The Incubator Report Newsletter

Pitt-BWF Physician Scientist Incubator

Winter 2026

This quarter, we are proud to feature two current BWF scholars - Dr. Anthony Gebran and Dr. Catherine Corey – along with BWF Alum Dr. Joshua Krivinko.  We also highlight recent publications from our scholars and share the latest achievements from our program. Additionally, we’ve included a list of the upcoming Incubator classes/events. 

The Physician Scientist Incubator is a program that was developed in 2018 to enrich the pool of MD/DO only physician scientists.  The Incubator has matriculated 7 cohorts for a total of 46 Scholars.  To date, Scholars have over 300 authorships since joining the program.  The goal of the program is to train the highest quality biomedical investigators by building their scientific, professional and resiliency skills necessary to become and persist as a successful physician-scientist.  Resident and fellow Pitt-BWF Scholars from multiple departments benefit from a structured curriculum, writing groups, executive coaching, and time-saving initiatives. 

Featured Scholar

Anthony Gebran, MD is a General Surgery Resident and current BWF Scholar. His academic interests include hepatobiliary research, colorectal research, neutrophil extracellular traps, and multiomics under the mentorship of Dr. Samer Tohme.

Dr. Gebran’s research investigates how the liver microenvironment shapes metastatic progression and influences cancer surgical outcomes. His work focuses on hepatic steatosis as a driver of pre-metastatic niche formation that promotes tumor growth, with a particular interest in colorectal liver metastases. He further explores how lifestyle and pharmacologic interventions, including structured exercise and GLP-1 receptor agonists, can remodel the hepatic immune and stromal landscape to reverse this pre-metastatic niche and suppress metastatic growth. In parallel, he is studying hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury as a driver of metastatic progression and the protective role of GLP-1 receptor agonists in attenuating this effect. By integrating translational and computational approaches, Dr. Gebran seeks to bridge cancer immunology, metabolic signaling, and surgery to advance perioperative optimization strategies and improve outcomes in patients undergoing resection of colorectal liver metastases.

Why have you decided to pursue a career as a physician-scientist?  Dr. Gebran shared, " I went into medicine with the goal of improving outcomes for patients with cancer. My medical and surgical training opened my eyes to the critical importance of scientific discovery, particularly in witnessing the limitations of current cancer therapies and the unmet needs of patients with metastatic disease. A career as a physician-scientist would allow me to translate observations from patient care into meaningful research questions and, in turn, bring new insights and strategies back to the bedside.”

What are your future career goals as a physician-scientist?  Dr. Gebran shared, “My career goal is to become a surgeon-scientist specializing in abdominal oncology, combining clinical practice with rigorous translational and computational research. I aim to advance our understanding of microenvironmental factors that drive hepatic metastasis and to evaluate lifestyle and pharmacologic interventions to reverse these processes. Through this work, I hope to develop approaches that reduce the incidence and recurrence of liver metastases and ultimately expand effective treatment options for patients.”

Featured Scholar

Catherine Corey, MD, MPH, is a Pediatric Endocrinology Fellow in the Division of Endocrinology and Diabetes at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. Her research interests focus on bone health in adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1D), with an emphasis on bone marrow adipose tissue (BMAT), its role in the bone microenvironment, and potential mediating factors, under the mentorship of Drs. Ingrid Libman and Pouneh Fazeli.

Dr. Corey’s research: Individuals with T1D are at an increased risk of fractures, but bone health in T1D is historically understudied, and the mechanisms behind this increased risk remain unclear. It is likely that a dysfunctional bone microenvironment contributes to the fracture risk. In adults, high levels of BMAT are linked to low bone mineral density (BMD) and increased fracture risk, but this relationship has not been established in youth with T1D. Dr. Corey aims to begin characterizing the difference in bone parameters between healthy post-pubertal youth and individuals with T1D by examining BMAT content, BMD, and markers of bone turnover. She hypothesizes that post-pubertal adolescents with T1D and an elevated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c >9%) exhibit higher BMAT and lower BMD compared to those with HbA1c in target range and healthy controls, and that these differences correlate with insulin deficiency and inflammation.  

