Research Day 2025

Join the CU Anschutz Department of Medicine for Research Day on Monday, April 14th, at the Donald M. Elliman Conference Center for our annual event. This gathering showcases our achievements in basic, translational, clinical, and outcomes research.

Research Day Agenda

Archives

About the Presenters

Serpil Erzurum, MD | Chief Research Officer, Cleveland Clinic | Asthma Mechanisms and Advances in Care  

---

Dr. Erzurum is Executive Vice President and Cleveland Clinic's Chief Research and Academic Officer and Chair of the Lerner Research Institute. She holds the Alfred Lerner Memorial Chair in Innovative Biomedical Research and focuses on strategic growth of enterprise-wide medical and scientific education programs; clinical, basic and translational research; and technology development to deliver the most innovative care to patients. A practicing pulmonologist and active scientist, her contributions and leadership in pulmonary research have advanced diagnostics and treatments for lung diseases and helped to identify human physiologic adaptive responses to high-altitude hypoxia. She has published over 350 peer-reviewed articles and is among the top 1% of cited researchers globally. Dr. Erzurum has led more than 20 federal grants and serves as a professor of medicine at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. She earned her medical degree from Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine and trained at Baylor, CU Anschutz, and the NIH.

Jamie Studts, PhD | Medical Oncology | It's Not About the Scanner: Implementing Person-Centered Approaches to Optimize Lung Cancer Screening Outcomes

---

Dr. Studts co-leads the Cancer Prevention and Control program and co-directs the Population Health Shared Resource at the University of Colorado Cancer Center. A clinical health psychologist, his research focuses on improving lung cancer screening, quality of life, and survivorship. He serves on the American Cancer Society’s National Lung Cancer Roundtable and chairs the Campaign to End Lung Cancer Stigma.

Beth Tamburini, PhD | Gastroenterology and Hepatology | Clinical Therapies to Basic Science: How PD-L1 Manipulates Cell Function

---

Dr. Tamburini's research explores how lymphatic endothelial cells retain viral antigens, influence immune responses, and regulate PD-L1 signaling. Her lab aims to improve vaccines and immune-modulating therapies by uncovering their molecular and immunologic mechanisms.

Dan Pollyea, MD, MS | Hematology | Acute Myeloid Leukemia: From a Challenging Past to a Hopeful Future

---

Dr. Pollyea is currently the clinical director of Leukemia Services and interim head of the Division of Hematology. His work focuses on improving our understanding of the nature of leukemia stem cells and developing drugs that target this population to potentially allow for curative therapies. Dr. Pollyea has served as the principal investigator for multiple early-phase and investigator-initiated clinical trials, and is currently chair of the NCCN Guidelines on Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

Kristen Nowak, PhD | Renal Diseases and Hypertension | Targeting Adiposity and Caloric Restriction in Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease 

---

Dr. Nowak received her PhD from the University of Colorado Boulder in integrative physiology. Dr. Nowak directs an NIH-funded research laboratory focused on strategies, particularly lifestyle interventions, to improve vascular function and slow kidney disease progression in patients with kidney disease (autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease and chronic kidney disease), and to understand the physiological mechanisms mediating any benefits.