The Weill-Washington Research Foundation Clinician-Scientists
Clinician-scientists play an essential role in bridging bench and bedside, though due to the extra demands and complexity of their training, this career path has become increasingly difficult to pursue. In response, the Weill Neurohub, in conjunction with the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences and the Washington Research Foundation, have established the Weill-WRF Clinician-Scientist Awards to provide early-career support and mentoring for outstanding clinicians who have also shown extraordinary potential for careers in brain disease research.
The 2025 Clinician-Scientist Awardees
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Nyasha Chagwedera, MD, PhD
UCSF
Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Research Focus:
Examining the mental health effects of diet in cardiometabolic and psychiatric disorders in high-risk populations.
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Sharon Chiang, MD, PhD
UCSF
Department of Neurology
Research Focus:
Understanding cellular circuit mechanisms of memory and learning impairment in epilepsy to develop focused neuromodulation-based treatments.
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Samuel Emerson, MD, PhD
University of Washington
Department of Neurosurgery
Research Focus:
Growing organoids from patient tumor tissue as a rapid method to test brain tumor treatment susceptibility and personalize individual patient care.
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Elizabeth George, MBBS
UCSF
Department of Radiology
Research Focus:
Using advanced MRI techniques to study fetal and pediatric brain development in various neurodevelopmental disorders.
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Maya Graham MD, PhD
UCSF
Department of Neurosurgery
Research Focus:
Developing stem cell-based models to unravel the epigenetic underpinnings of pediatric and adult gliomas.
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Juliane Gust, MD, PhD
University of Washington
Department of Neurology
Research Focus:
Uncovering the activation factors required for CAR-T cells to be able to access brain tissue and more effectively clear tumors
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Rebecca Hendrickson, MD, PhD
University of Washington
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Research Focus:
Provide new, objective measures for PTSD symptoms and use them to assess treatment response and adjunct therapy options.
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Pamela Marcott MD, PhD
UCSF
Department of Neurology
Research Focus:
Investigating circuit mechanisms that underlie and contribute to sleep dysfunction in Parkinson's disease.
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Erin Reilly, PhD
UCSF
Department of Psychiatry
Research Focus:
Using computational and cognitive science, intervention research, and advanced statistics to improve outcomes for those who suffer from eating disorders.
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Prasad Shirvalkar MD, PhD
UCSF
Department of Anesthesia
Research Focus:
Uncovering human brain circuit mechanisms of pain in the service of developing personalized neuromodulation therapies.
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Monica Sanchez-Contreras, MD, MSc, PhD
University of Washington
Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology
Research Focus:
Investigating Somatic mtDNA Mutations as Early Biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease to offer a new way to diagnose and track neurodegenerative disease in the peripheral blood.
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John Yue MD
UCSF
Department of Neurosurgery
Research Focus:
Discovery, validation, and implementation of biomarkers to advance traumatic brain injury diagnosis, prognostication, and precision-medicine approaches.