To address these questions, Dr. Corey is conducting a cross-sectional pilot study with three cohorts: 1) healthy, non-diabetic adolescents; 2) adolescents with T1D and HbA1c within target (HbA1c <7%); and 3) adolescents with T1D and an elevated HbA1c (HbA1c >9%). Using proton MR-spectroscopy (1H-MRS), she will quantify BMAT (lipid-to-water ratio) in the lumbar spine and femur. Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) will assess BMD across groups. Serum biomarkers of bone metabolism, insulin deficiency (as measured by IGF-1), and inflammatory markers will also be measured. Her primary aims are: (1) to characterize and compare BMAT, BMD, and bone metabolism markers across the three groups; (2) to investigate correlations between BMAT, BMD, and bone metabolism markers; and (3) to explore the relationships between BMAT, insulin deficiency, and proinflammatory cytokines. This will be among the first studies exploring the possible association of BMAT with insulin deficiency and/or inflammation in adolescents with T1D, offering novel insights into metabolic determinants of impaired bone health. 

 

Why have you decided to pursue a career as a physician-scientist?  Dr. Corey shared, “I decided to pursue a career as a physician-scientist to improve the quality of life and long-term health outcomes for individuals with chronic endocrine disorders, in particular children and adolescents with T1D. My path began at a lab bench at the University of Pittsburgh Drug Discovery Institute, where I developed a strong foundation in scientific inquiry and eventually served as a lab manager. I later joined the Pittsburgh Heart, Lung, and Blood Vascular Medicine Institute in Dr. Sruti Shiva's lab, and while that experience strengthened my skills in basic research, it also clarified what I was missing: a direct connection between the questions I was asking and the patients who could benefit from the answers.

That realization led me to medicine as a non-traditional student. After extensive shadowing of a physician-scientist in pediatric endocrinology, I witnessed firsthand the relentless burden that chronic illness places on children and their families, and I knew I wanted a career that combined patient care with research that could change clinical practice. I earned an MPH in Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh, and during medical school (also at the University of Pittsburgh), I began working with one of my current mentors, Dr. Ingrid Libman, on a project examining the prevalence of retinopathy in individuals with T1D and whether improved access to care increases adherence to recommended screening. That work continued through my pediatric residency at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and reinforced my commitment to centering my research on pediatric T1D and on the practical barriers and factors that drive preventable complications.

As I became more immersed in the field, I also recognized an important and understudied contributor to quality of life in this population: bone health. Now, as a pediatric endocrinology fellow in the Division of Endocrinology and Diabetes at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, I am committed to addressing this gap. Each stage of my academic journey has prepared me to pursue this line of research through the unique perspective and training of a physician-scientist.”

What are your future career goals as a physician-scientist?  Dr. Corey shared, “My goal is to build an academic career that integrates clinical care in pediatric endocrinology with a translational research program focused on bone health in youth with T1D. In the near term, I hope to expand this pilot work into larger studies through foundational funding or an NIH career development award (K23) to clarify how glycemic control, insulin deficiency, and inflammation influence BMAT, the bone microenvironment, and overall bone health. Longer term, I want to translate these findings into practical strategies to better identify risk, define potential therapeutic targets, and prevent fractures in children and adolescents living with T1D. I also hope to collaborate with colleagues across endocrinology, pharmacology, and orthopedic surgery to develop multidisciplinary strategies that optimize bone health and reduce fracture risk. Finally, I hope to mentor trainees who are interested in improving outcomes for children with chronic endocrine conditions."
 

Alumni Spotlight

Josh Krivinko, MD is currently a Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Pittsburgh and Consultation-Liaison Psychiatrist at UPMC.  Dr. Krivinko was previously a Pitt-BWF Scholar.  We recently caught up with Dr. Krivinko, and he kindly provided an update. 

