Srinivas Viswanathan, PhD, 2009-11 recipient of the HSCI Medical Scientist Training Fellowship award

HSCI is pleased to announce the third recipient of the HSCI Medical Scientist Training Fellowship award, Srinivas Viswanathan. Viswanathan completed both his graduate and postdoctoral research as a member of George Daley’s, MD-PhD, laboratory at Children’s Hospital Boston, exploring the role of lin-28 in microRNA biogenesis as a central figure in cancer and cellular reprogramming. His inducible mouse model of Lin-28 expression has shown a fascinating cancer-stem cell phenotype. Viswanathan has now left the Daley lab to complete his medical studies and is expected to finish his MD-PhD program in May 2011. He is receiving stipend and tuition support from the HSCI for the final two years of his MD studies.

Zuzana Tothova, MD, PhD, 2007-09 recipient of the HSCI Medical Scientist Training Fellowship award

The second recipient of the HSCI award was Zuzana Tothova, MD, PhD, who completed her doctorate at Harvard Medical School in May 2007. Her dissertation work, entitled "Role of forkhead transcriptional factors in hematopoiesis and leukemogenesis," took place in the lab of Gary Gilliland, MD, PhD Brigham and Women's Hospital. Tothova reentered clinical rotations in the summer of 2007 and continued her medical school education. Tothova received HSCI tuition and stipend support for her MD Program from 2007-2009. Her long-term goal is to pursue a career as a physician scientist interested in normal and malignant stem cell biology. Our congratulations to Zuzana who received her MD from Harvard medical School in June 2009.

Ashutosh Jadav, MD, PhD, 2005-07 recipient of the HSCI Medical Scientist Training Fellowship award

The first HSCI Medical Scientist Fellowship award was given in 2005 to Ashutosh Jadhav, MD, PhD whose thesis work was carried out in the lab of Professor Constance Cepko, Dept. of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, where he studied the development of the mammalian retina. The title of his thesis was "Regulation of vertebrate retinal development by the Notch signaling pathway." Jadhav completed his PhD in Genetics in the Division of Medical Sciences at Harvard University in April 2005 and completed his medical degree at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology in June 2007. Jadhav received tuition and stipend support from HSCI for his MD program’s final two years, 2005-07. He then started his clinical training at Massachusetts General Hospital in the Department of Neurology.