Dean's Weekly Message
July 20, 2026
Welcome to the Class of 2030
I am excited to welcome the Class of 2030 to medical school this Friday!
The first days of medical school are filled with anticipation and possibility, and we can’t wait to welcome these talented new members to our community.
The Matriculation Ceremony will be held at 9 a.m. Friday, July 24, on Boettcher Commons. Friends and family will join faculty and staff in celebrating our new students. If you can’t make it in person, a livestream will be available on the school’s matriculation webpage.
The School of Medicine’s talented communications team has written feature articles about some of our incoming students. Their stories are impressive and inspiring, demonstrating the impact physicians can have through excellent care.
- Marcus Pina says his grandmother’s primary care provider modeled how to advocate for patients.
- Arike Coker, a track athlete, mentions the surgeon who cared for her torn ACL, and how that leg now feels like her better leg.
- Desiree Starzyk explains her post-collegiate work with School of Medicine faculty on a study on whether education about cesarean births can reduce fear and improve outcomes. The research led to a clinical trial that is now enrolling patients at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital.
- Shaurya Dave describes how an expert cardiothoracic surgeon gave his parents hope when he needed surgery as a young child to repair an atrial septal defect. Dave says our Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship model was among the key reasons he came here. Also, the faculty. He said he had by far his best medical-school interview here. “The faculty that were on the interview, they seemed much more happy. The vibe was so much better.”
We’re thrilled to welcome our new students!
Growing Discovery Sciences
Our school’s commitment to our colleagues conducting discovery science is stronger than ever!Earlier this month, we implemented an ambitious and achievable plan designed to position our departments to be among the nation’s top 10.
Our renewed commitment is outlined in a plan called BSUM 2.0, a comprehensive strategy for growth and a steadfast financial commitment from the school that encourages that growth. BSUM stands for Basic Science Unified Funding Model, and it provides an objective and formula-based approach to funding. It also established clear objectives and metrics through a strategic incentive program.
All six of our department chairs in the basic sciences have signed the agreement. I am extremely excited about how this all came together in time for our new fiscal year that began July 1. This is a big deal for our school!
With this agreement, we are poised to expand research, improve staff satisfaction, promote teaching, spur cross-departmental collaboration, and improve operational efficiency in the labs. The agreement recognizes that our limited state funding requires smarter partnership and rewards those who make strategic commitments that strengthen all of us.
The three-year deal is the result of countless hours of hard work by the chairs and the school’s finance team.
Many thanks, in particular, to Casey Greene, PhD, Chair of Biomedical Informatics; David DiGregorio, PhD, Chair of Physiology and Biophysics; Shelly Fortner, Vice Chair of Finance and Administration for Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics; Audrey Wen, Director of Finance and Administration for Biomedical Informatics; and John Moore, Associate Dean for Finance and Administration, for their leadership on this work.
Thanks also to the project’s executive sponsors, Leslie Berg, PhD, Senior Associate Dean for Biomedical Research and Chair of Immunology and Microbiology, and Brian Smith, MHA, Senior Associate Dean for Administration and Finance.
Studying Gene-Editing Treatments for Rare Pediatric Epilepsy
Children’s Hospital Colorado is among a consortium of 12 organizations, led by the Broad Institute, selected to receive funding from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) under its THRIVE program.
The award, for up to $34.5 million, will fund the Pediatric Epilepsies and Rare CNS Gene Editing Platform — a collaboration of academic researchers, clinicians, patient advocates, and biotechnology companies aiming to develop gene-editing treatments for children with rare forms of epilepsy.
Developmental and epileptic encephalopathies affect more than three million children worldwide and are caused by mutations across more than 400 different genes. Because any single mutation may affect only a few patients globally, economic incentives for traditional commercial drug development are often missing. The ARPA-H effort is designed to create a platform that shares manufacturing, regulatory precedent, and clinical infrastructure across diseases to address this gap and potentially reach many more patients.