What is a description of your current research? Over the past 40 years, despite substantial evolution in our understanding of the biologic landscape of Alzheimer Disease and Related Dementias (ADRDs), there remain no treatments that either delay or prevent cognitive decline associated with these conditions. My research strategy, which utilizes a combination of human postmortem brain tissue and animal models of brain aging, attempts to mitigate factors that may be limiting effective treatment development. First, instead of focusing on strategies to reverse brain damage caused by neurodegeneration, my approach aims to bolster resilience to cognitive decline during the prolonged therapeutic window of healthy brain aging. Second, my research strategy evaluates drug candidates utilizing a genetically diverse animal model that I am currently evaluating for its validity as a model of age-related brain changes that occur in the human aging population. Finally, rather than evaluating drug candidates based on their abilities to target a singular biologic pathway, my research uses proteomics to generate broad-based readouts of multiple biologic pathways important for healthy brain aging.  

Why did you decide to pursue a career as a physician scientist?  Dr. Krivinko shared, “My decision to pursue a career as a physician scientist focused on aging, ADRDs, and novel treatment development has been directly informed by the clinical experiences that I have had throughout medical school and now as an attending psychiatrist in evaluating and treating patients with neurocognitive disorders. We have no pharmacological options that are effective for preventing these disorders, and only very limited treatment options after cognitive decline onset.”

What are your future career goals as a physician-scientist?  Dr. Krivinko responded, “My overall goal is to develop my own laboratory program that identifies and evaluates drug candidates for their abilities to mitigate synapse loss during normal aging to thereby enhance resilience to Alzheimer Disease and Related Dementias (ADRDs) in aging adults.”

Dr. Krivinko’s recent research publications: 

• Parker EM, Kindja NL, DeGiosio RA, Salisbury RB, Krivinko JM, Cheetham CEJ, MacDonald ML, Fan W, Cheng B, Sweet RA. Impacts of CACNB4 overexpression on dendritic spine density in both sexes and relevance to schizophrenia. Transl Psychiatry. 2024 Dec 4;14(1):484. doi: 10.1038/s41398-024-03181-7.PMID: 39632796 
• Krivinko JM, Fan P, Sui Z, Happe C, Hensler C, Gilardi J, Ikonomovic MD, McKinney BC, Newman J, Ding Y, Wang L, Sweet RA, MacDonald ML. Age-related loss of large dendritic spines in the precuneus is statistically mediated by proteins which are predicted targets of existing drugs. Mol Psychiatry. 2025 May;30(5):2059-2067. doi: 10.1038/s41380-024-02817-w. Epub 2024 Nov 13. PMID: 39537705
• Argyriou S, Fullard JF, Krivinko JM, Lee D, Wingo TS, Wingo AP, Sweet RA, Roussos P. Beyond memory impairment: the complex phenotypic landscape of Alzheimer's disease. Trends Mol Med. 2024 Aug;30(8):713-722. doi: 10.1016/j.molmed.2024.04.016. Epub 2024 May 30. PMID: 38821772 
• Krivinko JM, DeChellis-Marks MR, Zeng L, Fan P, Lopez OL, Ding Y, Wang L, Kofler J, MacDonald ML, Sweet RA. Targeting the post-synaptic proteome has therapeutic potential for psychosis in Alzheimer Disease. Commun Biol. 2023 Jun 2;6(1):598. doi: 10.1038/s42003-023-04961-5.PMID: 37268664
• Fan P, Zeng L, Ding Y, Kofler J, Silverstein J, Krivinko J, Sweet RA, Wang L. Combination of antidepressants and antipsychotics as a novel treatment option for psychosis in Alzheimer's disease. CPT Pharmacometrics Syst Pharmacol. 2023 Aug;12(8):1119-1131. doi: 10.1002/psp4.12979. Epub 2023 May 11. PMID: 37128639
• Krivinko JM, Erickson SL, MacDonald ML, Garver ME, Sweet RA. Fingolimod mitigates synaptic deficits and psychosis-like behavior in APP/PSEN1 mice. Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions. August 2022; 8:e12324. PMID: 36016832 
• DeChellis-Marks MR, Wei Y, Ding Y, Wolfe CM, Krivinko JM, MacDonald ML, Lopez OL, Sweet RA, Kofler J. Psychosis in Alzheimer’s Disease is Associated with Excitatory Neuron Vulnerability and Post-Transcriptional Mechanisms Altering Synaptic Protein Levels. Frontiers in Neurology. March 2022; 13:778419. PMID: 35309563

