Departments of Medicine, Neurology, and Pediatrics

Pictured: Audience at a PSCDP panel discussion event

Dear Physician-Scientist Community,

Welcome to the quarterly newsletter of the Physician-Scientist Career Development Program (PSCDP)! Our program is focused on supporting scientific success and fulfillment amongst laboratory-based physician-scientists in the UCSF Departments of Medicine, Neurology, and Pediatrics.

In this newsletter, we wanted to highlight a special upcoming workshop series focused on NIH funding, “NIH Funding and Study Section Insights”. We know that many in the physician-scientist community are worried about how to understand and navigate recent changes in federal funding policies. In May, we will host a two-part workshop series on this topic. The first (virtual) workshop will focus on the mechanics of the NIH grant review process. Representatives from NINDS and NHLBI will discuss the current structure of NIH grant review and grant funding logistics, with a particular emphasis on providing advice to K08 applicants and Early Stage Investigators. In the second (in-person) event on May 11, to be held at Underdogs Tres near the Parnassus campus, we will feature a panel of UCSF faculty who have served on NIH study sections and/or have been successful grant writers. Panelists will provide their best “pearls” on how to successfully obtain NIH funding. Drinks and food will be provided! Come prepared with all your questions!

We hope to see you at any of our upcoming events. In addition, we invite any of you to reach out if you have suggestions for future events or workshop topics.

Sincerely,

Alexandra, Cathy, Sanjeev, and Danielle

NIH Funding and Study Section Insights (May 7 & May 11)

PSCDP is hosting a two-part career development series focused on NIH funding and the grant review process. These sessions are designed to provide physician-scientist trainees and junior faculty with practical insights into navigating NIH funding opportunities and understanding how applications are evaluated.

Part 1 (Virtual): NIH Funding and Career Development for Physician-Scientists

This session will feature speakers from the NIH who will provide an overview of current NIH funding opportunities and updates to the grant review process, along with practical advice for physician-scientists applying for K awards and first R01s.

Speakers:

• Letitia Weigand, PhD, Director, Office of Training and Workforce Development, NINDS
• Selen M. Catania, PhD, Program Officer, NHLBI

Date: Thursday, May 7, 2026

Time: 12:00-1:00pm 

Location: Zoom (Registration Required)

Please register using the button below. 

Part 2 (In Person): Inside the NIH Study Section: Insights from UCSF Investigators

This in-person panel will feature UCSF NIH-funded investigators and faculty who have recently served on NIH study sections. Panelists will share perspectives on how grants are evaluated, common pitfalls in applications, and strategies for developing competitive proposals. The discussion will also highlight any recent updates or changes observed through recent study section participation, as the NIH review landscape continues to evolve. The session will include a panel discussion followed by audience Q&A and informal networking. 

Date: Monday, May 11, 2026

Time: 4:00-6:00pm 

Location: Underdogs Tres (near the Parnassus Campus)

There will be food and drink! Please RSVP using the button below. 

PSCDP-Sponsored Writing Consultations 

PSCDP is pleased to offer a limited number of complimentary writing consultations for physician-scientists with Vanessa Bender, PhD—an expert in scientific communication with over a decade of experience as an editor and consultant.

Selected participants will submit a draft manuscript or grant proposal for detailed written feedback. Vanessa will provide in-depth suggestions and meet 1:1 to discuss her comments and core principles of effective scientific writing.

If you’re interested, apply via the button below!

In this section, you will find interviews from our remarkable fellows and junior faculty from each of our participating departments.

Pam Marcott, MD, PhD

Adjunct Assistant Professor

Department of Neurology

Division of Movement Disorders and Neuromodulation

What stage of training are you currently in?

I am an Adjunct Assistant Professor in my first year out of fellowship and scientifically am a post-doctoral fellow in Alexandra Nelson's lab.

Describe your laboratory research. 

I am broadly interested in understanding circuit mechanisms of sleep dysfunction in Parkinson's disease. I use mouse models of Parkinson's disease in combination with in vivo electrophysiology and optogenetics to study how aberrant basal ganglia circuitry contributes to sleep fragmentation seen in Parkinson's disease. My research focuses on a region called the pedunculopontine nucleus, which receives basal ganglia inputs and is important in regulating sleep-wake transitions.

What made you want to become a physician-scientist or choose your area of research?

I have always been interested in mechanisms of disease and was directed to the physician scientist path by an undergraduate mentor. As a physician scientist, I am inspired by my patients and their experiences, which drives my laboratory research questions. Parkinson's disease is known for its motor symptoms, but non-motor symptoms including sleep dysfunction are incredibly disabling to patients. Unlike the motor symptoms, we have limited understanding of what drives sleep dysfunction. I aim to use the same systems neuroscience tools and techniques that we have used to dissect motor circuits in Parkinson's disease and apply them to circuits regulating sleep.

Describe a major challenge you have encountered in your career as a physician-scientist.

My biggest challenge, but also my greatest joy, has been having my children during this phase of training. Balancing parental leave and being a present parent and partner with research productivity is not easy in a career path that values grants and papers above all. I'm grateful for the support I've received while (attempting) to keep the balance.

Describe something that gives you joy in your current stage as a physician-scientist. 

Weekly lunches with an incredibly smart and supportive group of female neurologist-scientists at a similar stage of the journey bring me joy and are so important for my mental health!

Do you have a recent accomplishment you would like to highlight? 

I received a Parkinson's Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship for my research (https://www.parkinson.org/blog/research/meet-pamela-marcott) which has been incredibly helpful while attempting to secure NIH funding. However, my greatest accomplishment this year was the birth of my son in November last year!

Do you have a hobby or fun fact you want to share?

My primary hobby outside of work right now is being a mom - but one day maybe I'll have real hobbies again! For now, I love to bike!

Ruzbeh Mosadeghi, MD, PhD

Assistant Adjunct Professor

Department of Medicine

Division of Gastroenterology

What stage of training are you currently in?

Assistant Adjunct Professor

Describe your laboratory research.

My research focuses on inflammatory bowel diseases, including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, with an emphasis on intestinal epithelial cells. We develop and apply live-cell imaging approaches combined with pooled CRISPR perturbations to study dynamic cellular behavior in organoids and related systems. Broadly, my work aims to uncover how gene programs regulate cell state and signaling dynamics in human disease.

What made you want to become a physician-scientist or choose your area of research?

Clinical medicine requires responding to many individual problems throughout the day, often with limited information and the need for immediate solutions. While I enjoy clinical care and endoscopy, I have always been drawn to more abstract problems that require developing new ways to study biology. As a physician-scientist, I maintain a clinical practice while also having the opportunity to build new tools to study challenging diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease.

Describe a major challenge you have encountered in your career as a physician-scientist.

Balancing clinical work, experiments, and grant writing requires constant context switching. This creates pressure to pursue smaller, lower-risk projects, particularly in the context of career development funding, and reviewers often question why I have not yet focused on a single, clearly defined biological problem.

I chose instead to develop an optical pooled screening platform as the foundation of my independent lab, a high-risk, technology-driven approach where progress is often all-or-nothing. While I believed strongly in the technology and its ability to enable many biological discoveries, maintaining momentum while balancing other responsibilities was the most challenging part of my career and tested my persistence.

Describe something that gives you joy in your current stage as a physician-scientist.

My favorite thing to do is drink coffee and sketch ideas on a whiteboard. I especially enjoy meeting with other researchers to discuss science and design new collaborative experiments.

Do you have a recent accomplishment you would like to highlight?

We developed an optical pooled screening platform called RainBar (Rainbow Barcodes), which uses fluorescent protein barcodes delivered by lentivirus and read directly in live cells without fixation or additional processing. This enables multiplexed, imaging-based CRISPR assays in live systems.

A key motivation was to create a platform compatible with organoids grown in Matrigel, which are not readily amenable to fixation-based methods. In doing so, we developed several broadly applicable advances in lentiviral design, barcode stability, and image-based cell segmentation. Our preprint is available here: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.04.686676v1

Do you have a hobby or fun fact you want to share?

I love skiing with my kids and am looking forward to when my 3-year-old can keep up with the rest of us.

Pictured: Ruzbeh skiing with his kids

Farshid Moussavi-Harami, MD, PhD

Assistant Adjunct Professor

Department of Pediatrics

Division of Pediatric Critical Care

What stage of training are you currently in?

This is my 3rd year as an assistant professor in the Division of Pediatric Critical Care.

Describe your laboratory research.

My research investigates how Shp1, an immune-regulating phosphatase, contributes to acute lung injury (ALI) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), combining genetic mouse models with observational human studies. Through collaborative work, I have discovered novel Shp1 mutations in pediatric patients associated with lethal lung disease and generated corresponding mouse models carrying these mutations. Using these mice, I am dissecting the Shp1 signaling network that regulates hyperinflammation and tissue damage with the ultimate aim of uncovering therapeutic targets for immune modulation in the context of life-threatening hyperinflammation. 

What made you want to become a physician-scientist or choose your area of research?

My passion for lung biology and immunology is deeply rooted in my clinical work as a pediatric intensivist. A defining moment came when I cared for an adolescent with chronic lung disease whose condition progressed to fatal ARDS. Whole-exome sequencing ultimately revealed a novel compound heterozygous mutation in the gene encoding SHP1, pointing to immune dysregulation and hyperinflammation. That experience directly inspired my research, and I have since reproduced these mutations in mouse models with the goal of developing targeted therapies for patients with hyperinflammation-associated ARDS.

Describe a major challenge you've encountered in your career as a physician-scientist.

I think an ongoing challenge is finding the time to balance the lab, clinical work, and life.

Describe something that gives you joy in your current stage as a physician-scientist.

I really enjoy sharing preliminary data with mentors and lab members. It’s nice to observe our project's progress and have a scientific story come together. 

Do you have a recent accomplishment you would like to highlight, like a presentation, award, publication, grant, or new collaboration?

I received the Parker B. Francis Foundation fellowship this past summer, which is a competitive early-career award for lung biologists. I also received a very competitive score on my K08 grant application and am awaiting further news from the NIH (fingers crossed). 

Do you have a hobby or fun fact you want to share? 

I became a father a year ago and it has really changed my perspective on my clinical work in the PICU and its impact on my patients and families (photo from 1yr Birthday Party!) 

Pictured: Farshid with child from 1 year birthday party

Jessica Jimenez, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, received a K08 from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), for a project titled, "Effects of Sleep Loss on Memory Consolidation Within a Corticothalamic Circuit."

Confidential Consultations

Are you facing a significant challenge in your scientific or professional life as a laboratory-based physician-scientist? If you’d benefit from speaking with someone beyond your primary or career mentors, PSCDP offers one-time confidential consultations with a member of our leadership team.

Request a session using the button below.

Mentoring Committees 

PSCDP assembles mentoring committees for laboratory-based physician-scientists in Medicine, Neurology, and Pediatrics during their fellowship and junior faculty years. These committees provide ongoing scientific and career guidance tailored to your professional growth.

If you're interested, register using the button below, and we’ll reach out to start the process.