[domweek] DOM Week, October 20-24, 2025

[Department of Medicine weekly newsletter via domweek]

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DOM Week
October 17, 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
Minority Faculty Mentoring Award
[Jason Deen]Dr. Jason Deen, professor (Cardiology), is the 2025 recipient of the Committee on Minority Faculty Advancement (CMFA) Minority Faculty Mentoring Award. He was selected for his work to advance the careers and personal development of those underrepresented in medicine and science.

This award recognizes the need for excellence in mentoring underrepresented faculty groups to achieve diversity and inclusion, key elements that can unleash creativity and innovation to meet the healthcare needs of our region.

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Calls for nominations
Distinguished Staff Awards
Nominations are currently being accepted for the UW Distinguished Staff Awards<https://hr.uw.edu/dsa/>, the University's highest staff honor. Faculty, staff and students may nominate individual staff or teams primarily composed of staff members who exemplify excellence. Nominations due Dec. 12.

Thorud Leadership Awards
Please consider recognizing our leaders by nominating them for the David B. Thorud Leadership Award<https://hr.uw.edu/thorud/>. Open to current UW faculty, academic appointees and staff. Nominations due Dec. 12.

William J. Bremner Endowed Mentorship Awards
Nominations are open for the William J. Bremner Endowed Mentorship Awards<https://medicine.uw.edu/about/awards/dom-awards/bremner/>, honoring faculty for their contributions to the scientific, educational, and patient care missions of the Department of Medicine through exemplary sustained and high impact mentorship. Nominations due Nov. 10.


Faculty news
Filipino American History Month Spotlight: Marites Bautista Almachar
[Marites Bautista Almachar]Dr. Marites Bautista Almachar, teaching associate (Cardiology) was highlighted by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) in their celebration of Filipino American History Month (October).

Marites began her nursing career in 2013 at the University of Washington Medical Center (UWMC) and is proud to have remained here ever since. She cares for a complex and diverse population, including patients with heart failure, transplants, interventional and electrophysiology needs, and those requiring mechanical circulatory support.

Marites credits her parents' immigration from the Philippines to the United States as the foundation for the opportunities she and her siblings have had.

Read her story on our news site<https://bit.ly/3WJGhHC>.

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Maudslien Endowed Chair in Breast Cancer Precision Oncology Research
[Heather Parsons]Dr. Heather Parsons, associate professor (Hematology and Oncology) has been awarded the Maudslien Endowed Chair in Breast Cancer Precision Oncology Research at Fred Hutch. She is also head of the Breast Oncology Program.

"I'm very humbled and honored by this endowed chair, and it feels like a mandate to both be able to lead this breast cancer program and to develop the science that I've been working on from my time in Boston," Parsons said. "I'm looking forward to leading this group of really incredible breast cancer researchers and doctors to help reduce the burden of breast cancer on our patients and in the world."

Read the full story from Hutch News<https://bit.ly/4n6K5gS>.

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[Nick Burwick]Nicholas Burwick elected president of AVAHO
Dr. Nicholas Burwick, associate professor (Hematology and Oncology) was elected to serve a one-year term as president of the Association of VA Hematology/Oncology (AVAHO). AVAHO exists to increase the skills and abilities of veteran-centered cancer care professionals across all disciplines so they can provide the best possible care for our veterans.


Staff news
Hispanic and Latinx Heritage month spotlight: Juliet Torres
[Juliet Torres]Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 is Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month, and throughout the month, Vitals<https://bit.ly/4ojYVlh> has been celebrating the contributions and diverse cultures of our Hispanic and Latinx colleagues in a multi-part series. They recently featured Juliet Torres, research genetic counselor (Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine).

"Shaped by both personal and clinical experiences, I have long aspired to be a Latina healthcare provider who offers bilingual, culturally conscious care," she says. "While I initially considered becoming a physician, discovering genetic counseling captured my interest. I was drawn to the profession's emphasis on guiding patients through informed decision-making and addressing psychosocial needs. I value how genetic counselors translate complex concepts into clear, accessible language. My goal is to empower patients in their personal understanding and their ability to share genetic information with their loved ones."


