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August 1, 2025

Three Clinical Scholars Graduates Elected to The American Society for Clinical Investigation
By Editorial Staff

We are delighted to congratulate three Clinical Scholars program graduates who were elected to membership in The American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI). Niroshana Anandasabapathy, MD, PhD, Class of 2012,  Rohit Chandwani, MD, PhD, Class of 2012, and Taia Wang, MD, PhD, Class of 2016, were elected for their groundbreaking research, which spans from cancer to immunology. The ASCI, one of the oldest medical honor societies in the U.S., recognizes physician-scientists who translate laboratory discoveries into clinical advancements. 

Dr. Niroshana Anandasabapathy is Vice Chair for Research in Dermatology at Weill Cornell. Her research focuses on dendritic cell biology and its role in tissue immunity and skin cancer, malignant melanoma. Her work includes advancing Flt3L-based therapies to enhance anti-tumor immunity through dendritic cell expansion, supported by NIH grants. Dr. Anandasabapathy was introduced to dendritic cell biology as a Clinical Scholar in the laboratory of Nobel laureate Ralph Steinman. Since leaving Rockefeller, her lab has been supported by 3 NIH R01 grants and an NIH S10 grant. She now also serves as Institutional Associate Director of the Tri-Institutional Medical Scientist Training Program, which is the MD-PhD training program sponsored by Rockefeller, Memorial Sloan Kettering, and Weill-Cornell Medicine. 
 
Dr. Rohit Chandwani, a surgeon-scientist and Assistant Professor of Surgery at Weill-Cornell Medicine, studies epigenetic dysregulation in pancreatic cancer. His research focuses on identifying chromatin signatures linked to aggressive disease, with the goal of improving treatments by targeting gene regulatory mechanisms beyond genetic mutations. His research, which bridges surgical oncology and molecular biology, is supported by 2 NIH R01 grants, 1 NIH R21 grant, and the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. 

Dr. Taia Wang is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Microbiology & Immunology at Stanford University, where she leads a laboratory focused on understanding how antibody and effector cell biology influence vaccine responses and disease outcomes. Her research has uncovered critical insights into how the attachment of different sugars to immunoglobulin (IgG) affects immune responses, particularly in the context of influenza and dengue viruses. Notably, her work demonstrated that CD23 acts as a receptor for sialylated IgG, modulating B cell responses following influenza vaccination, and that severe dengue disease correlates with elevations in afucosylated anti-dengue IgG, which may contribute to disease pathology, vaccine responses, and disease outcomes. 

The election of these three outstanding scientists to membership in ASCI brings the total of Clinical Scholars program graduates elected to ASCI to seven. The four graduates who were previously elected are Emma Guttman (elected 2015), Marina Caskey (2019), Saurabh Mehandru (2022), and Shen-Ying Zhang (2023).