Recent Pitt-BWF Scholar Publications

• Rinehardt HN, Martyn A, Kolodychak A, Takeda M, Thomas M, Liszewski L, Rutkowski A, Kreger A, Gittes GK. Transgenic Mouse Model of Congenital Choledochal Cyst. Res Sq [Preprint]. 2025 Oct 12:rs.3.rs-7713827. doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7713827/v1.PMID: 41282266 
• Elsabbagh AM, Hadjiyannis Y, Vionnet J, Thomson AW. Clinical and Experimental Immune Tolerance in Pediatric Liver Transplantation. Pediatr Transplant. 2026 Jan;30(1):e70260. doi: 10.1111/petr.70260. PMID: 41500616
• Seedahmed MI, Okereke J, Al-Qadi MO Pulmonary hypertension in a distinct IgG4-high phenotype of sarcoidosis: A case series. J Natl Med Assoc. 2026 Jan 22:S0027-9684(25)00363-3. doi: 10.1016/j.jnma.2025.12.011. Online ahead of print. PMID: 41577572
• Corey C, Baldauff NH. Disparities in Pediatric Bone Health. Endocrinol Metab Clin North Am. 2025 Jun;54(2):273-282. doi: 10.1016/j.ecl.2025.03.005. Epub 2025 Apr 15. PMID: 40348568 
• Gebran A, Chopra A, Farah E, Hays S, Ranson K, Rojas A, Ceuppens S, Schmitz R, Liu H, Tirukkovalur NV, Talamonti M, Lee KK, Zeh HJ, Schmidt C, Boone BA, Hogg M, Zureikat AH, Polanco PM, Paniccia A. Pretreatment CA19-9 Predicts Survival in Pancreatic Cancer With Optimal Response to Neoadjuvant Therapy. J Surg Oncol. 2026 Feb;133(2):177-185. doi: 10.1002/jso.70179. Epub 2025 Dec 31. PMID: 41474314
• Huq S, Kallos JA, Boggs K, Diamond K, Scanlon S, Bin-Alamer O, Rivera D, Pearce TM, Hadjipanayis CG. Improved Detection of 5-Aminolevulinic Acid-Induced Fluorescence in Gliomas Using a Novel Handheld Device. Oper Neurosurg. 2025 Oct 10. doi: 10.1227/ons.0000000000001798. Online ahead of print. PMID: 41070960
• Arciuolo D, Barresi S, Hiemcke-Jiwa L, Black J, Willard N, Carta R, Roe M, Bukowinski A, Stracuzzi A, Kester L, Koudijs M, Dingemans W, Milano GM, Patrizi S, Gestrich C, John I, Azfar N, Bubar R, Skaugen J, Flucke U, Miele E, Alaggio R. USP8-Rearranged Mesenchymal Tumors With Myofibroblastic Phenotype: A Comprehensive Clinicopathologic, Genetic, and Epigenetic Characterization. Mod Pathol. 2025 Dec 9;39(2):100947. doi: 10.1016/j.modpat.2025.100947. Online ahead of print. PMID: 41380847
• Fisher BW, Stein H, Greenberg O, Crichton G, Kocyildirim E, Ashraf S, Kaczorowski D, Morell V, Phillippi J, Sultan I, Bonatti J. Robotically Assisted, Minimally Invasive Ascending Aortic Replacement: A Feasibility Study in Anatomical Models. Eur J Cardiothorac Surg. 2026 Jan 6;68(1):ezaf470. doi: 10.1093/ejcts/ezaf470. PMID: 41428447
• Mallela AN, Hect J, Reedy E, Ikegaya N, Abou-Al-Shaar H, Constantine T, Angonese A, Aung T, Carns DR, Henry LC, González-Martínez JA. A semiology-driven framework for explorations of temporal lobe epilepsy. Epilepsia. 2025 Nov 14. doi: 10.1111/epi.70009. Online ahead of print. PMID: 41235922
• Bhatia S, Sharma N, Gopakumar A, Frederico SC, Kann MR, Shanahan RM, Abou-Al-Shaar H, Mallela AN, Zenonos GA, Andrews EG.Percutaneous glycerol rhizotomies are effective in achieving immediate but not long-term pain reduction in patients with trigeminal neuralgia: A contemporary cohort analysis. Clin Neurol Neurosurg. 2026 Jan; 260:109240. doi: 10.1016/j.clineuro.2025.109240. Epub 2025 Nov 17. PMID: 41273985
• Devi ASB, Lyman K, McClung CA. The Role of Chronopsychiatry in Precision Medicine: Circadian Dysregulation as Diagnostic Marker and Therapeutic Target.” Current Sleep Medicine Reports (accepted for publication)

