Medical School: Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
Residency/Fellowship: WashU Medicine ASAP graduate with a fellowship in Pain Management, 2023
Current Role: Instructor of Anesthesiology, WashU Medicine
Research: Electrophysiology and behavioral assays to study chronic pain-related mesocorticolimbic dopamine neuron plasticity
Grants: FAER Mentored Research Training Grant 2023
Why did you apply to the Academic Scholars Advancement Program (ASAP)?
When I was looking for residency programs, I was interested in going somewhere that would develop my skills as a physician-scientist. The anesthesiology residency program at WashU provides robust clinical training and the research output of the department is unmatched. The ASAP program is also an established physician-scientist training pathway with several alumni who serve as mentors to trainees during their early career development. This made the ASAP program an appealing pathway for my clinical and research training.
What does a normal day-in-the-life as a physician-scientist look like for you?
I spend 25% of my time as a clinician and 75% of my time as a researcher. I am in the outpatient pain clinic about one day per week diagnosing and treating patients with chronic pain. This involves prescribing medications, performing procedures, referring patients to other specialists for things like physical therapy and pain psychology, and ordering and interpreting diagnostic tests.
I spend the rest of the week in lab studying how reward circuitry in the brain changes in chronic pain. I use preclinical mouse models with techniques such as electrophysiology, fiber photometry, and operant behavioral tasks to identify molecular changes underlying chronic pain and targeting those changes to relieve pain.