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November 7, 2019

New Clinical Scholars Join the Center for Clinical and Translational Science
By Editorial Staff

On July 1, 2019, four new Clinical Scholars joined the Rockefeller University Clinical Scholars Program.  They are Drs. Dana Bielopolski, Rachel Niec, Yael Renert-Yuval, and Jeffrey Wong.
 
Dana Bielopolski, MD, PhD
Mentors: Drs. Rhonda Kost and Jonathan Tobin
Laboratory: Allen and Frances Adler Laboratory of Blood and Vascular Biology

 
 
Research Interest: Dr. Bielopolski’s research focuses on characterizing the mechanisms by which nutritional interventions impact blood pressure. She will conduct an inpatient clinical trial enrolling otherwise healthy participants with early hypertension; participants will switch from eating their typical Western diet to consuming the DASH diet, which has been proven to lower blood pressure. Measures of the urine electrolyte ratio, serum hormones, and urine exosomes will be analyzed.
 
Bio: Dr. Dana Bielopolski received her MD and PhD from the Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University in Israel. She completed her internal medicine residency and nephrology fellowship at the Rabin Medical Center in Israel.

Rachel Niec, MD, PhD
Mentor: Dr. Elaine Fuchs
Laboratory: Robin Chemers Neustein Laboratory of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development

Research Interest: Dr. Niec’s research focuses on understanding how immune homeostasis is achieved at barrier surfaces, including in the intestinal tract and skin; specifically how immune cells, epithelial cells, and other tissue resident cells interact throughout development and during inflammation to set appropriate thresholds for immune reactivity and maintain homeostasis in these tissues.

Bio: Dr. Rachel Niec received her MD and PhD from the Cornell Medical College and Tri-Institutional MD PhD Program.  She completed her internal medicine residency research track at Weill Cornell Medical College.  She is in her gastroenterology fellowship at Weill Cornell Medical College/New York Presbyterian Hospital.
 
Yael Renert-Yuval, MD
Mentor: Dr. James Krueger
Laboratory:  Laboratory of Investigative Dermatology

Research Interest: Dr. Renert-Yuval’s research focuses on the immune dysregulations of various inflammatory dermatologic diseases, allowing better understanding of the underlying pathogenesis of these diseases, with the ultimate goal of developing novel therapies. Diseases of interest include scarring and non-scarring hair-loss and atopic dermatitis.

Bio: Dr. Yael Renert-Yuval received her MD and completed her dermatology residency from the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical School in Israel, and spent a year as a research fellow at the Laboratory for Inflammatory Skin Diseases at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York.
 
Jeffrey Wong, MD, PhD
Mentor: Dr. Jeffrey Ravetch
Laboratory: Leonard Wagner Laboratory of Molecular Genetics and Immunology

Research Interest: Dr. Wong’s research focuses immunobiology of therapeutic antibodies for the treatment of cancer with the goal of developing antibodies with enhanced anti-cancer activity.

Bio: Dr. Wong received his MD and PhD from the University of Pittsburgh.  He completed his internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.  He is currently completing a fellowship in medical oncology at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.