Eleven trainees form the latest cohort of the TL1 Training Awards Program within the UW Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR). The program fosters an innovative clinical and translational research workforce poised to make breakthroughs in human health. It includes both pre- and postdoctoral trainees.
TL1 trainees are selected from the strong clinical and translational training programs associated with ICTR’s partners (the UW schools of Medicine & Public Health, Nursing, Pharmacy, Veterinary Medicine, and Education; the UW College of Engineering; and the Marshfield Clinic).
The awards are an NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences-funded initiative through the Clinical and Translational Science Awards program. ICTR has run a TL1 Program since 2008. Since that time, 75 predoctoral and 14 postdoctoral trainees have participated in the program, which is currently co-led by Vivek Prabhakaran, MD, PhD, and Xudong Wang, PhD.
The predoctoral program introduces health care professional and engineering students to the scientific foundations of translational science, helping them become future leaders.
The postdoctoral program provides a bridge for those with previous doctoral training as they move toward independent, sustained careers in translational and clinical science.
By combining research support with career development opportunities and sessions on team science and translational science, the program accelerates the development of early-career researchers into innovators and leaders in improving human health.
Trainees gain essential skills that have enabled them, collectively, to produce hundreds of publications, secure numerous grants, and earn multiple awards for research excellence over the years. As examples of the research funding success of program alumni, from 2023-25, former predoctoral trainees received approximately $38 million in grant funding. From 2024-25, a former postdoc received roughly $4.6 million in grant funding.
Nearly all program alumni (both pre- and postdoc) have remained active in translational science and research. Their varied career paths have led them to academia as faculty and scientists, as well as to private industry, clinical settings, government service, and further training.
The newest trainees, listed below, began their award period on July 1, 2025. They join three continuing trainees from a prior cohort. Discover more about these promising scientists and their research by visiting the TL1 Program page.
Postdoctoral trainees:
- Tiffay Chavers Edgar, PhD, CCC-SLP, Waisman Center
- Colette Nickodem, PhD, MPH, Dept. of Pathobiological Sciences
- Euitaek Yang, PhD, Dept. of Medical Physics
Predoctoral trainees:
- Andrea Lucia Alfonso, Dept. of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
- Michael Egan, Dept. of Kinesiology
- Paloma Frautschi, Clinical Investigation Graduate Program
- Melissa Hiatt, Dept. of Kinesiology
- Rachel Kirchner, Dept. of Medicine
- Matthew Kuik, Dept. of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation
- Anne-Marie Leiby, Neuroscience
- Savannah Lutz, Dept. of Pediatrics