The J. Mario Molina Physician Scientist Scholarship
Purpose and Research Objectives
The purpose of this award is to recruit and train exceptional physician-scientists from the Osler Medical Residency and the Bayview Internal Medicine Residency Program and to encourage them to remain at Johns Hopkins for fellowship training. The Molina Scholarship provides up to $50,000 of research support over two years for housestaff who remain at Johns Hopkins for fellowship training and are involved in laboratory-based scientific investigation. Funding may be used for research supplies, small equipment (less than $10,000), publication costs and travel for the Scholar. This award is NOT to be used to support the salary of the Scholar but may be used to support a technician or graduate student to work with the Scholar.
Eligibility/Requirements
- Must be an Osler Medical Resident or Bayview Internal Medicine Resident planning to start a Johns Hopkins fellowship
- Must have a letter of intent to recruit applicant from Johns Hopkins fellowship director that is NOT contingent upon receiving this award
- Letter of recommendation and commitment from research mentor briefly describing potential research project and applicants potential for laboratory-based investigation
- Must have more than 80 percent protected research time during the duration of their award. In fellowship programs with primarily clinical responsibilities in year one, the award can be deferred until year two.
- Prior laboratory-based research is encouraged but not required
2021-2022 Molina Scholars
Daniel Ardeljan, MD, PhD
Dr. Ardeljan is originally from NYC. He went to Duke for undergrad and spent a year as an IRTA fellow at the NIH prior to joining the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine for his MD and PhD studies. He is a Johns Hopkins Young Investigator’s Day Awardee in 2020 for his graduate work examining expression of LINE-1 retrotransposons in cancers and determining their impact on replication stress in proliferating cells. He chose the Osler Medical Residency because it was evident that while the physicians graduating from the program are among the best-trained in the world, the culture of this program engenders a true sense of camaraderie, partnership, and mentorship among residents and faculty alike. In his spare time, he enjoys cooking for and playing with his wife and son, and running along the Waterfront Promenade or playing intramural soccer in the social sports leagues around the city. Baltimore is a great city for young medical professionals: affordable, nice housing in trendy neighborhoods with a great food scene; short commute times; and unparalleled medical training.
Nick Mai, MD
Nick was born in San Jose, CA and went to Princeton University for undergrad, majoring in organic chemistry. He worked with Gilead Sciences briefly prior to medical school, working on drug discovery and design for novel kinase inhibitors. He attended medical school at Hopkins and is planning to pursue fellowship in Oncology with an ultimate career focus on drug development and novel therapeutics. He enjoys cooking, hiking, and indoor bouldering. To him, the Osler program provides a collaborative environment focused on learning together and providing mentors and opportunity to maximize personal development and growth.
Rishi Trivedi, MD, PhD
Rishi was raised in the suburbs of Los Angeles, CA where his family emphasized the importance of seeing different cultures. He attended the Johns Hopkins University where he completed his undergraduate studies in Chemical/Biomolecular Engineering and Mathematics with a masters degree in Bioinformatics during which time he developed a passion for research. Rishi subsequently completed an MD/PhD program at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans where he combined his medicine and research interests by pursuing his graduate work studying translational cardiovascular pharmacology. His hobbies include travel, cooking, podcasts, and being a diehard fan of LA sports teams (both the city and the state). Rishi's favorite aspects of the Osler Medical Residency include the autonomy afforded to residents, mentorship, opportunities to work with world leaders in medicine, and the chance to work and learn alongside outstanding co-residents. His favorite things to do in Baltimore are the walking on the Fells waterfront, reminiscing his college years at the Homewood campus, and exploring the vibrant multicultural food scene in the city.
2020-2021 Molina Scholars
Amir Ameri
Amir grew up in Weston, MA. He studied molecular biology in college and completed a post-bac research fellowship at the National Cancer Institute. He enjoys tennis, cooking, and hanging out with his co-residents. He loves the Baltimore food scene, getting ice cream at B'more Licks, and playing tennis in Patterson Park.
Basil Bakir
Basil attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham for his undergraduate studies and went to the University of Pennsylvania for his MD-PhD. He is interested in solid tumor biology, with a particular interest in pancreatic cancer. He is pursuing oncology fellowship and has found the scientific community at Johns Hopkins to be as supportive and rich as he could have hoped for when looking for a residency.
