2026 Institute for Clinical and Translational Science (ICTS) K12 Mentored Career Development Program Awardees

The ICTS K12 Mentored Career Development Program is designed to support scholars to accelerate their development as independent scientists and to enable and expand their potential to make significant contributions in the biomedical, behavioral, and clinical sciences. The K12 Program is led by Drs. Anand Ganesan, MD, PhD, and Vince Caiozzo, PhD.

Rachel Nordberg, PhD

Associate Specialist, Department of Biomedical Engineering

Primary Mentor: Kyriacos Anthansiou, PhD

Project Title: An osteochondral approach for repairing the mandibular condyle

Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders, including degenerative changes of the mandibular condyle, represent a substantial clinical burden, affecting an estimated 5–25% of the population. Mandibular condyle pathology can arise from congenital defects, traumatic injury, arthritis, or idiopathic resorption, and loss of condylar function can severely diminish quality of life. 2 Conservative treatments, such as steroid injections, offer only temporary relief of symptoms for approximately two months.2 When pain persists, reconstruction is typically required and is most often performed using an alloplastic device or prosthesis. 3 Currently, no biologic therapies exist that restore both the structure and function of the mandibular condyle. Therefore, this proposal aims to apply newly developed osteochondral constructs towards mandibular condyle repair.

Ravi Rajmohan, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Neurology

Primary Mentor: Mark Mapstone, PhD

Project Title: Sex-Based Differences in Clinicopathological Associations of Lewy Body Dementia in Cohorts of Aging

Lewy Body Dementia (LBD) is a challenging disorder which affects a person’s thinking and behavior to the point that they can no longer live independently. These symptoms may be a significant source of distress for patients and their caregivers. Women and men have a similar prevalence of LBD pathology on autopsy. However, women are less likely to receive a diagnosis while alive. This may reflect a bias in how clinical diagnostic criteria were created, but published work have also observed sex-based differences in neuropathology. Understanding sex-based differences in clinical and pathological findings may lead to faster diagnoses and creation of disease modifying treatments.

Gurneet Sangha, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering

Primary Mentor: Naomi Chesler, PhD

Project Title: Red Blood Cell Mechanobiology as a Biomarker for Diabetes-Induced Vascular Dysfunction

Diabetes is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, but there is no standardized clinical method to quantify the impact of diabetes on vascular dysfunction. The critical barrier is the absence of biomarkers that detect diabetes-induced endothelial dysfunction, the initial hallmark of cardiovascular disease. Endothelial function is not clinically measured because isolating these cells requires invasive procedures, culturing them is time-consuming, and maintaining cell viability demands specialized infrastructure. Red blood cells (RBCs) have the potential to overcome this barrier because they 1) are routinely collected in the clinic, 2) are already used to diagnose diabetes via glycated hemoglobin (HbA1C), and 3) generate nitric oxide (NO) when mechanically stimulated, similar to endothelial cells.

Reed Ayabe, MD

Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery

Primary Mentor: Maheswari Senthil, MD

Project Title: Elucidating, modeling, and targeting the XPO7/SLK Axis in Biliary Tract Cancer

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is an aggressive primary liver tumor whose incidence has increased steadily over the past 40 years.1,2 Brush biopsy, often used to diagnose CCA during endoscopy, has a reported sensitivity as low as 30%.3 For patients who receive an accurate diagnosis, the only potentially curative treatment involves surgical extirpation. However, up to 70% of patients develop recurrent disease within two years of surgery.4 Despite an improved understanding of the molecular drivers of CCA,5,6 there are no models that recapitulate the heterogeneous CCA tumor microenvironment in a rigorous fashion in which to develop and study novel therapies. Thus, there is a critical unmet need for novel diagnostic strategies, therapeutic targets, and in vitro models for patients with CCA.

To learn more about the ICTS K12 Program, visit:
ICTS K12 Career Development Program Webpage