American Society for Clinical Investigation Announces 2025 Young Physician-Scientist Awards

The American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) announced the recipients of the 2025 Young Physician-Scientist Awards, which recognizes physician-scientists who have made notable research achievements early in their first faculty appointment. Of the 50 recipients, the Society recognized the following physician-scientists with a clinical and research focus on hematologic malignancies and/or cellular therapy.

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Sheng Cai, MD, PhD, serves as a leukemia specialist and early drug development specialist at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where he also completed his oncology fellowship studying h

ow leukemia cells become resistant to targeted epigenetic therapies. His clinical and laboratory interests include developing early-phase trials for patients with leukemia and characterizing the therapeutic vulnerabilities of TP53-mutated myeloid malignancies.

“I am deeply honored to receive the 2025 ASCI Young Physician-Scientist Award,” Dr. Cai told Blood Cancers Today. “This recognition reaffirms my commitment to advancing scientific discovery and bridging the gap between research and patient care, a mission that is at the heart of the ASCI.”

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Susan DeWolf, MD, a leukemia specialist at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, has a background in studying T-cell immunity in patients with leukemia, with a goal of developing new immune-based treatments. She previously received the Memorial Sloan Kettering Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. Physician Scholar Award and the National Cancer Institute Mentored Clinical Scientist Research Career Development Award, which supports the translational science initiatives of early-career physician scientists.

“I am incredibly grateful to have received the ASCI Young Physician Scientist Award,” Dr. DeWolf told Blood Cancers Today. “It is a privilege to be part of such a dynamic academic community, and I know that the opportunities arising from this award will help propel me on my trajectory as a clinician-scientist dedicated to the study of T-cell immunity in leukemia.”

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As an assistant professor at the Washington University School of Medicine, Francesca Ferraro, 

MD, PhD, has a clinical and laboratory interest in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Specifically, she focuses on modeling mutations in mice to understand how they affect AML progression and to develop personalized approaches to improving the accuracy of chemotherapies. Having grown up in Italy, she completed a hematology residency at the University of Parma before moving to Philadelphia for an internal medicine residency at Pennsylvania Hospital, then to St. Louis for a hematology-oncology fellowship at Washington University.

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Melody Smith, MD, MS, is an assistant professor of medicine (blood and marrow transplantation and cellular therapy) at Stanford University School of Medicine, where she established an independent laboratory for the study of allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells and the impact of the intestinal microbiome on CAR T-cell response in preclinical models. She is also the investigational new drug sponsor of a clinical trial evaluating bone marrow transplant and CAR T-cell therapy in adult patients with high-risk B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

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At his independent laboratory at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Assistant Professor of Medicine Adam Sperling, MD, PhD, investigates the biology of hematologic malignancies with a focus on multiple myeloma, clonal hematopoiesis, mechanisms of disease evolution, and the development of therapy resistance.

“I am deeply honored to receive the ASCI YPSA Award, which really reaffirms my dedication to scientific discovery as a way to improve patients’ lives,” Dr. Sperling told Blood Cancers Today. “I especially appreciate that the YPSA represents the recognition of other scientists for my prior and potential future work as well as the opportunity it provides to connect with and learn from an incredible network of fellow young investigators.”

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Santosha Vardhana, MD, PhD, is a lymphoma specialist at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center with a focus on Hodgkin lymphoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and immunotherapy. His independent research program studied the impact of COVID-19 infection on patients with hematologic malignancies, and his current research program focuses on the relationship between altered nutrient uptake and metabolism and T-cell response regulation during cancer development and progression. He previously received the 2024 Pershing Square Sohn Prize for Young Investigators, which grants early-career scientists in the greater New York area a stipend of $250,000 a year for 3 years to pursue research.

“The members of the American Society of Clinical Investigation are the truest representation of physician-scientists, leveraging fundamental biological insights to further the understanding and treatment of human disease,” he told Blood Cancers Today. “I am humbled and honored to have been selected for a Young Physician-Scientist Award by a group of individuals whose acumen, work ethic, leadership, and compassion has inspired me throughout my training and early career.”

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Waihay Josiah Wong, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pathology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, studies how mutations in leukemia-causing genes alter hematopoietic stem cell behavior by utilizing genetic mouse models, cell biology tools, and multi-omics approaches. He has a background in clonal hematopoiesis and identifying associated risks with clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential, such as chronic liver disease, gout, osteoporosis, and cardiovascular disease.

 

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Caitlin C. Zebley, MD, PhD, is an assistant member in the Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Dedicated to advancing T cell–based immunotherapy for pediatric patients, her research interests include understanding the mechanisms of T-cell biology, studying mutations that drive clonal hematopoiesis, and improving antitumor T cells.

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Reference

ASCI / Young Physician-Scientist Awards. The American Society for Clinical Investigation. Accessed March 3, 2025. https://the-asci.org/controllers/asci/DirectoryController.php?action=earlyCareerRecognition &year=2025&category=EarlyCareerYpsa