Scott Demarest, MD, MSCS, Associate Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics and Chief Precision Medicine Officer at the Precision Medicine Institute at Children’s Hospital Colorado, is the site PI for the grant. Co-investigators and site PIs for one of the interventional trials are Megan Abbott, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, and Kelly Knupp, MD, Professor of Pediatrics.
Researchers intending to pursue an ARPA-H opportunity should email Erin Calhoun, Assistant Director of Extramural Research, in accordance with practice standards from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research. The campus Office of Research and Development and Strategy will work closely with you to help socialize, develop, and submit ARPA-H proposals.
Fund to Honor Dr. Ross Camidge
The Office of Advancement is coordinating an effort to create the Ross Camidge, MD, PhD, Thoracic Oncology Endowed Program Support Fund. The first $100,000 raised will be matched by a generous gift from the family of one of Dr. Camidge’s patients. The goal is to raise the money by August 1, which is World Lung Cancer Day. You can find more details and donate at this website.
Last September, Ross Camidge, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine, who has spent his career researching and caring for people with lung cancer, described his life after being diagnosed with advanced lung cancer himself in an extraordinary article published in the CU Anschutz Cancer Center newsroom.
During his 20 years at CU, Dr. Camidge has had a remarkable career, publishing nearly 400 articles, receiving multiple awards, and mentoring dozens. As Director of the Thoracic Oncology Program, he has led the center to remarkable heights, accruing about 40% of lung cancer patients into clinical trials — more than double the rate of the next best academic lung cancer program in the country and more than 10 times the national average.
Featured News
CU Anschutz Cancer Center a Site for Clinical Trial for Treatment of Myocarditis Caused By Checkpoint Inhibitors
In an effort to better treat cancer patients suffering from myocarditis — or inflammation of the heart muscle — caused by immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy, the CU Anschutz Cancer Center is one of more than 30 sites in the U.S. and Canada enrolling patients in a clinical trial to see if adding the drug abatacept to standard corticosteroid therapy safely reduces major cardiac events.
The trial is specifically for patients who are hospitalized with checkpoint inhibitor-associated myocarditis.
“If we can get approval for abatacept for this particular indication, it would streamline the way that myocarditis is treated,” says Lavanya Kondapalli, MD, Associate Professor of Cardiology, who is overseeing the trial. “Right now, with so many people getting immunotherapy across the country in different clinical settings, it would be helpful if we could give clinicians an algorithm for how to manage checkpoint inhibitor-associated myocarditis across the board."
Read More About Myocarditis
Faculty Updates
Sean O’Leary, MD, MPH, Professor of Pediatrics, an investigator at the Adult and Child Center for Outcomes Research and Delivery Science, and Director of the Colorado Children’s Outcomes Network, has been awarded the Henry K. Silver Advocate Award from the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners, highlighting Dr. O’Leary’s contributions to improving public health through research, policy insight, and national visibility in vaccine communication. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to the improvement of pediatric health care. You can read more about Dr. O’Leary in this article in the ACCORDS newsroom.
Lauren S. Hughes, MD, MPH, MSc, Professor of Family Medicine and State Policy Director of the Farley Health Policy Center, has been named to the 2026-2027 class of RWJF Health Policy Fellows by the National Academy of Medicine and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Beginning in September, Dr. Hughes and seven other health professionals will spend a year in Washington, D.C., immersing themselves in health policy, before serving in placements as senior advisers to elected or appointed federal government leaders in the legislative or executive branches.
Stephen P. Cass, MD, MPH, Professor of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery is the recipient of the 2026 Marion Downs Legacy Award for his extraordinary career shaping the field of hearing health care for more than four decades, and more than 20 years of dedicated service on the board of directors of the Marion Downs Center. Dr. Cass embodies the innovation, excellence, and visionary leadership that defined Marion Downs, who was an audiologist and former faculty member in the Department of Otolaryngology and whose pioneering work led to universal newborn hearing screening in the United States. Dr. Cass will be retiring in October, and the department is establishing an annual lectureship in his name.
