Three physician-scientists from the University of Chicago have been elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), one of the oldest and most esteemed nonprofit honor societies of physician-scientists. The 99 members of the 2025 class include Sonia S. Kupfer, MD, Professor of Medicine; Megan McNerney, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Pathology; and Akash Patnaik, MD, PhD, MMSc, Associate Professor of Medicine.
Membership is by election only, and only researchers who are 50 years of age or younger are eligible for nomination to the Society. Therefore, membership in the ASCI is a recognition of a researcher’s significant contributions, at a relatively young age, to understanding human disease.
The Society counts among its ranks more than 3,000 members since its founding in 1908, many of whom are leaders in academic medicine and industry, including 36 from the University of Chicago. Among its membership, ASCI boasts winners of the Nobel Prize and the Lasker Award and elected members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine.
“Physician-scientists are essential to advancements in medicine because of their unique ability to bridge basic science discoveries to treatment at the patient bedside,” said Kunle Odunsi, MD, PhD, Director of the UChicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center, Dean for Oncology in the Biological Sciences Division, and the AbbVie Foundation Distinguished Service Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UChicago. “We are proud that three of our cancer researchers are among the select group of physician-scientists recognized nationally and internationally for their impressive contributions to the advancement of not just the oncology field, but all of science and medicine.”
Sonia S. Kupfer, MD, is a gastroenterologist and Co-director of the Comprehensive Cancer Risk and Prevention Clinic, Director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Risk and Prevention Clinic, and Director of the Community for Advancement of Physician-Scientists at UChicago. Her research focuses on the genomic, environmental and systemic factors that contribute to gastrointestinal cancer risk and health disparities.
Kupfer’s clinical research leverages large patient registries and multi-institutional collaborations to study cancer risks and systemic barriers to equitable care. Her translational research applies innovative experimental approaches using organoids to characterize inter-individual and ancestry-related responses to environmental factors relevant for carcinogenesis that informs precision cancer prevention.
Megan McNerney, MD, PhD, is a molecular pathologist studying the pathobiology of high-risk myeloid neoplasms to uncover new treatments and prevention strategies for these patients. The McNerney lab has employed an arsenal of innovative approaches to interrogate chromosome 7 tumor suppressor genes and found that the CUX1 transcription factor is a critical regulator of hematopoietic stem cell function and myeloid transformation.
McNerney’s lab demonstrated that pre-existing CUX1-deficiency, in the context of clonal hematopoiesis, disrupts the epigenetic regulation of DNA repair and sensitizes mice to therapy-related myeloid neoplasms after chemotherapy. This work supports a paradigm shift in understanding clonal selection as part of the etiology of therapy-related myeloid neoplasms.
Akash Patnaik, MD, PhD, MMSc, is a medical oncologist, Deputy Section Chief for Translational Research within the Section of Hematology/Oncology, and Co-Leader for the Clinical & Experimental Therapeutics Program at the Cancer Center. His research has provided significant mechanistic insight into the basis for immunotherapy resistance in molecularly defined subsets of aggressive-variant prostate cancer (AVPC), which are associated with poor prognosis and therapeutic outcomes.
Using genetically defined murine models of AVPC, he has discovered and developed several therapeutic strategies to activate myeloid innate immunity in the tumor microenvironment driven by neutrophils and macrophages, and successfully translated these laboratory discoveries into innovative clinical trials, which he has co-led nationally.
Newly elected members will be formally inducted on April 25, 2025 in Chicago at the joint meeting for ASCI, the Association of American Physicians and the American Physician-Scientists Association.
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