ASCI / Young Physician-Scientist Awards, 2024
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
Nicole Maloney Belle, MD, PhD is a gastroenterologist physician-scientist at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn). Her laboratory focuses on how cross talk between damaged intestinal epithelial cells, immune cells and neurons modulate host recovery in the setting of infection, inflammation and cancer.
Dr. Belle grew up in St. Kitts-Nevis where the rich natural environment piqued her interest early in biology. She received a BA in Biochemistry at NYU supported by the Cambridge University State Scholarship of St. Kitts-Nevis, a prestigious award given to the high school student with the best “A” Level examination results. During her MD/PhD training at Washington University in St. Louis she developed a keen interest in host-microbe interactions and joined the laboratory of Herbert “Skip” Virgin. There she expanded her expertise to include mucosal immunology and virology, publishing her work on noroviruses and anti-viral mechanisms. She went on to complete residency training in Internal Medicine at UPenn then stayed on as a Gastroenterology Fellow. As a fellow, she conducted research with De’broski Herbert to explore mucosal responses to intestinal damage. She identified a novel interacting partner for the trefoil factor family 3 protein and demonstrated its critical role in intestinal healing and anti-helminth immunity. She joined the UPenn faculty in 2022 and has been awarded both an NIH K08 award and a Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program Award administered through the RWJ Foundation. She recently received a Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation Award in collaboration with researchers at University of Michigan to utilize multiomics approaches to understand the basis for exacerbations in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. She remains committed to promoting scientific exploration in her trainees. She also believes strongly in high-quality clinical care both here at UPenn but also in St. Kitts-Nevis where she volunteers, providing care to patients with gastrointestinal complaints.