Lauren Hersch Nicholas, PhD, Professor of Medicine, has been elected to the Board of Directors of the American Society of Health Economists, a major national organization devoted to advancing health economics research and teaching
Laura White, PhD, Senior Research Associate in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, has been named to the 2026 cohort of the Activate Fellowship , a competitive national program for scientists and engineers turning their research into hard-tech companies. The fellowship funds her July transition to full-time co-founder and CEO of Andon Bio, an RNA Bioscience Initiative spinout that uses nanopore sequencing to measure the supply and demand of tRNAs during protein production. Andon's goal is to make producing proteins in cells as easy as designing them.
Tianjing Li, PhD, Professor of Ophthalmology and Rebecca Edwards Mayhew, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology, have been awarded an RO1 grant from the National Eye Institute to develop a multidisciplinary telemedicine model to address gaps in chronic pediatric uveitis care. The $1.26 million grant over four years aims to expand care, ensuring that every child with chronic uveitis receives timely, effective, and compassionate treatment, regardless of their location, financial means, or background.
Featured Events
7/29
Tattered Cover Talk
Tattered Cover Book Store, 2526 E. Colfax Ave.
Annalise Sturno, PhD candidate, and Kimberley Bruce, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes, who are both members of the Pharmacology and Molecular Medicine PhD program, will present “Food for Thought: How What You Eat Drives Brain Health and Disease.” They will discuss emerging insights into how diet and metabolism influence brain health over time, especially in aging and disease.
7/31
Cancer Research Experience for Undergraduates and Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Poster Session
Friday, July 31, from 10 a.m.–noonDonald Elliman Conference Center, Anschutz Health Sciences Building
Explore cutting-edge cancer research from the 2026 CREU/SURF cohort at this summer’s poster session — see innovation, discovery, and impact in action.
8/20
A Tale of Two Hearts Screening, Q&A
Thursday, August 20, from 3-5 p.m.
Mt. Harvard, Children’s Hospital Colorado Conference Center
A Tale of Two Hearts is a film exploring the intersection of medicine, identity, and artistic expression featuring Jaime Belkind-Gerson, MD, MSc, Professor of Pediatrics. Dr. Belkind-Gerson is a pediatric gastroenterologist, researcher, and visual artist whose work bridges the gap between clinical precision and human emotion. A live Q&A with Dr. Belkind-Gerson will follow the screening.
Recent Publications
Lilia Cervantes, MD, MSCS, Professor of Medicine, is senior author of a Perspective article, “ The Exam Room as Sanctuary — Caring for Undocumented Patients” published July 11 by The New England Journal of Medicine.
Nikita Pozdeyev, MD, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Informatics; Christopher R. Gignoux, PhD, Professor of Biomedical Informatics; Samantha White, MS, data scientist in Biomedical Informatics; and Bryan R. Haugen, MD, Professor of Medicine, are co-authors of an article, “Genetic drivers of etiologic heterogeneity in thyroid cancer,” published July 10 by Nature Communications.
Patrick S. McGrath, PhD, Instructor in Pediatrics, Section of Developmental Biology, and Peter J. Dempsey, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics, Section of Developmental Biology, are co-authors of a research article, “Spatiotemporally controlled matrix softening facilitates deterministic crypt formation in human intestinal organoids,” published July 14 by PNAS. Six co-authors are from CU Boulder.
Announcements
Bridge Funding Application Deadline
The School of Medicine Dean’s Office is accepting applications for its Bridge funding program. Bridge funding provides financial support to principal investigators while they re-apply for funding from the National Institutes of Health and other major funding organizations. Applications and chair letters of support are due Wednesday, July 29. More information is available on the Bridge funding website.
Have a good week,
John H. Sampson, MD, PhD, MBA
Richard D. Krugman Endowed Chair
Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs
Dean, University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine
The Dean’s weekly message is an email news bulletin from John H. Sampson, MD, PhD, MBA, Dean of the CU Anschutz School of Medicine, that is distributed to inform CU Anschutz School of Medicine faculty members, staff, students and others about issues pertaining to the school’s mission of education, research, clinical care and community service.
Subscribe to the Dean's Message