Research news
A one-stop-shop: Integrating hypertension care into HIV clinics
[Chris Longenecker]For people living with HIV (PLWH) in Africa, hypertension is the leading cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. However, despite increased access to effective antiretroviral therapy, PLWH in Africa have limited access to high-quality care for cardiovascular diseases such as strokes, heart failure, and kidney diseases.

Looking to address this issue, Dr. Chris Longenecker, professor (Cardiology) and other researchers are conducting the PULESA-Uganda study, which aims to improve blood pressure treatment for PLWH in Uganda in a scalable and sustainable manner.

Sharing their study protocol in a recent BMC Health Services Research article<https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12913-025-13281-9>, the researchers detail how they aim to assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of two different strategies of integrating blood pressure care into HIV clinics in Uganda. While HIV clinics in many African countries offer some wrap around services, this study follows a movement to work towards integrating more comprehensive care into the clinics.

"Clients like a one-stop shop where they can get all of their primary care needs met," said Longenecker. "Through our costing work, we've found that patients end up spending a significant amount out of pocket for things like transportation to and from the clinic. The wait times to see a clinician are so long that it helps to get multiple problems addressed at once."

Read the full story on the Dept. of Global Health website<https://bit.ly/3L1FnDL>.

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Hall of Fame Inductee
[Moritz Stolla]The Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies (AABB) Foundation Board of Directors has selected Dr. Moritz Stolla, associate professor (Hematology and Oncology) as the 2025 inductee for the Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame recognizes a prestigious and select group of AABB Foundation grant recipients who leveraged their early-career grant funding into successful careers in transfusion medicine, biotherapies, or patient blood management and who demonstrate exemplary leadership within the field.

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[Jared Mayers]Early career research awards
Dr. Jared Mayers, assistant professor (Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine) has recently been awarded two research grants. The V Foundation V Scholar Grant supports early-career, tenure-track faculty in cancer research, funding both fundamental laboratory and translational projects. His project, "Developing tools to unlock the role of the pulmonary microbiome in lung cancer" will develop novel sequencing methods to functionally characterize the lung tumor microbiome, aiming to define the specific microbial activities that promote malignancy.

The Edward Mallinckrodt, Jr. Foundation Award provides start-up support to advance research toward independent funding. To combat antibiotic resistance, his project, "A metabolomics pipeline to uncover new microbial targets in infection," will expand the application of a reverse-translational metabolomics pipeline to Gram-positive infections, identifying microbial metabolic behaviors in patients that are essential for pathogenesis and represent new targets for intervention.

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Real-world elranatamab outcomes in multiple myeloma
[Andrew Portuguese]Dr. Andrew Portuguese, assistant professor (Hematology and Oncology) has received a ~$250K research grant from Pfizer focused on real-world elranatamab outcomes in multiple myeloma. He is the PI of a multi-institutional collaboration with the Cleveland Clinic and Moffitt Cancer Center.

Their project, "Evaluating the Impact of IVIg on Elranatamab Outcomes in Relapsed or Refractory Multiple Myeloma: A Real-World Analysis" evaluates whether intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) improves safety and clinical outcomes in patients receiving elranatamab, a BCMA-directed bispecific antibody, with the goal of informing evidence-based infection mitigation strategies.

This will be a rigorous, multi-center analysis of IVIg as a supportive care intervention in this setting, leveraging detailed real-world data and modern causal inference techniques.


Recent publications
Dr. Tara Babu, assistant professor (Allergy and Infectious Diseases) is co-author of "Historical Advances in Clinical Trial Design and Expanding Representation as the New Frontier for Innovation<https://bit.ly/46Suv3G>" and ">From Yesterday to Tomorrow: How Vaccine Platforms Have Shaped the Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units<https://bit.ly/4qfDVxF>" in Clinical Infectious Diseases and "Mucosal and Systemic Antibody Responses After Boosting With a Bivalent Messenger RNA Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Vaccine<https://bit.ly/3KUG29Z>" in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Dr. Kelley Branch, professor, is lead author, and Dr. Sumeet Brar, fellow (Cardiology) is senior author of  "Observe, Treat, Adhere: Interactions of CT Coronary Artery Disease, Lipid-Lowering Adherence, and Cardiovascular Events<https://bit.ly/3WBP91U>" in JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging. Dr. Branch is also lead author of "Effect of Efpeglenatide on Heart Failure Outcomes: A Participant-Level Exploratory Analysis of the Randomized AMPLITUDE-O Trial<https://bit.ly/3W317BG>" in Diabetes Care.

