinsic biomarkers for a novel drug combination in SCLC; Sanja Dacic, MD, PhD: Determination of oncogenic EGFR mutations and prediction of treatment-specific outcomes in patients with resectable non-small cell lung carcinoma using digital pathology and computational models; Nadya Dimitrova PhD and Andrew Xiao, PhD: A long noncoding RNA-dependent mechanism promoting epigenetic plasticity and TKI resistance; Daryl Klein, MD, PhD: Development of biologics targeting ROS1+ fusion proteins in lung cancer; Yansheng Liu, PhD: Glycoproteomic alterations & biofluid markers for lung cancer metastases in the central nervous system. For Career Enhancement the awards went to Maurizio Chioccioli, PhD: Alveolar intermediate progenitor cells as the cellular origin of lung adenocarcinoma; Michael Chiorazzi, MD, PhD: Testing novel interventions for HIV-associated NSCLC; So Yeon Kim, MD: Uncovering the biological drivers of CNS metastasis in KRAS-mutant NSCLC; Mark N. Lee, MD, PhD: The development of T cell receptor therapeutics targeting public NSCLC antigens.

The Center for Gastrointestinal Cancers chose three YCC teams for its 2024-2025 CGIC Seed Grant Program. The intramural grants aim to spur interdisciplinary team-based basic, translational, clinical, or population health research in GI cancers and to support new or early stage projects. Awardees: Michael Girardi, MD, and W. Mark Saltzman, PhD: Biocompatible and bioadhesive nanoparticles for intraperitoneal treatment of gastrointestinal cancers with peritoneal metastasis; Bubu Banini, MD, PhD, and Xuchen Zhang, MD, PhD: Spatial transcriptomic analysis of immune microenvironment of metabolic dysfunction associated steatohepatitis-related hepatocellular carcinoma; Dennis Shung, MD, PhD, and John Onofrey, PhD: Multimodal Language-Augmented Foundation Vision Model to Personalize Care for Pancreatic Cysts.

Dr. Christopher Tien, PhD, DABR, FAAPM, Associate Professor and Lead Physicist for Brachytherapy in the Department of Therapeutic Radiology at the Yale School of Medicine, has been elected a fellow of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine. A designation as fellow honors members who have distinguished themselves by their contributions in research, education, or leadership in the medical physics community. The award was presented at the 2024 AAPM 66th Annual Meeting & Exhibition on July 22.

AUGUST

Kenneth Roberts, MD, has been elected a Fellow of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (FASTRO), a prestigious award that recognizes outstanding members for their leadership role in radiation oncology and service to ASTRO. He is a Professor of Therapeutic Radiology and cares for patients with pediatric malignancies, lymphomas, leukemias, sarcomas, colo-anal cancers, and benign inflammatory conditions.

Pam Kunz, MD, has been chosen for the 2024-2025 Public Voices Fellowship at Yale. Yale Women Faculty Forum offers 20 such fellowships each academic year with the expectation that each fellow will write a minimum of two opinion (“op-ed”) pieces and identify as a Fellow of the program. Earlier this year, Dr. Kunz was named the inaugural editor-in-chief of a new open-access and interdisciplinary journal launched by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). JCO Oncology Advances will be dedicated “to accelerating progress in the global fight against cancer by providing a platform where innovation in cancer research meets accessibility.”

Michael Cecchini, MD has been appointed Co-Director of the GI Clinical Research Team. He completed his Internal Medicine residency and Hematology/Oncology fellowship at Yale. He joined the faculty in 2018 and has quickly established himself as an expert and leader in colorectal cancer and developmental therapeutics. He also serves as the Co-Leader of the Colorectal Cancer Program within the Center for GI Cancers.

A four-member research team, including co-principal investigator Daniel Boffa, MD, FACS of Yale, recently was awarded R01 funding by the National Cancer Institute for its study, “Implementation and Effectiveness of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Operative Standards Program.” The five-year grant is to evaluate adoption of the Commission on Cancer’s “Operative Standards for Cancer Surgery” implemented in 2020 and expected to be adhered to by 1,400 accredited facilities by the end of 2024. The standards are meant to address the differences in cancer surgery technical qualities across institutions.

