Dear colleagues,
I’m pleased to announce that Anand K. Ganesan, MD, PhD, has accepted the role of associate dean for physician-scientist development, effective September 1, 2022.
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| Anand K. Ganesan, MD, PhD |
This new role is a key position supporting Daniela M. Bota, MD, PhD, vice dean of clinical research. In his new role, Dr. Ganesan will be responsible for:
- Creating a physician-scientist training program (analogous to the UCLA STAR Program) that combines clinical fellowships or residency training with formal advanced research training
- Coordinating with clinical departments to develop and submit training grant applications
- Collaborating with the Department of Medical Education and clinical departments to develop funded research programs for medical students (e.g., summer research projects)
- Identifying gaps in the physician-scientist pipeline and working with stakeholders to increase opportunities for research training and support for grant submissions
- Increasing the number of K award applications for junior scientists, including those faculty members that are part of the Physician-Scientist Training Program (PSTP) administered by the UCI School of Medicine Research Development Unit (RDU)
Dr. Ganesan is a UCI home-grown physician-scientist. He applied for a K award shortly after coming to UCI in 2006, and has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) since 2008.
Dr. Ganesan created a physician-scientist training program in the Department of Dermatology, which matched its first candidate into the residency in 2016. To date, Dr. Ganesan has mentored four physician-scientists, two of whom obtained KL2 career development awards, one of whom obtained an NIH K23 career development award, and another who is currently preparing their career development award application.
Along with the training program, Dr. Ganesan also created a non-ACGME fellowship to support physician-scientist training in the Department of Dermatology and is currently the primary investigator of a T32 training grant that has one dedicated slot for physician-scientists. Dr. Ganesan also has a successful track record of mentoring physician-scientists both at UCI and around the country. In addition, he currently serves as the chair of an NIH study section that specifically reviews physician-scientist career development awards.
Dr. Ganesan’s research focuses on understanding how melanocytes respond to environmental cues (UV irradiation, inflammation) in order to maintain normal homeostasis, and determining how this homeostasis is disrupted in diseases such as melanoma and vitiligo. His work spans from basic to clinical research as he recently discovered a new class of drugs to treat cancer and also manages clinical trials for patients with vitiligo.
Dr. Ganesan received his medical degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin. He then completed a residency in internal medicine at St. Mary Medical Center - Long Beach, as well as a residency in dermatology and a physician-scientist training program fellowship at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. He completed his doctoral studies in microbiology and molecular genetics at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
Please join me in congratulating Dr. Ganesan on this new appointment.
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