Latest Achievements

Dr. Catherine Corey was selected as a recipient of one of the Rising Star Awards from the Pediatric Endocrine Society (PES).  The $2,500 award is to support the research efforts of pediatric endocrinology fellows.  This year, the honor was presented to only nine trainees across the country.  Dr. Corey is the first trainee from UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh to receive the recognition.

Dr. Katherine Lyman gave a Data Blitz presentation and poster presentation titled “Seasonal Patterns of Gene Expression in Psychiatric Disease” at the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology conference, January 11-16, 2026.  

Dr. Yannis Hadjiyannis gave a poster presentation titled “AIRE-Overexpressing and Donor-derived Regulatory Dendritic Cell Therapy for Tolerance Induction” at the Keystone Symposia: Emerging Cell Therapies Conference, February 1-4, 2026. 

Dr. Sahar Alimohamadi’s research was selected for oral presentation at the Vascular and Endovascular Surgery Society Winter 2026 meeting, February 5-8, 2026.  Her presentation was titled, “Hypercoagulability In Acute Limb Ischemia: A Rising Diagnosis With Increased Amputation Risk”.
 

Upcoming Classes/Events

Pitt-BWF Class
The instructor is Dr. Steinman unless otherwise indicated.

FEBRUARY

February 5, 2026	Translating Discovery Research into the Clinical Realm (Dr. Matthew Culyba)
February 12, 2026	Responsible Use of AI, AI Ethical Concerns, and Applications of AI in Medicine (Dr. Shyam Visweswaran)
February 19, 2026	Work in progress
February 26, 2026	Executive Coaching Workshop (Dr. Janice Sabatine & Dr. Rosemary Hanrahan)

MARCH

March 5, 2026	Effectively engaging clinical teams in your research
March 12, 2026	Writing group/mock study section
March 19, 2026	How to effectively lead a laboratory (and delegate) as a physician scientist (Dr. Terence Dermody)
March 26, 2026	F and K overview; Drafting a strong specific aims page

APRIL

April 2, 2026	Specific Aims reviews
April 9, 2026	Drawing and writing a compelling Experimental Plan
April 16, 2026	Experimental plan review
April 23, 2026	Writing group/mock study section/WIPs
April 30, 2026	Letter of recommendation writing exercise

Our weekly curriculum is open to interested trainees throughout Pitt.  Classes are on Thursdays generally from 8:00 am to 10:00 am.  Contact our program administrator at lovaske1@pitt.edu for more information.