[domweek] DOM Week, November 24-28, 2025

[Department of Medicine weekly newsletter via domweek]

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DOM Week
November 21, 2025
News, information, and events of interest from the Department of Medicine

(if you have items for DOM Week, please email amyf at uw.edu<mailto:amyf at uw.edu>)


Awards
Call for nominations: Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Tribute Awards
In honor of the remarkable legacy and enduring impact of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the 2026 MLK Committee invites nominations for individuals who exemplify a strong commitment to community service, social justice, and uplifting the well-being of others. This recognition celebrates those who carry forward Dr. King’s vision of equity, compassion, and collective progress. This award is open to all UW School of Medicine, students, faculty, staff, and researchers. Self-nominations are welcome. Nominations <https://bit.ly/4r8elLx> due Dec. 11.


Staff news
[Likkit Pocinwong]Staff spotlight: Likkit Pocinwong
Our latest staff spotlight is on Likkit Pocinwong, web developer on the department communications/web team.

Learn more about him on our news site<https://bit.ly/3KavnrI>.


Faculty news
Natasha Hunter new Director of Clinical Trials at the Cancer Vaccine Institute
[Natasha Hunter]Dr. Natasha Hunter, assistant professor (Hematology and Oncology) has been appointed Director of Clinical Trials at the Cancer Vaccine Institute (CVI). Dr. Hunter is a translational breast cancer researcher and clinical oncologist at the UW and Fred Hutch.

Her research focuses on circulating tumor DNA to guide treatment decisions and monitor disease response, as well as immunologic strategies to detect micrometastatic disease and prevent cancer recurrence.

Learn more on the CVI website<https://bit.ly/49tBWA4>.

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[Neal Chatterjee]Dr. Neal Chatterjee, associate professor (Cardiology) and UW collaborators had their work “Artificial Intelligence Analysis of the 12-lead ECG and Clinical Factors to Predict Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest” selected as a featured Late Breaking Science presentation at the recent American Heart Association Annual Sessions in New Orleans.



Research news
Improving Primary Care for High-Risk Veterans
[Ashok Reddy]Dr. Ashok Reddy, associate professor (General Internal Medicine) has been awarded a five-year, $3.5 million QUERI Program grant from the VA Office of Research and Development for the High-RIsk VETerans (RIVET) QUERI Program. This initiative aims to improve access to high-quality primary care for Veterans with complex medical needs by implementing evidence-based practices for screening and safe medication management after hospital discharge. Dr. Karin Nelson is co-investigator.

[Linnaea Schuttner]Dr. Linnaea Schuttner, assistant professor (General Internal Medicine) has been awarded a five-year, $1.5 million Investigator-Initiated Research (IIR) grant from the VA Office of Research and Development for the VET-PATHS (VETeran PAnel Management Tool for High-Risk Subgroups) project. The study will test an innovative informatics tool that helps primary care teams identify and proactively manage high-risk Veterans using data-driven care plans. VET-PATHS aims to improve access, coordination, and outcomes for Veterans with multiple chronic conditions. Dr. Ashok Reddy is co-investigator.

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Adrienne Shapiro receives International Infrastructure Award
[Adrienne Shapiro]Congratulations to Dr. Adrienne Shapiro, assistant professor (Allergy and Infectious Diseases) who is a 2025 recipient of the International Infrastructure Award by the UW/Fred Hutch Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). The purpose of this award program is to support the execution, efficiency and development of various HIV research projects, and to build capacity for collaborative and innovative international HIV research activities. Recipients are awarded up to $10,000 total (direct costs) to complete their projects.

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Scientists see foam as starting point of a path to bedside gene therapy
[Matthias Stephan]The special properties of methylcellulose foam could make it a vehicle for bedside genetic engineering, according to a proof-of-principle study from bioengineers at Fred Hutch Cancer Center.

In the paper, published in Molecular Therapy Methods & Clinical Development<https://bit.ly/47OnWQ4>, the team used a preclinical bone marrow model to show that the foam, combined with an already-approved method to extract and concentrate bone marrow stem cells, can efficiently deliver targeted gene therapy vectors prior to reinjection of the cells into the bone marrow.

“We show that we can use our foam to genetically modify bone marrow stem cells at a very high efficiency,” said Dr. Matthias Stephan, associate professor (Hematology and Oncology) and senior author of the study.

Read the full story from Hutch News<https://bit.ly/4rkpzwK>.

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Funding opportunities
School of Medicine’s Center for Learning and Innovation in Medical Education (CLIME) offers a Small Grant Program with the goals of advancing scholarship in health sciences education, supporting the career development of faculty engaged in educational scholarship throughout the School of Medicine, and creating community around educational scholarship. Application deadline: March 27. Learn more on the CLIME website<https://bit.ly/4pjUdob>.

The Diabetes Research Center (DRC) and Nutrition and Obesity Research Center (NORC) are jointly soliciting applications for the 2026 Pilot & Feasibility Awards, and DRC is also soliciting applications for the New Investigator and McAbee Postdoctoral Fellowship Awards. These funding opportunities are meant to promote the development of new and innovative research projects directed at basic, clinical and translational aspects of diabetes. Letters of intent and reviewer nomination forms are due by Jan. 9 and the deadline for full applications is Feb. 27, 2023. For more details, please visit their website<https://bit.ly/4fKiMG0>.


Recent publications
Dr. Rahul Banerjee, assistant professor (Hematology and Oncology) is senior author of “Treatment-Emergent Parkinsonism in Four Patients Treated with Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell Therapy<https://bit.ly/3JTBBfD>” in Movement Disorders. DOM co-authors are Jordan Gauthier and Meredith Durbin.

Dr. Maralyssa Bann, associate professor, is lead author and Dr. Ashley Amick, adjunct assistant professor (General Internal Medicine) is senior author of “Centering the Patient in Public Health Insurance Programs: How Expanded Medicaid Can Serve as an Aspirational Model<https://bit.ly/4o338cn>” in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Dr. Neal Chatterjee, associate professor (Cardiology) wrote “Targeting Potassium for Prevention of Ventricular Arrhythmias<https://bit.ly/44jyWmc>” in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Dr. Richard Cheng, professor (Cardiology) is co-author of “Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor-Associated Cardiovascular Toxic Effects: International Cardio-Oncology Society Position Statement<https://bit.ly/4o68Kmk>” in JAMA Oncology.

Dr. Jason Goldman, clinical associate professor (Allergy and Infectious Disease) is co-author of  “Long COVID trajectories in the prospectively followed RECOVER-Adult US cohort<https://go.nature.com/3LLEXlr>” in Nature Communications.

Dr. Ajay Gopal, associate professor (Hematology and Oncology) is senior author of “Impact of immunophenotype on clinical disease characteristics and outcomes in T-cell prolymphocytic leukaemia<https://bit.ly/4oNgQBi>” in the British Journal of Haematology. DOM co-authors are Jerline Dizon, Mazyar Shadman, Ryan Lynch, Brian Till, Chaitra Ujjani, Mengyang Di, Vikram Raghunathan, Edus Warren, and Stephen Smith.

Dr. Mackenzie Holmberg, clinical instructor (General Internal Medicine) is co-author of “Symptomatic Presentation of Renal Cell Carcinoma<https://bit.ly/4o0IA4j>” in World Journal of Urology.

Dr. Christine Johnston, professor (Allergy and Infectious Diseases) is co-author of “Eliminating interactions with the viral Fc receptor improves antibody-mediated protection against neonatal HSV infection in mice<https://bit.ly/43IXNQd>” in Science Translational Medicine.

Dr. Nicole Kim, assistant professor, is lead author and Dr. George Ioannou, professor (Gastroenterology) is senior author of “Changes in Liver Disease Etiology Support a Lower Alpha-Fetoprotein Threshold for Hepatocellular Carcinoma Screening<https://bit.ly/483mDeO>” in Gastroenterology. DOM co-authors are Muyi Li, Philip Vutien, Kayta Swarts, Abbey Barnard Giustini, Kay Johnson, and Lauren Beste.

Dr. Leah Marcotte, assistant professor, is lead author and Dr. Ashok Reddy, associate professor (General Internal Medicine) is senior author of “Rural Veteran Perceptions of a Virtual Health Resource Center in a Community-Based Setting<https://bit.ly/3MdtJGn>” in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. DOM co-authors are John Geyer, Mayuree Rao, and Kelvin Pho.

Dr. Bruce Psaty, professor emeritus (General Internal Medicine) is co-author of “Association between cigarette smoking status, intensity, and cessation duration with long-term incidence of nine cardiovascular and mortality outcomes: The Cross-Cohort Collaboration (CCC)<https://bit.ly/485QDH5>” in PLOS Medicine.

Drs. Ashok Reddy, associate professor, and Karin Nelson, professor (General Internal Medicine) are co-authors of “Population-Level Health Intervention and Primary Care Quality for Veterans<https://bit.ly/3LRUgcg>” in JAMA Network Open.


In the news
Dr. Helen Chu, professor (Allergy and Infectious Diseases) is quoted in “Eroding access to childhood vaccines jeopardizes health for all<https://bit.ly/4rc5Zm2>” in Science News.

Dr. Barak Gaster, professor (General Internal Medicine) wrote “Bringing Cognitive Assessment to the Front Lines of Primary Care— Everyone has a role to play to meet the needs of our aging population<https://bit.ly/4pm3xrw>” for MedPage Today.

Dr. Bruce Psaty, professor emeritus (General Internal Medicine) is quoted in “Halted NIH Clinical Trials List Reveals Slashed Treatments for Cancer, COVID and Minority Health<https://bit.ly/3XalxsV>” in Scientific American.


Events of interest
Quiet week, November 24-28
As we continue to rebuild resilience and focus on mental health, we would like to preserve department-wide quiet weeks throughout the year. During these weeks, we hope that individuals can limit non-essential meetings to recharge and reflect, as well as thoughtfully minimize emails. We realize that this will not be possible for everyone but encourage all to take breaks when they are able.

Upcoming 2025 quiet weeks:
December 22-26


Weekly Calendar, November 24-28, 2025
Our events calendar is posted on our website<https://medicine.uw.edu/news/trumba-calendar>.


Coming up
Faculty Appreciation Day
The UW Book Store will hold a special Faculty Appreciation Day at the flagship store on the Ave on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 10am-6pm. The Book Store will also host a meet & greet with pizza and refreshments for UW Faculty in the lower-level basement across from the Student Store between 11am-1pm.
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Improving care and advocating for LGBTQ communities
The Cambia Palliative Care Center of Excellence is co-hosting Dr. Carey Candrian’s upcoming visit to Seattle as part of the UW Public Lectures program<https://www.washington.edu/lectures/>. Dr. Candrian is an internationally recognized researcher whose work examines how communication shapes healthcare outcomes, particularly for older lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) adults and the people who care for them. Her scholarship highlights the consequences when patients cannot openly share with clinicians who and what matter most.


  *   Documentary Film Screening, Q&A and discussion: “Just Us: The Longing and Hope of LGBTQ People” Dec. 3, 4-5:30. In person: Seattle Children’s Hospital Main Campus, Wright Auditorium. Virtual: WebEx Link<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/seattlechildrens.webex.com/wbxmjs/joinservice/sites/seattlechildrens/meeting/download/62a2450633d04727bb79112cb917b615?MTID=m47b30e952bca170a6f35866d494959bd__;!!K-Hz7m0Vt54!iMcrcmpbDtM1BzAmFiOzpPM-RWFgeKEMzmuGTL6aU9iBcLRQztwomv5fc8kO6Rj0gb45RN4DglE$> (Access Number: 2489 194 2224; Meeting password: TKC2025)


  *   Pulmonary Grand Rounds: “The role of communication for improving care for LGBTQ communities” Dec. 4, 1:30 to 2:30pm. In person: Harborview R&T Building, Room 109/113. Virtual: Zoom<https://washington.zoom/us/my/hmcpulmonary> (Meeting number: 944-910-2358; Meeting password: 940982)


  *   Public Lecture: “Healthcare Where All Can Thrive: Advocating for Older LGBTQ Adults” Dec. 4, 6:30 In person: Town Hall Seattle, 1119 8th Ave, Seattle. Register<https://www.washington.edu/lectures/events/creating-a-healthcare-experience-where-all-can-thrive-the-case-for-lgbtq-people/> to attend in person. Virtual: Register<https://www.washington.edu/lectures/events/creating-a-healthcare-experience-where-all-can-thrive-the-case-for-lgbtq-people/> to receive the online link.

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Medicine Grand Rounds
Upcoming 2025 Grand Rounds:

  *   Dr. Yonatan Grad, Harvard T.H. Cham School of Public Health, will present the Kirby Lecture, “Antimicrobial use and resistance: what can we do better?” on Dec. 5
  *   Dr. Reena Mehra, professor and head (Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine) will present “Reflections on a Journey of Purpose, Persistence, and Possibility in Academic Medicine” on Dec. 19

12-1pm, Turner Auditorium (D-209) and via zoom<https://washington.zoom.us/j/812197730>
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DOM Research Symposium
Collaboration in Research: Discovery, Innovation, and Impact
Join us for an inspiring afternoon celebrating research excellence and collaboration across the Department of Medicine and beyond. Keynote speaker: Dr. David Baker, PhD, professor of biochemistry, director of the Institute for Protein Design and 2024 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry. Following the keynote, learn about Department of Medicine research innovations, explore opportunities in clinical trials, and meet leaders advancing research across our centers and institutes. Dec. 9, 3-5pm, Vista Café, Foege Building, UW Health Sciences Campus. All are welcome including faculty, staff, trainees, and those interested in research. Please RSVP by Nov. 25<https://form.jotform.com/253235210995154>. More information, including the full agenda, is available on our intranet<https://bit.ly/47hcZF9>.

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Women Faculty Leadership Workshop: Building Effective Teams
The Women in Medicine & Science (WIMS) Committee invites you to join the next session of the 2025-2026 Women Faculty Leadership Series on Building Effective Teams. These workshops are open to all, they aim to foster career development, well-being, and leadership skills among women faculty in the School of Medicine. Dec. 16, 4-5pm. Please register<https://bit.ly/3L2pugj>.

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Amy Fields, Editor
amyf at uw.edu<mailto:amyf at uw.edu>


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