Dr. Sumeet Brar, fellow, is lead author, and Dr. Eugene Yang, professor of clinical practice (Cardiology) is senior author of "Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Risk Assessment in the Age of PREVENT<https://bit.ly/3JiHMJN>" in Current Epidemiology Reports. Dr. Yang is also senior author of "Opportunistic Detection of Coronary Artery Calcium on Noncardiac Chest Computed Tomography: An Emerging Tool for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association<https://bit.ly/478G19W>" in Circulation.

Dr. Lorenzo Giacani, professor (Allergy and Infectious Diseases) is co-author of "Syphilis Pathogenesis: Host Immune Response vs Pathogen Immune Evasion<https://bit.ly/4hiGECy>" in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Dr. Kerry Laing, senior research scientist, is lead author and Dr. David Koelle, professor (Allergy and Infectious Diseases) is senior author of "Safety and immunogenicity of investigational herpes simplex virus-2 vaccines in adults with recurrent genital infection<https://bit.ly/4n49bgr>" in Vaccine. DOM co-authors are Lawrence Corey and Anna Wald.

Dr. Matthew Rivara, associate professor (Nephrology) is senior author of "How I Treat Nocturnal Home Hemodialysis - an under-prescribed but essential home dialysis modality in the United States<https://bit.ly/4ncCeP5>" in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

Dr. Suzanne Watnick, professor (Nephrology) is co-author of "Is Assisted Home Dialysis Feasible In the US? Addressing Legislative and Regulatory Levers<https://bit.ly/48zAUSz>" in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.


In the news
Dr. Helen Chu, professor (Allergy and Infectious Diseases) is quoted in "Want a COVID shot? What new federal and WA guidance mean for you<https://bit.ly/4n44WkQ>" in the Seattle Times.

Dr. Timothy Dellit, professor (Allergy and Infectious Diseases), CEO of UW Medicine and dean of the UW School of Medicine, is quoted in "Trump's new $100K visa fee could worsen state doctor shortages, experts say<https://bit.ly/4hcFHvk>" in Stateline.

Dr. Eugene Yang, professor of clinical practice (Cardiology) is quoted in "Is heart disease preventable? How to reduce your risk, according to cardiologists<https://bit.ly/47oaHVT>" in USA Today.


Weekly Calendar, October 20-24, 2025
Our events calendar is posted on our website<https://medicine.uw.edu/news/trumba-calendar>.


Coming up
Medicine Grand Rounds
Upcoming 2025 Grand Rounds:
Fialkow Scholar Award presentation (Jennifer Ross), Nov. 7
Kirby Lecture (Yonatan Grad, Harvard), Dec. 5
Reflections on a Journey of Purpose, Persistence, and Possibility in Academic Medicine (Reena Mehra), Dec. 19

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2025 J. Randall Curtis Palliative Care Conference
Join colleagues from across the WWAMI region for this dynamic, research-informed program focused on palliative and neuropalliative care, sponsored by the Cambia Palliative Care Center of Excellence (CPCCE). Featuring keynote speakers Dr. Maisha T. Robinson (Mayo Clinic) and Dr. Ashlee R. Loughan (VCU), the conference offers plenaries, breakout sessions, and a multidisciplinary panel designed to support both generalist and specialist practice. Nov. 13-14, in-person kickoff event at UW + virtual conference. Learn more and register at the CPCCE website<https://cpcce.uw.edu/conference>.

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Rebuilding Medical Education with Peace, Love and Hope
In this Conversation Café × CLIMEcast Live session, Drs. Addie McClintock (General Internal Medicine) and Justin Bullock (Nephrology) will lead a discussion based on their paper, "Our House Won't Rebuild Itself: Peace, Love, and Hope as Tools to Transform Graduate Medical Education." This paper explores current ways in which graduate medical education can cause harm to trainees and re-envisions a graduate medical education based in psychological safety, identity safety, and belonging. Nov. 14, 12-1pm, via zoom. Please register<https://bit.ly/4nVE5Zt>.

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


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