At the center of the UCSF Weill Institute’s mission is a desire to improve the lives of patients suffering from disorders of the nervous system and a commitment to translating discoveries made at the bench into therapies that can make an impact at the bedside.
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 UCSF Weill Institute established the Clinician-Scientist Awards in 2021 to annually provide early-career support and mentoring for outstanding clinicians who have also shown extraordinary potential for careers in brain disease research.
19
Clinician-Scientists Awarded to Date
2025 Awardees
Support for the Clinician-Scientist Awards was expanded in 2024 through a partnership with the Weill Neurohub, allowing for eight UCSF awardees, with the UCSF Weill Institute and Weill Neurohub supporting four awardees each. This UCSF cohort is joined also with a cohort of clinician-scientists at the University of Washington.
Nyasha Chagwedera, MD, PhD
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Research Focus:
Examining the mental health effects of diet in cardiometabolic and psychiatric disorders in high-risk populations.
Elizabeth George, MBBS
Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging
Research Focus:
Using advanced MRI techniques to study fetal and pediatric brain development in various neurodevelopmental disorders.
Maya Graham, MD, PhD
Departments of Neurological Surgery and Neurology
Research Focus:
Developing stem cell-based models to unravel the epigenetic underpinnings of pediatric and adult gliomas.
Pamela Marcott, MD, PhD
Department of Neurology
Research Focus:
Investigating circuit mechanisms that underlie and contribute to sleep dysfunction in Parkinson's disease.
Weill Neurohub Awardees
Sharon Chiang, MD, PhD
Department of Neurology
Research Focus:
Understanding cellular circuit mechanisms of memory and learning impairment in epilepsy to develop focused neuromodulation-based treatments.
Erin Reilly, PhD
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Research Focus:
Using computational and cognitive science, intervention research, and advanced statistics to improve outcomes for those who suffer from eating disorders.
Prasad Shirvalkar, MD, PhD
Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care
Research Focus:
Uncovering human brain circuit mechanisms of pain in the service of developing personalized neuromodulation therapies.
John Yue, MD
Department of Neurological Surgery
Research Focus:
Discovery, validation, and implementation of biomarkers to advance traumatic brain injury diagnosis, prognostication, and precision-medicine approaches.
2024 Awardees
2024 Awardees
Support for the Clinician-Scientist Awards was expanded in 2024 through a partnership with the Weill Neurohub, allowing for eight UCSF awardees, with the UCSF Weill Institute and Weill Neurohub supporting four awardees each. This UCSF cohort is joined also with a cohort of clinician-scientists at the University of Washington.
Odmara Barreto Chang, MD, PhD
Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care
Research Focus:
Understanding and developing tools for the prevention of perioperative neurocognitive disorders.
Winson Ho, MD
Department of Neurological Surgery
Research Focus:
Development of novel immunotherapeutic strategies for adult and pediatric brain tumors.
Richard Jin, MD, PhD
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Research Focus:
Understanding how the developing brain protects against pathogens and how immune-challenges impact neurodevelopment and behavior.
Sarah Kaufman, MD, PhD
Department of Neurology
Research Focus:
Identifying the mechanisms that underlie protein aggregation and neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia.
Weill Neurohub Awardees
Ekin Guney, MD
Department of Pathology
Research Focus:
Deciphering how neuronal signaling regulates the development of glioma and medulloblastoma tumors.
Ying Li, MD, PhD
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Research Focus:
Investigating the role of neurotransmitters in the efficacy of antipsychotic therapies.
Carson Moseley, MD, PhD
Department of Neurology
Research Focus:
Employing immunologic and genomic approaches to investigate neuroinflammatory disorders.
Jacob Young, MD
Department of Neurological Surgery
Research Focus:
Exploring how inflammatory signaling contributes to brain tumor evasion of anti-cancer immunotherapies.
2023 Awardees
Brandon Holmes, MD, PhD
Department of Neurology
Research Focus:
Using advanced Proteomic techniques to understand how microglial reactivity contributes to Alzheimer's disease.
Andreas Rauschecker, MD, PhD
Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging
Research Focus:
Developing artificial intelligence algorithms to analyze and quantify clinical brain MRI in the context of a variety of pathologies.
Belinda Wang, MD, PhD
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Research Focus:
Integrating genetic and ‘omics datasets to understand the molecular and cellular level in early-onset psychiatric disorders like Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Ethan Winkler, MD, PhD
Department of Neurological Surgery
Research Focus:
Investigating how cellular abnormalities in the brain's vasculature give rise to diseases that result in stroke, in order to develop targeted treatments.
Creative Minds Care Neuroscience Fellowship
An exciting addition to the Clinician-Scientist Awards for 2023, Creative Minds Care, an organization created with the mission to live in a world without Alzheimer's disease is partnering with the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences to create the Creative Minds Care Neuroscience Fellowship to support a UCSF neuroscience scholar performing research in neurodegenerative diseases.
Courtney Lane-Donovan, MD, PhD
Department of Neurology
Research Focus:
Investigating the mechanisms of aging that predispose the brain to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and other tauopathies.
2022 Awardees
Josiah Gerdts, MD, PhD
Department of Neurology
Research Focus:
Engineering cells to treat brain diseases
Shawn Hervey-Jumper, MD, FAANS
Department of Neurological Surgery
Research Focus:
Mapping brain tumor cells and identifying their interactions with healthy tissue
Shuyu Wang, MD, PhD
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Research Focus:
The neural basis of social attachment
2021 Awardees
Kristen Berendzen, MD, PhD
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Research Focus:
Endocrine signaling and mitochondrial stress
Claire Clelland, MD, PhD
Department of Neurology
Research Focus:
Gene editing and treatments for neurodegeneration
Doris Wang, MD, PhD
Department of Neurological Surgery
Research Focus:
Circuit modulation in Parkinson’s disease