ASCI / Young Physician-Scientist Awards, 2020
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
Brian T. Emmer, MD, PhD, is a Michigan native, and attended the University of Michigan during his undergraduate education with a major in Cell and Molecular Biology. He then joined the Medical Scientist Training Program at Northwestern University where he received his MD and PhD, studying the molecular basis of flagellar protein trafficking and trypanosome pathogenicity in the laboratory of Dr. David Engman. He returned to the University of Michigan for his residency in Internal Medicine, after which he joined the faculty at the University of Michigan as a Clinical Lecturer in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Hospital Medicine, with 20% of his effort spent attending and teaching on the Hospitalist service and the remaining 80% dedicated to research in the laboratory of Dr. David Ginsburg. The focus of his postdoctoral research has been the molecular basis of cholesterol regulation. He first completed a genome scale CRISPR screen to identify SURF4 as a cargo receptor facilitating the ER exit of PCSK9. His subsequent research has focused on the generation and characterization of mice with germline and tissue-specific deletion of Surf4, and on extending genome-scale CRISPR screening to identify novel genetic modifiers of hepatocyte LDL uptake. He has received research support from a KL2 Career Development Award from the Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research, a K08 Career Development Award from the NIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, an Early Career Outstanding Research Award from the AHA ATVB Council, a McKay Award and Bo Schembechler “Heart of a Champion” Research Award from the Frankel Cardiovascular Center. He recently accepted an appointment as an Instructional Track Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine and is now transitioning into his independent research program, where he plans to continue to leverage genome editing and massively parallel sequencing to better understand the molecular pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease.