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ASH Scholar Award Celebrates 40 years of funding early-career hematology researchers

(WASHINGTON, January 17, 2024) — The ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ (ASH) announces the 35 recipients of its Scholar Awards for 2025. Now in its 40th year, the ASH Scholar Award supports early career investigators dedicated to careers in hematology research as they transition from training programs to careers as independent investigators and is one of the Society’s most prestigious research award programs.

First established in 1985, each ASH Scholar Award provides $100,000 for the Fellow level, $125,000 for the Fellow to Faculty level, and $150,000 for the Junior Faculty level. The program funds hematologists in the United States and Canada who conduct basic, translational, and clinical research that advances the understanding and treatment of blood disorders.

“The ASH Scholar Award showcases ASH’s longstanding commitment to nurturing the next generation of hematologists. By providing funding and mentorship to these early-career investigators, we help empower them to pursue research that will advance our understanding and treatment of blood disorders,” said Belinda Avalos, MD, 2025 ASH President. “We are incredibly proud of this year’s awardees and eager to see how their work will improve the lives of patients living with blood disorders worldwide.”

The 2025 Scholar Awards recipients:

Basic/Translational Research Fellows
Juan Barajas, PhD, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Gabriele Casirati, MD, PhD, Boston Children’s Hospital
Meng-Wei Ko, DVM, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles
Srikanth Kodali, PhD, Baylor College of Medicine
Andri Leo Lemarquis, MD, PhD, City of Hope Cancer Care and Research
Anh Ngo, PhD, University of California, San Diego
Maria Sirenko, PhD, New York University Grossman School of Medicine
Lara Wahlster, MD, PhD, Boston Children’s Hospital
Andrew Young, MD, PhD, Washington University in St. Louis

Basic/Translational Research Fellow to Faculty Scholars
Tomohiro Aoki, MD, PhD, Princess Margaret Cancer Center
Derek Janssens, PhD, Van Andel Institute
Hanzhi Luo, PhD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Irina Portier, PhD, Washington University in St. Lous
Divij Verma, PhD, Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Basic/Translational Research Junior Faculty
Roger Belizaire, MD, PhD, Dana Farber Cancer Institute
Ju Fang Chang, PhD, Washington University in St. Louis
Andrew Dunbar, MD, MD Anderson Cancer Center
Benjamin Durham, MD, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences
Franco Izzo, PhD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Courtney Jones, PhD, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Peter Miller, MD, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital
Tanaya Shree, MD, PhD, Oregon Health and Science University
Pamela Sung, MD, PhD, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center
Elisa Ten Hacken, PhD, Weill Cornell Medical College
Christina Termini, PhD, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
Eric Wang, PhD, The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine

Clinical Research Fellows
Mathew Angelos, MD, PhD, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
Lauren Klein, MD, Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Clinical Research Junior Faculty
Rusha Bhandari, MD, MS, City of Hope Cancer Care and Research
Matthew Frigault, MD, MS, Massachusetts General Hospital
Sanghee Hong, MD, Duke University
Melissa Loh, MD, University of Rochester Medical Center
Anna Parks, MD, University of Utah
Natasha Szuber, MD, MSc, Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital, Montreal University
Aman Wadhwa, MD, University of Alabama at Birmingham

ASH Scholar Awards are made possible through support from the ASH Foundation as well as from the corporate community, individual donors, and funds committed by the Society. ASH gratefully acknowledges AstraZeneca and the Deerfield Foundation for supporting this award.

Over the past 40 years, almost 700 recipients have received the ASH Scholar Award.

ASH commits approximately $13 million annually in support of the careers of the next generation of leaders in the field of hematology through the Society’s awards and career development programs.

The ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ (ASH) (hematology.org) is the world’s largest professional society of hematologists dedicated to furthering the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disorders affecting the blood. Since 1958, the Society has led the development of hematology as a discipline by promoting research, patient care, education, training, and advocacy in hematology.

The Blood journals () are the premier source for basic, translational, and clinical hematological research. The Blood journals publish more peer-reviewed hematology research than any other academic journals worldwide.

Contact:
Claire Whetzel, 202-629-5085
[email protected]