ASCI / Young Physician-Scientist Awards, 2023
The Young Physician-Scientist Awards (YPSA) recognize physician-scientists who are early in their first faculty appointment and have made notable achievements in their research.
About the awardee
Celestine N. Wanjalla, MD PhD is an Assistant professor and physician-scientist in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Clinically, she cares for patients with HIV at the Comprehensive Care Clinic and on the Infectious Disease consult service. The goal of her research is to understand the role of virus-specific immune cells in diabetes and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease pathogenesis in persons living with HIV. She earned her undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences with a distinction in research from Cornell University, worked as a research assistant at Columbia University in the Division of Pharmacology, completed her MD and PhD in Immunology and Microbial pathogenesis at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases training at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Her long term goal is to define innate and adaptive immune markers that can improve the diagnosis, identify novel therapeutic targets and improve clinical outcomes. She is a recipient of a K23 from NHLBI, the Career Awards for Medical Scientists (CAMS) from Burroughs Wellcome Fund and the Doris Duke Clinical Scientist Development Award.