Michael Cole
Michael is originally from New Castle, Indiana (home to the largest high school fieldhouse in the world) and went on to attend the US Air Force Academy. He was the 2006 Alberta Bart Holaday scholar to Oxford University where he completed his Doctor of Philosophy on the biochemistry of the complement system. He completed 8 years in the Air Force and was recognized with the Meritorious Service Medal and the AF Commendation Medal for his service working as a fuels chemist and deploying for Operation New Dawn/Enduring Freedom. He returned to the US Air Force Academy to teach chemistry and biochemistry. Finally he came to Johns Hopkins University to complete both medical school and residency where he has enjoyed working with cool co-residents who are also committed to "service before self." He loves Patterson Park in the city and appreciates how easy it is to escape to rolling countryside for bike rides/hikes on his off call days.
Daniel Haldar
Daniel was born in Philadelphia, PA and grew up in the suburbs of Cleveland, OH. He attended Harvard College where he earned a dual A.B/A.M degree in Chemistry and Chemical Biology magna cum laude. He went on to attend the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Program and earned an M.D. degree from Harvard Medical School. During medical school, he spent a year in the laboratory of Dr. Benjamin Ebert studying the molecular mechanisms of thalidomide derivatives. His favorite part of the Osler Medical Residency is getting the opportunity to work alongside the most exceptional group of co-residents who have now become lifelong friends. In his free time, Daniel enjoys spending time by the waterfront in Fells Point and searching for the newest bubble tea shop in Baltimore.
Brandon Law
Brandon is from Southern California. He graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology and developed an interest in basic science research. He then attended Harvard Medical School through the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology and pursued a medical research fellowship supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Outside medicine, he enjoys fishing, running, and cooking. He appreciates the strong clinical culture of the Osler Medical Residency and looks forward to continuing his training here as a Rheumatology Fellow. As a Baltimore resident, he enjoys hiking in nearby parks and finding the best crab cakes in town.
Daniel Shu
2019-2020 Molina Scholars
Anthony Bowen
Anthony grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana and studied biochemistry, biology and mathematics as an undergraduate at Indiana University while also working in a microbiology lab performing research on biofilms. He moved to the Bronx to join the Medical Scientist Training Program at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. There, he worked with Arturo Casadevall studying catalytic antibodies to the fungal pathogen, Cryptococcus neoformans. He then joined the Osler Internal Medicine Residency Program. He plans to pursue fellowship training in infectious disease and continue studying the humoral immune response to pathogens with the goal of informing the development of antibody-based therapeutics and vaccines.
Yuxuan Wang
Yuxuan completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She then received her MD and PhD degrees through the Medicine Scientist Training Program at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She trained under Bert Vogelstein, focusing on the early detection of cancer. She is currently finishing the last year of residency and fast-tracking into fellowship in Hematology-Oncology.
2018-2019 Molina Scholars
Zachariah Foda
Zack's academic career started at Dartmouth College, where he studied chemistry and pursued research in protein folding. He then returned to Long Island to attend Stony Brook University to earn his MD and PhD. He worked with Markus Seeliger to complete his thesis, focusing on tyrosine kinase inhibitors--specifically how they interact with their targets on a molecular level and the implications of this on treatments. In the future, he plans to pursue a clinical fellowship in gastroenterology and study precancerous lesions looking specifically for diagnostic or therapeutic targets that could help deal with these lesions before they become cancer.
Kevin Shenderov
Born in Ukraine, Kevin immigrated to the United States with his family at the age of three. He grew up in Brooklyn and completed his undergraduate studies in biochemistry at NYU. A Rhodes Scholar and Soros Fellow, he then pursued a PhD in Immunology through the NIH-Oxford Graduate Partnership Program and an MD at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is currently in his third and final year of residency training in the Osler Internal Medicine Residency Program. He plans to pursue subspecialty training in pulmonary/critical care medicine and is interested in studying immune dysregulation during critical illness.
Daniel Zabransky
Dan was born in Milwaukee, and grew up in Manassas, VA. He studied biology at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. In college, he worked at the National Cancer Institute researching protein structures using cryo-electron tomography. He came to Johns Hopkins for both medical and graduate school. He worked in the laboratory of Dr. Ben Park and discovered new mutations in the HER2 gene, and his work has served as the basis for ongoing clinical trials. Dan is interested in pursuing a career as an oncologist and hopes to study cancer genetics, develop new targeted therapies, and improve cancer detection techniques.
