PHILADELPHIA - Four Penn Medicine postdoctoral trainees have been awarded three-year fellowships through a newly established program, the Michael Brown Penn-GSK Postdoctoral Fellowship Award Program from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, in partnership with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). The fellows were selected for their innovative approaches to salient scientific questions in their respective fields. Under the guidance of their principal investigators, the fellows and their mentors will partner with GSK scientists for part of their research.
The inaugural fellows are:
- Deepti Abbey, PhD, who studies genetic variation in blood lipids with Daniel Rader, MD, chair of the Department of Genetics
- Jie Chen, PhD, who studies breast cancer biology with Roger Greenberg, MD, PhD, a professor of Cancer Biology
- Anumita Saha-Shah, PhD, who studies nanofluids and mass spectroscopy with Ben Garcia, PhD, Presidential Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics
- Collin Stabler, PhD, who studies lung biology with Ed Morrisey, PhD, a professor of Medicine and Cell and Developmental Biology
The fellowship is a new initiative between Penn and GSK to promote basic research while introducing talented young scientists to key aspects of pharmaceutical research and development, including dedicated research time at the GSK facility in Collegeville, Penn. This collaboration aims to provide valuable training coupled with a unique opportunity to advance clinically related research.
In addition to having the opportunity to work closely with GSK scientists, the postdocs will also receive funding for salary and benefits, lab supplies, and indirect costs for three years to conduct research in the laboratories of their Penn principal investigators. Collaborations are planned to commence in August 2018.
Named in honor of alumnus Michael S. Brown (C’62, M’66, HON’86), who shared the 1985 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for identifying the low-density lipoprotein receptor, the program will support collaborative research projects in biomedical science to advance discovery, development, and delivery of novel therapies for human diseases.
Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care, and community service. The organization consists of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Penn’s Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school.
The Perelman School of Medicine is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $550 million awarded in the 2022 fiscal year. Home to a proud history of “firsts” in medicine, Penn Medicine teams have pioneered discoveries and innovations that have shaped modern medicine, including recent breakthroughs such as CAR T cell therapy for cancer and the mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System’s patient care facilities stretch from the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to the New Jersey shore. These include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Chester County Hospital, Lancaster General Health, Penn Medicine Princeton Health, and Pennsylvania Hospital—the nation’s first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, Penn Medicine at Home, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others.
Penn Medicine is an $11.1 billion enterprise powered by more than 49,000 talented faculty and staff.