Jacquelyne Gaddy, MD, MSc, MSCR received the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Medical Association (NMA) provide travel awards to participate in the NIH/NMA Academic Career Development Workshop. Recipients of the NIH/NMA Travel Award are senior residents, fellows, and junior faculty who are interested in pursuing careers in biomedical research and/or academic medicine. Participants are encouraged to attend the NMA’s Annual Convention and Scientific Assembly

Barbara Burtness, MD, chief Translational Research Officer at YCC and chief of Head and Neck Cancers/Sarcoma, and Maryam Lustberg, MD, MPH, chief of Breast Medical Oncology, have been named Fellows of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (FASCO). The FASCO distinction honors ASCO members for their volunteer service and dedication to the organization and for their contributions to the oncology community in transforming cancer care.

JULY

A few weeks ago, George Goshua, MD, MSc, accepted the NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award in a ceremony in Switzerland. Dr. Goshua’s award-winning essay published in Science, "Napkin math can change the world", is about how data-driven improvements in value-based and equitable healthcare need to be driven by healthcare providers to make significant change. The Goshua Lab at YCC uses quantitative decision modeling methods to fill gaps in clinical guidelines, impact health resource allocation, and inform health policy decisions. > MORE

The June 26 White House Clinical Trials Forum included Patricia LoRusso, DO, YCC Chief of Experimental Therapeutics. Also, Dr. LoRusso presented "The Making of a Clinical Researcher: A Personal Journey" late in June at the Association of American Cancer Institute’s Clinical Research Innovation Meeting.

Michael Cecchini, MD, was recently promoted to Associate Professor, Internal Medicine (Medical Oncology) in the Clinician Educator-Scholar Track. He is Co-Director, Colorectal Program in the Center for Gastrointestinal Cancers; and Medical Oncology Section Lead for National Accreditation Program for Rectal Cancer.

Surgical oncologists Drs. Mehra Golshan and Elena Ratner are Exceptional Care Awardees of the Healthnetwork Foundation, which honor “hospital staff who share in our mission to provide outstanding care...We celebrate their dedication and outstanding service with ($10,000 each) to support their department operations.”

At the HemOnc Fellowship Program graduation, Jessica M Stempel, MD and Curtis Perry, MD, PhD received Research Awards and Rory Shallis, MD, Michael Cecchini, MD, and Michal Rose, MD, got Teaching Awards.

Tarun Tyagi, PhD, a YSM Associate Research Scientist, received the 2024 JH Milstone Award. The $10,000 yearly award goes to early-stage investigators whose research improves understanding of bleeding or thrombosis.

The Yale Head and Neck SPORE recently announced five awards. The Career Enhancement Program award went to Yash Chhabra, PhD, Fox Chase Cancer Center. Four Developmental Research Programs (DRP) awards went to YSM associate professors, Samuel Katz, MD, PhD and Michael Chiorazzi, MD, PhD. Other awardees include Oneida Arosarena, MD, Temple University and Travis Schrank, MD, PhD, University of North Carolina.

JUNE

Jennifer Afranie-Sakyi, MD, has been selected by the American Society of Hematology (ASH) to participate as one of nine outstanding fellows in the 2024 ASH Minority Hematology Fellow Award (MHFA). A fellow in the Yale Medical Oncology-Hematology Fellowship Program, Dr. Afranie-Sakyi is mentored by Cece Calhoun, MD, MPHS, MBA, and Alfred Lee, MD, PhD. Her research focuses on understanding neurocognitive outcomes in adults with sickle cell disease. The ASH awardees receive $100,000 for a two- to three-year period to guarantee protected time for clinical or laboratory-based hematology research projects.

