Schaumburg, Illinois—Today, the Society of Neurological Surgeons (SNS) announced the inaugural 2023 Neurosurgeon-Scientist Training Program (NSTP) recipients. Launched this year, the SNS established this new program to increase the pool of neurosurgery residents conducting research and to enhance their success rate in becoming independent neurosurgeon-scientists. The NSTP will serve as a formal mentored research program (1 or 2 years) for those neurosurgery residents who are beginning a protected research year or have already completed their protected research year.
“Following a rigorous peer-review selection process, the Society of Neurological Surgeons is thrilled that eight neurosurgery residents from across the country have been selected for the NSTP. These outstanding individuals have demonstrated great promise as neurosurgeon-scientists to help expand our knowledge and advance new methods of care and cures for our patients,” said Constantinos G. Hadjipanayis, MD, PhD, SNS Research Committee chair.
Four residents will enter Year 1 of the NSTP, which includes funding for attending scientific meetings to present their original data and network with other established neurosurgeon-scientists. The following individuals were selected:
- Charuta Furey, MD (Barrow Neurological Institute)
- Yuhao Huang, MD (Stanford University)
- Brandon Luck-Wold, MD, PhD (University of Florida)
- Yagmur Muftuoglu (University of California, Los Angeles)
Four other residents, who have already completed a full year of protected research, will enter Year 2 of the NSTP. These residents will receive funding to continue their important research projects as they complete their residency. Each NSTP recipient will be paired with a national neurosurgeon-scientist mentor. These recipients are the following:
- David Asuzu, MD, PhD (National Institutes of Health)
- Kate Carroll, MD (University of Washington)
- Kurt Lehner, MD (Johns Hopkins University)
- Genaro Villa, MD, PhD (Brigham and Women’s Hospital)
The primary goal of this new program is to improve human health by providing participants with the skills, mentorship, education and experience needed to successfully compete for individual research funding (e.g., National Institutes of Health K awards and R01 research grants). Additional research by clinician-scientist neurosurgeons is critical to the fundamental discovery that advances new methods of care and new cures.
Awardees have access to neurosurgeon-scientist mentors through a national network organization and will participate in the annual National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke R25 workshop.
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The Society of Neurological Surgeons is the oldest neurosurgical professional society in the world. Its creation by Harvey Cushing in 1920 represents the foundational moment for neurological surgery as an independent specialty of medicine. Today, The Society comprises U.S. academic department chairs, residency program directors, and other educational leaders; serves as the representative body for neurosurgery to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education; and sponsors the Association of Residency Administrators in Neurological Surgery. For more information, please visit www.societyns.org.
