Involving the next generation of scientists and physicians in our work is important to us.
We’re delighted to be working with five promising junior investigators on several of our studies.
Junior Investigators
2nd-Year Medical Student
Alyssa Ong
Alyssa Ong is a second-year medical student at the University of Washington School of Medicine. She is helping lead the Kidney Cancer Screening study — a survey of nephrology providers in the US, Australia and New Zealand that assessed current kidney cancer screening practices and views of possible kidney cancer screening guidelines.
Despite higher risks, there are no kidney cancer screening guidelines in patients with chronic kidney disease and end-stage kidney disease, including those on dialysis and with a kidney transplant.
UWSOM Graduate
Regina Tsay
Regina Tsay is helping to lead a retrospective analysis of outcomes in patients with Plasma Cell Dyscrasia (PCD) who are referred to UW for organ transplant.
Historically, about 50% of patients diagnosed with PCD develop kidney disease but are rarely referred for transplant due to concern for recurrence or progression of cancer after transplant. New therapies for PCD have enabled safer PCD and organ transplant care in the past decade. Yet, we lack contemporary referral and transplant data.
UW Senior
Shaaniya Mahabir
Shaaniya Mahabir plans to go to medical school after finishing her undergraduate studies. She is working on our Digital Spacing Profiling (DSP) in Antibody-mediated Rejection (AMR) study.
AMR remains the most formidable cause of kidney transplant failure, with limited understanding of the causes and therefore limited diagnostic and therapeutic options. Digital spatial profiling of kidney biopsy specimens is a novel technology that provides spatially defined cell protein/RNA profiles that may help better define causes of AMR and potential therapeutic targets.
ODESSA NATIONAL MEDICAL UNIVERSITY graduate
Harshana Liyanage
Harshana Liyanage graduated from Odessa National Medical University in Ukraine with a Medical Degree in General Medicine. He worked as a medical auditor under Quality Assurance for the oncology, hematology, and cardiology departments in Sri Lanka and also has experience as a hemodialysis technician.
Harshana helps maintain the CICT Bioregistry, extracting data from the electronic medical record and entering into the registry.
Second-year UW Medical Student
Qing Gao
Qing Gao earned a B.S. in biochemistry from Tufts University and worked as a research technician at Memorial Sloan Kettering before joining the UW MD-PhD program in 2024.
He is leading a study surveying provider practices and perspectives on anal cancer screening in transplant recipients. Despite the benefits of screening for anal cancer in high-risk patient populations, there has been limited implementation. Understanding current knowledge and barriers can lead to tangible improvements in anal cancer screening for SOTRs.
First-year UW Medical Student
Fatima Al-Shimari
Fatima Al-Shimari is a first-year medical student at the UWSOM, joining the CICT with a strong foundation in public health and research. Before medical school, she worked as an epidemiologist, contributing to research and policy efforts across infectious disease and population health.
Fatima is studying the use of immune checkpoint inhibitor in kidney transplant recipients with advanced skin cancers. Her contributions are helping advance knowledge of ICI safety and outcomes for complex patients with cancer and transplant.
UW Transplant Nephrology Fellow
Gaoyuan Huang
Gaoyuan is a transplant nephrology fellow at UW and served as the chief general nephrology fellow. She received her medical training at Tongji Medical College in Wuhan, China.
Gaoyuan is leading a project to characterize autoantibody profiles and their associations with oncologic and transplant outcomes. Immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) has revolutionized cancer treatment in the general population, their safety and effectiveness among the transplant patients remain uncertain with the risks of toxicity, transplant rejection and failure.