Congratulations to CARTI's 2025 Basic Science Research Training Track Cohort!

On December 10^th, we celebrated the graduation of our 12 newest CARTI scholars who completed the second cohort of the Basic Science Research Training Track. The scholars each gave a five-minute graduation “lightning” talk presentation on their proposed research, for which they have also prepared NIH grant applications that have gone through a rigorous mock NIH-study section review.

I want to first congratulate all the scholars for their hard work in the past four months and I wish them all the best as they submit the grant applications they have worked so hard to prepare. I also want to recognize their mentors for the immense support they continue to provide these scholars.

• James Ahodantin, PhD
  Mentor: Lishan Su, PhD and Shyamasundaran Kottilil, MBBS, PhD
• Daniel R. Bergman, PhD
  Mentor: Elana Fertig, PhD 

• Victor Borda, PhD
  Mentor: Timothy O’Connor, PhD 

• Prajwal Ciryam, MD, PhD
  Mentor: Marc Simard, MD, PhD, Peter Crino, MD, PhD, and Seth Ament, PhD 

• Mariano Colon-Caraballo, PhD
  Mentor: Irina Burd, MD, PhD 

• Timothy D. Faw
  Mentor: Junfang Wu, BM, PhD, Alan Faden, MD, and Margaret McCarthy, PhD 

• Arshi Khanam, PhD
  Mentor: Shyamasundaran Kottilil, MBBS, PhD

• Joe Kodama, MD, PhD
  Mentor: Satoru Otsuru, MD, PhD

• Zohreh Safari, PhD
  Mentor: Allan Doctor, MD

• Fanklin R. Toapanta, MD, PhD
  Mentor: Marcelo Sztein, MD

• Pan-Yen Tseng, BVM, MS, PhD
  Mentor: Man-Kyo Chung, DMD, PhD

• Nicholas J. Weir, PhD
  Mentor: Thomas Longden, PhD

I also want to recognize all the faculty members who volunteered their time and energy to serve as primary reviewers of grant proposals for our mock NIH study section. These are so valuable for faculty who are just launching their research. We could not do this without the generous support of willing faculty members:

• Owen White, PhD
• Matthew Frieman, PhD
• Rozangela Mezghanni, PhD
• Liqing 'Justin' Yu, MD, PhD
• Sarah Clark, PhD
• Christy Chang, PhD, MS
• Joseph Stains, PhD
• Dudley Strickland, PhD
• Braxton Mitchell, PhD, MPH
• Nevil Singh, PhD
• Brittney Williams, MD
• Joao Pedra, PhD

We are gearing up for our next Basic Science Research Training Track. For those of you interested in applying, keep an eye out for the announcement coming later this spring. I also encourage you to talk to our recent graduates about their experiences with the program.

Sincerely,

-- E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA