Faculty Affairs

Leadership Appointments:
MD-PhD Program, Medical Student Research

Congratulations to the following faculty on their recent leadership appointments.

MD-PhD Program

Neil Ganem, PhD, and Katrina Traber, MD, PhD, have been named co-directors of the MD-PhD program, effective July 1. They had been serving as associate directors for the past year, working alongside Vickery Trinkaus-Randall, PhD, and Steven Borkan, MD, who have stepped down from the role and returned to the faculty.

An associate professor of pharmacology, physiology & biophysics, Ganem directs the Laboratory of Cancer Cell Biology. Ganem’s NIH-funded research is focused on mechanistically defining the causes and consequences of chromosome instability in human cancer. He earned his PhD in biochemistry from the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and completed his postdoctoral training at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. 

An assistant professor of medicine/pulmonary, allergy, sleep and critical care, Traber’s NIH-funded research focuses on innate immune responses in pneumonia, with a long-term goal of developing host-directed therapies. Board certified in internal medicine, pulmonary and critical care medicine, Traber divides her clinical time between pulmonary medicine, medical intensive care and tuberculosis care. She earned her MD-PhD from NYU and completed her training at Boston Medical Center. 

Congratulations to them on their new roles and thanks to Trinkaus-Randall and Borkan for their many contributions, including successful transition of the MD-PhD program to a prestigious Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Medical Student Research

Sarah Mazzilli, PhD, and Manish Sagar, MD, have been named assistant deans of medical student research effective July 15, replacing Matt Layne, PhD, who was named interim associate dean of graduate medical sciences.

An assistant professor of medicine, Mazzilli investigates the molecular events associated with the progression of premalignant squamous lung lesions for targeted chemoprevention. She earned her PhD in molecular pharmacology & therapeutics from SUNY-University of Buffalo Roswell Park Cancer Institute and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the lab of Avrum Spira, MD, MSc, at BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine.

A professor of medicine/infectious diseases and virology, immunology & microbiology, Sagar studies HIV and coronaviruses. Current efforts include examining virus and host antibody characteristics in mother-to-child transmission and in the presence of other infections, such as tuberculosis. He received his MD from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Congratulations to Mazzilli and Sagar on their new roles.