The ASH Scholar Award is the Society’s longest-standing award program and one of the most highly regarded. For almost three decades, ASH has supported hundreds of researchers from fellows to junior faculty in basic, translational, and clinical research by providing partial salary or other support during the critical period between completion of training and the establishment of one’s independent career. The awards, in the amount of $100,000 for fellows, $125,000 for fellow-to faculty, and $150,000 for junior faculty over a two- to three-year period, are made possible through grants from the corporate community, individual donors, foundations, and funds committed by the Society. (To learn more about the ASH Scholar Award program and other early career investigator awards and training programs, please visit www.hematology.org/awards.)
This year, Simone Riedel, PhD, of Bernt Lab, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Division of Oncology, has been awarded the ASH-Peter Steelman Scholar Award. The award is named in honor of Peter Steelman, who passed away in 2021 after a 17-month battle with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The grant supporting this award is made possible by the Deerfield Foundation to honor the memory of Peter’s life and continue his legacy of kindness, respect, and hard work. Dr. Riedel received her PhD in immunology from the University of Wuerzburg, Germany. One of her projects at that time involved a murine model of multiple myeloma. This finally sparked an interest in hematologic malignancies. Together with a curiosity for epigenetics, this led her to join the lab of Dr. Kathrin Bernt, which was located at the University of Colorado Denver. Dr. Riedel was immediately fascinated by the intricate and complex ways oncogenes can cause leukemia, and was particularly interested in the role of intrinsically disordered proteins and their role in causing leukemia as well as regulating gene expression in general. Five years ago, she moved with the lab from Denver to Philadelphia and is currently working on an intrinsically disordered protein called meningioma-1, which, when overexpressed, can cause a highly aggressive AML. Dr. Riedel hopes that her research will contribute to the current body of knowledge about leukemias and eventually help to find better therapies for patients.
Please join ASH in congratulating Dr. Riedel and all of the 2022 Scholar Award Recipients.
Basic/Translational Fellows
Charles Antony, PhD
Danielle Atibalentja, MD, PhD
Asiri Ediriwickrema, MD
Yuhong Ma, PhD
Lucile Noyer, PhD
Suman Paul, MBBS, PhD
Livius Penter, MD
Scott Peslak, MD, PhD
Rebecca Richards, MD, PhD
Jennifer SanMiguel, PhD
Franziska Wachter, MD
Basic/Translational Fellow to Faculty
Pablo Domizi, PhD
Steven Grover, PhD
Eugenio Morelli, MD
Danitza Nebor, PhD
Simone Riedel, PhD
Elvin Wagenblast, PhD
Basic/Translational Junior Faculty
Daria Babushok, MD, PhD
Giada Bianchi, MD
Bruno Di Stefano, PhD
Radhika Gangaraju, MD
Kate Markey, MBBS, PhD
Seema Patel, PhD
Tirthadipa Pradhan-Sundd, PhD
Martin Rivas, PhD
Jennifer Saultz, DO
Andrew Volk, PhD
Liling Wan, PhD
Clinical Fellows
Caitlin Elgarten, MD
Madhavi Lakkaraja, MD, MPH
Clinical Fellow to Faculty
Beth Apsel Winger, MD, PhD
Clinical Junior Faculty
Nitya Bakshi, MBBS, MS
Kristen Sanfilippo, MD, MPHS
Jordan Schaefer, MD
