Meet the 2026 CTSI K Scholars

The University at Buffalo Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) has made 2026 K Scholar Program awards to faculty from UB and Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center whose research interests range from lung cancer to artificial intelligence. These researchers are already making an impact through their work in the community. Now, these seven individuals join the ranks of CTSI K Scholars.

“We are excited to welcome this new cohort of CTSI K Scholars to our mentored career development award program and to contribute to their research and professional development,” says CTSI Director Sanjay Sethi, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor, Senior Associate Dean for Clinical and Translational Research, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. “These individuals are the next generation of clinical and translational research leaders, and we are thrilled to support them in their efforts.”

The CTSI K Scholar Program is directed by CTSI Workforce Development Core Director Ekaterina Noyes, PhD, MPH, Associate Dean for Translational and Team Science, School of Public Health and Health Professions, and John Canty, MD, SUNY Distinguished and Albert and Elizabeth Rekate Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Jacobs School. The program offers research mentoring, career and professional development, and funding to outstanding junior faculty and senior fellows transitioning to independent faculty positions. The program also facilitates the development of the Scholars’ professional skills and the transition to their next career level within the clinical and translational workforce pipeline.

“The new K12 cohort builds on the strong foundation of the CTSI’s prior KL2 program directed by Dr. Margarita Dubocovich, while introducing a more individualized and forward-looking approach to career development,” says Noyes. “Scholars benefit from tailored, multi-faceted training, leadership coaching and mentoring designed to accelerate their transition to independence, with an earlier and more intentional focus on grant writing and research translation. Reflecting the program’s breadth, the cohort spans a wide range of clinical, population, data science, implementation, and preclinical research topics, positioning investigators to address pressing healthcare challenges and improve outcomes across communities in Western New York.”

"We had an extremely large and competitive applicant pool from which we were able to select seven exceptionally talented candidates,” adds Canty. “They come from seven different departments across the health sciences and five are physician-scientists, which is the largest number that have entered the CTSI K Scholar career development program since its inception."

The 2026 cohort of CTSI K Scholars includes:

Main research focus: Artificial intelligence healthcare tools for older adults

“My research focuses on improving patient safety for older adults using patient-facing artificial intelligence tools. The project’s goal is to create a participatory implementation science methodology to co-design AI tools directly with the people who use them. Specifically, I am working with older adults to utilize AI to convert physician written discharge summaries into patient-friendly discharge instructions that are safe, comprehensive, and easy to understand. The career development activities in this award will develop my expertise in user-centered design for AI tools for older adults.”

Main research focus: The impact of titrated ambulatory oxygen therapy patients with chronic lung disease and isolated exertional hypoxemia

“My research project is a pilot study on the feasibility of a clinical trial designed to examine how different methods of oxygen delivery, titrated to individual patient need, meet real-world oxygen demands and impact patients’ activity and symptoms. It is an honor to have been selected for the CTSI K Scholars Program. The support, mentorship, and training I will receive through this award will be instrumental in my career development and will help me move closer to my academic goal of being an independent physician-researcher improving the care and outcomes of patients with interstitial lung disease.”

Main research focus: Developing bacteriophages for difficult-to-treat infections

“Antibiotic resistance and medical device-related infections leave some patients without any effective treatment options. My K12-funded research addresses this crisis by harnessing bacteriophages, viruses that are safe for humans and naturally attack and kill specific bacteria. I am investigating how these bacteriophages recognize their targets and interact with our immune system. Deciphering these complex interactions will enable us to develop more precise therapies, offering a lifeline to patients with antibiotic-resistant strains or device-related infections.”

Main research focus: Cerebrovascular diseases, including stroke and cerebral aneurysms, with a particular emphasis on how these conditions affect women differently and a goal to identify key risk factors and biological markers that can help better understand, predict, and prevent these diseases in women

“Our current K12 project is focused on understanding why women are at significantly higher risk of having ruptured brain aneurysms than men. Using a translational model, we will study underlying genetic differences, specifically those on the X chromosomes, which may help explain this disparity. The K12 program will support the early stages of this work by generating and validating important preliminary findings. These insights will lay the foundation for larger studies aimed to improve how we identify and monitor at-risk patients. Ultimately, my goal is to develop more personalized approaches to preventing and treating strokes and aneurysms.”

Main research focus: Developing clinically interpretable artificial intelligence models to personalize care for lung cancer patients, particularly in the survivorship setting after surgery, with a goal to move beyond one-size-fits-all follow-up strategies by using multimodal data to guide individualized surveillance and clinical decision-making

“My work focuses on developing interpretable AI tools to personalize care for patients after lung cancer surgery. Despite curative treatment, many patients remain at risk for recurrence or second primary cancers, yet current follow-up strategies are largely uniform and do not reflect individual risk. Through this award, I am developing models that integrate clinical and imaging data to generate patient-specific risk over time and identify when that risk is highest. Importantly, these tools are designed to provide clear explanations and link predictions to actionable decisions, such as how often to obtain surveillance imaging. The K Scholar program provides the mentorship and training needed to translate this work from model development to prospective clinical evaluation and implementation.”

Main research focus: Developing translational optical imaging technologies to advance disease diagnosis and management

“As a biomedical engineer, my goal is to develop optical imaging technologies that translate into clinically meaningful impact — improving diagnosis, understanding disease mechanisms, and guiding treatment decisions. I am deeply honored to be selected as a CTSI K Scholar, where I will develop imaging methods to assess retinal photoreceptor structure and function in inherited retinal diseases. The mentorship, training, and support of the CTSI K Scholars Program will be critical for gaining an in-depth understanding of retinal clinical workflows, conducting human imaging studies, building essential collaborations, and shaping me into a biomedical engineer driven by real-world clinical needs.”

Main research focus: Cerebrovascular health across the lifespan

“My career and research goals are aimed at understanding brain health across the lifespan. In addition, I aim to determine non-pharmaceutical interventions to ameliorate deficits that may occur across the lifespan, with a particular emphasis on women due to their increased lifetime risk of stroke and dementia. The vast majority of my work has centered around determining whether hot water immersion and other modalities may be a useful tool to improve cerebrovascular health in humans. As an early career investigator, becoming a K Scholar has afforded me the tremendous opportunity to further my work regarding the efficacy of passive heat therapy on brain health in women, and determine if these responses differ based on menopause status. I am honored to receive this award and am excited to contribute to the research aimed at exploring and improving brain health across the lifespan — with a particular emphasis on women.” 

Visit the CTSI website to see CTSI K Scholar alumni and to learn more about the program, which will seek new applicants in 2027.