Research Resident Past Projects 2020-2022
Christopher Little, MD, 2020-2022, MD
Dr. Little is a research fellow in the NIH-funded T32 Transplant Research Training Program at the University of Wisconsin under the direction of Principal Investigator Drs. Dixon Kaufman, Ray D. Owen, Professor and Chair of the Division of Transplantation. Their work will focus on developing a safe and effective tolerance induction protocol for MHC-disparate renal transplantation in a non-human primate model. Specifically, they seek to establish a novel post-transplant non-myeloablative, helical tomotherapy-based total lymphoid irradiation conditioning regimen followed by donor hematopoietic stem cell infusion as a strategy to generate mixed chimerism and sustained operational tolerance. Furthermore, they seek to elucidate the immunologic mechanisms that underlie induction and maintenance of chimeric-based immunotolerance. Following residency, Dr. Little plans to pursue a fellowship in abdominal organ transplantation.
Kajal Mehta, MD, 2020-2022
Dr. Mehta is a Global Surgery research fellow currently completing a NIH-Fogarty International Global Health Research Fellowship with funding from National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. She is working under the mentorship of Drs. Barclay Stewart, Assistant Professor, and Tam Pham, Professor, Division of Trauma, Burn & Critical Care Surgery, University of Washington, and Drs. Shankar Rai and Kiran Nakarmi, Nepal Cleft and Burn Center in Kirtipur, Nepal. She will be based out of Nepal, focusing on burns and injury prevention in low-resource settings. Dr. Mehta's work encompasses studying enteral resuscitation for major burn injuries in austere settings, critical care-based Quality Improvement initiatives, cookstove-related burn injuries, and the gut/skin microbiome in burn-injured patients. She plans to ultimately pursue a fellowship in Burns and Critical Care and a career in global public health research and program development.
Joshua Rosen, MD, 2020-2022
Dr. Rosen is a research fellow in the NIDDK funded T32 fellowship in Gastrointestinal Surgical Outcomes Research at the Surgical Outcomes Research Center (SORCE) under the mentorship of Dr. David Flum, Professor, Division of General Surgery. Dr. Rosen's main interests lie in improving the quality of decisions made in the care of acutely ill and medically complex surgical and trauma patients. He plans to address this from multiple perspectives including analyzing large datasets to better understand disease outcomes, improving decision-making frameworks, and understanding how to better utilize outcomes data in real-world clinical decisions. Dr. Rosen will also be completing coursework in advanced epidemiologic and statistical methods. He plans to ultimately pursue a fellowship in trauma and critical care.
Irene Zhang, MD, 2020-2022
Dr. Zhang is a research fellow in the NIDDK-funded T32 Fellowship in Gastrointestinal Surgical Outcomes Research at the Surgical Outcomes Research Center (SORCE) under the mentorship of Principal Investigator Dr. David Flum, Professor, Division of General Surgery, and collaborators at the Surgical Outcomes Research Center (SORCE). Her research interests include surgical decision-making, patient-reported outcomes, as well as health economics and health policy. During this time, Dr. Zhang will also complete a MPH degree in Health Services, with a concentration in Health Systems and Policy, at the University of Washington. She ultimately plans to pursue a career in academic surgery.