Amos S. Espinosa, a PhD Candidate in Experimental Pathology, was recently named a winner of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Minority Hematology Graduate Award. Espinosa is a member of the Krause Lab, led by Diane Krause, MD, PhD, Anthony N. Brady Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Professor of Pathology. His doctoral research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of cancer development, specifically, acute megakaryoblastic leukemia. Amos is one of nine graduate students selected for the award, which includes an annual $40,000 stipend for a two-year period.

Kelly Olino, MD, assistant professor of surgery (oncology) at the Yale Department of Surgery and clinical director of the Smilow Melanoma Program, received the 2024 Leah M. Lowenstein Award for excellence in the promotion of humane and egalitarian medical education. The honor is awarded each year at the Yale School of Medicine’s commencement ceremony in recognition of a faculty member whose humane teaching reaches and influences all students regardless of gender, race, or socioeconomic background.

On May 15, at the opening ceremony for the annual American Head and Neck Society Meeting, Barbara Burtness, MD, Anthony N. Brady Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology), was awarded an American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) Presidential Citation in recognition of her contributions to the field of head and neck surgery. Dr. Burtness is the founding director of the Yale Head and Neck Cancer Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) .

A former director of YCC (1993-2003), Vincent DeVita Jr., MD, Amy and Joseph Perella Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology) and Professor of Epidemiology (Chronic Diseases), was named the Giants of Cancer Care® Michael J. Hennessy Visionary Award Winner for 2024. He was honored for his lifelong achievements in cancer care, which included being director of the NCI starting in 1980, one of three editors of "Cancer: Principles & Practice of Oncology," in its 11th edition, and of The Cancer Journal.

MAY

Abhijit Patel, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Therapeutic Radiology, has been appointed the role of Medical Director in the Lawrence & Memorial Radiation Oncology Center in Waterford effective July 1.

Pamela Kunz, MD, Associate Professor (Medical Oncology), Director of the Center for Gastrointestinal Cancers at Yale/Smilow and Chief of GI Medical Oncology, was named a Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (FASCO). The FASCO distinction honors ASCO members for their extraordinary volunteer service, commitment, and dedication. Dr. Kunz was one of 10 recipients nationwide to earn the FASCO designation this year. She joins nine other YCC members who have earned FASCO distinction. More here

Harriet Kluger, MD, needs your vote in her run for an At-Large candidate position on the board of directors of the Society for Immunology of Cancer (SITC). Dr. Kluger is the Harvey and Kate Cushing Professor of Medicine in Medical Oncology at YSM and a YCC member. She is an internationally recognized expert on the treatment of advanced melanoma and renal cell carcinoma and is director of the Yale SPORE in Skin Cancer. Read Dr. Kluger’s election platform statement and vote for her here.

Recently, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) named its five member board of directors for 2024-2027 including Katerina Politi, MD Professor of Pathology; Co-Leader, Cancer Signaling Networks, Yale Cancer Center; Scientific Director, Center for Thoracic Cancers.

In news from the Hem/Onc fellowship program, three fellows earned American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Young Investigator Awards—Rebecca Forman, MD; Yiduo Hu, MD, PhD; Tendai Kwaramba, MD, MSc. Also, the ASCO Education Scholars Program year-long program has selected Thejal Srikumar, MD; and the following fellows are to be 2024 presenters at two prestigious conferences in June —ASCO in Chicago and the European Hematology Association in Milan. They are Philippos Costa, MD; Rebecca Forman, MD; Ted Getz, MD; Yiduo Hu, MD, PhD; Tendai Kwaramba, MD, MSc; Curt Perry, MD, PhD; Amin Nassar, MD; Tariq Kewan, MD; Thejal Srikumar, MD; Melissa Taylor, MD; Jess Stempel, MD, FACP; Poy Theprungsirikul, MD.

APRIL

Lisa Arnel, Senior Administrative Assistant in Palliative Care at Smilow Cancer Hospital, was honored with an Out of the Blue Award for her work on the Yale Serious Illness Communication Skills Faculty Training Course held in February. Pictured with Lisa are Dr. Laura Morrison, director of Palliative Medicine Education, and Dr. Dmitry Kozhevnikov, director of Smilow Ambulatory Palliative Care. Dr. Morrison said: “Lisa went beyond in helping us put on this new course. Her preparation and creative solutions led to a very fruitful learning experience for our participants.”

At a recent ceremony at the Yale School of Medicine's historic library, YCC member Joachim Baehring, MD, professor of neurology and of neurosurgery was presented with a Distinguished Clinical Career Award. Dr. Baehring is associate chief of neurology; director of the Neuro-Oncology Fellowship Program; and vice chair of clinical affairs for Neurology. He joined YSM in 2002, and he built the medical Neuro-Oncology Program within Yale Cancer Center from the ground up. He established a practice for patients with primary and metastatic brain tumors, neurologic complications of cancer, and neurologic disorders of the highest complexity. For more than 15 years, Baehring led the multidisciplinary Brain Tumor Center — now named the Chênevert Family Brain Tumor Center after one of his patients. He established a Neuro-Oncology Patient Data Repository at the Brain Tumor Center, which serves as the basis for epidemiological, clinical, quality control studies, and basic science studies requiring correlation with clinical data. In 2009, Baehring established the Medical Neuro-Oncology Fellowship program at Yale and served as its director for over a decade.

Jun Deng, PhD, professor of Therapeutic Radiology and Director of Physic Research, recently was selected as one of the 15 experts for the NIH's Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Consortium to Advance Health Equity and Researcher Diversity (AIM-AHEAD) Program for Artificial Intelligence Readiness (PAIR). PAIR will connect institutions with AIM-AHEAD resources, AI/ML and health equity experts, and grant-writing coaches to help establish AI/ML Health Equity Research Labs that host cross-disciplinary teams for research projects and grant writing.

YCC Deputy Director Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, Ensign Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology) and Professor of Pharmacology as well as Chief of Medical Oncology, recently was honored at a gala benefitting the Ezra Academy and its fundraising goal of $200,000.

MARCH 2024

Director of the Center for Gastrointestinal Cancers to Lead New ASCO Publication

Pamela Kunz, MD, has been named the inaugural editor-in-chief of a new open-access and interdisciplinary journal launched by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

JCO Oncology Advances will be dedicated “to accelerating progress in the global fight against cancer by providing a platform where innovation in cancer research meets accessibility.”

“I am committed to shaping this platform into the foremost oncology open-access journal. By publishing a wide array of content, we aim to engage a diverse audience, encompassing academics, community practitioners, international colleagues, and patient partners,” said Dr. Kun, who leads the Center for Gastrointestinal Cancers at Smilow Cancer Hospital and Yale Cancer Center and is chief of GI Medical Oncology.

“Our accessible online format empowers us to be innovative, agile, and impactful, extending our reach far beyond conventional boundaries,” she said. The journal will open for submissions in Spring of 2024.

New Ocular Oncology Physician to Join Faculty

Dr. Anthony Daniels, an ocular oncologist and vitreoretinal surgeon by training, will join the faculty March 1. He will see ocular oncology patients in ophthalmology and ocular oncology patients at Smilow and throughout the Yale Hew Haven Health system. Simultaneously, he is serving as Therapeutic Area Head of Ocular Oncology at Aura Biosciences, where he is responsible for leading the ocular oncology program and driving future strategy.

Dr. Daniels previously was an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Radiation Oncology, and Cancer Biology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville. He served as Chief of the Division or Ocular Oncology and Pathology at Vanderbilt. He majored in molecular biology at Princeton University and then earned a master’s degree in public health policy from the London School of Economics. Then he attended the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine as the recipient of the institution’s most prestigious full scholarship. After his intern year at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, he completed both his ophthalmology residency and vitreoretinal fellowship at the Massachusets Eye and Ear Infirmary at Harvard Medical School, followed by additional tumor training at the Mayo Clinic and at MSKCC.

As an ocular oncologist and physician-scientist, his research has focused on drug discovery and development. His lab developed novel animal models of adult and pediatric eye cancers, and identified novel antineoplastic therapies, and his research techniques and models are now being used by centers around the world. In addition, he brings expertise in clinical trial design.

