Three SOM Faculty Members are 2024 Irene Perstein Award Recipients
Dr. Sheiphali Gandhi, Dr. Monica Yang, and Dr. Courtney Lane-Donovan
The UCSF School of Medicine has awarded three faculty members 2024 Irene Perstein Awards. The Irene Perstein Award was founded in 2007 and honors the legacy of Irene Holmes Perstein who left a bequest to provide annual awards to outstanding junior women scientists in the UCSF School of Medicine.
Sheiphali Gandhi, MD, MPH, assistant professor of occupational/environmental medicine and pulmonary/critical care medicine, has been awarded a 2024 Irene Perstein Award recognizing her research on silicosis and its prevalence in vulnerable workers in California. With the Perstein Award, Dr. Gandhi aims to start a silicosis and vulnerable worker program at UCSF to increase advocacy and create resources for workers with highly morbid occupational diseases. Continue reading about Dr. Gandhi's work and Perstein Award.
Courtney Lane-Donovan, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the Division of Memory and Aging of the Department of Neurology, has been awarded a 2024 Irene Perstein Award recognizing her research on the connection between aging brain cell biology and neurodegenerative diseases. The Perstein Award will help Dr. Lane-Donovan develop and support mouse models to study the changes in cell biology that happen with aging, with a particular focus on a part of the cell called the lysosome. Continue reading about Dr. Lane-Donovan's work and Perstein Award.
Monica Yang, MD, assistant professor in the Division of Rheumatology, has been awarded a 2024 Irene Perstein Award recognizing her deep scholarship on scleroderma and its causes and manifestations. The Perstein Award will support Dr. Yang in continuing to expand the research program at the UCSF Scleroderma Center. She is particularly interested in the disease’s impact on the lungs given lung fibrosis is the leading cause of death in scleroderma patients. Her research focuses on understanding why certain patients develop lung disease and how to better treat them. Continue reading about Dr. Yang's work and Perstein Award.