Clinicians Receive a Variety of Awards

Recently, Jensa Morris, MD, Erin Gombos, MD,and Irene Piazza, DNP, RN, AOCNS, were recognized for their work.
• Irene Piazza, who is clinical program manager for Smilow Greenwich, was awarded the annual Greenwich Hospital Breast Center Award. Each year, the Breast Center selects an outstanding individual who continuously goes above and beyond to uphold its mission, vision, and values, and inspire the care center clinicians and staff.
• Dr. Morris was honored with the Department of Medicine Voluntary Faculty Inpatient Medicine Award. The award was given in recognition of outstanding contribution to the education of trainees through the Smilow Hospitalist Service.
• Dr. Gombos was honoroed by the Society of Hospital Medicine Connecticut Chapter Award for Excellence in Education. The chapter celebrates one physician, one APP, and one resident, each of whom who go beyond clinical expertise to actively shape the next generation of clinicians.

Cancer Publication Taps Yale Physician as Guest Editor

In its first issue on telehealth, The Cancer Journal chose Anne Chiang, MD as its guest editor. Her article "Telemedicine and Cancer: Shifting a Paradigm of Care" was published in the January/February 2024 edition. It summarizing and commenting on much of the content in this issue of the journal, Dr. Chiang noted the need for further study and that "the National Cancer Institute recently created the Telehealth Research Centers of Excellence supported by the Cancer Moonshot to study and develop evidence-based and innovative approaches to cancer telehealth in the future.... Truly understanding the barriers and challenges to care as well as available data on efficacy and patient-reported outcomes provides the opportunity to substantively improve telecare in the future." » READ MORE

Academy Awards Prestigious Fellow Status to Yale Cancer Researcher

Earlier this month, the American Association for Cancer Research elected its new class of fellows, including Yale’s Craig M. Crews, PhD. It cited his breakthrough cancer research, describing it as “trailblazing research involving the use of small molecules to manipulate intracellular protein levels via targeted protein degradation, pioneering the development of proteolysis-targeting chimeras (PROTACs), and leading critical investigations concerning synthetic proteasome inhibitors such as carfilzomib, approved for the treatment of multiple myeloma.”

Dr. Crews is John C. Malone Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology; professor of chemistry, pharmacology, and management; and executive director, Yale Center for Molecular Discovery, Yale School of Medicine and Yale Cancer Center

Academy fellows serve as a global brain trust of top contributors to cancer science and medicine who help advance AACR’s mission to prevent and cure all cancers through research, education, communication, collaboration, science policy and advocacy, and funding for cancer research.

The 2024 Eclipse Award for Innovation in High Throughput Biology

Dr. Giulia Biancon, currently a member in the laboratory of Dr. Stephanie Halene, was chosen by the The RNA Society for the award. Dr. Biancon obtained her PhD in 2018 from the University of Milan in the lab of Dr. Paolo Corradini. During her post-doctoral work, Dr. Biancon has used eCLIP to study the binding of mutant RNA splicing factor U2AF identified in a number of blood cancers. Using these data and additional high-throughput analysis such as TimeLapse-seq and single-cell RNA-seq, she was able to unravel the consequence of the altered U2AF binding profile on pre-mRNA splicing, linking U2AF1 mutations to enhanced stress granule response in these blood cancer cells. She currently serves as a Coordinator of the Yale Center for RNA Science and Medicine.

Lung Cancer Research Award Bestowed

Gavitt Woodard, MD, received the AZ Lung Cancer Research award at the 60th annual meeting of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons in San Antonio in January. At the meeting she presented on immune cell infiltration and function after neoadjuvant chemo-immunotherapy in Non Small Cell Lung Cancer.

Breast Cancer Alliance Fellowship Announced

The Breast Cancer Alliance announced that Sarah K. Merkel MD has been selected for a 2024-2025 BCA Breast Surgery Fellowship at Yale University. Dr. Merkel is Chief Resident at University of South Florida Health in Tampa. She is a 2019 graduate of the Tulane University School of Medicine.