Georgia CTSA Welcomes Incoming KL2 Scholars
Congratulations to the new scholars in the Georgia CTSA KL2 Scholars Program. The goal of the Georgia CTSA KL2 Program is to support and enhance career development for junior faculty interested in a career that encompasses clinical and translational science, and clinical and translational research. The KL2 Program supports career development for junior faculty from a wide variety of disciplines at the Georgia CTSA partner institutions to become independent, established, and ethical clinical and translational science investigators.
Vanessa Dartora, PhD, is a Research Engineer II in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University. She holds a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of São Paulo, Brazil, and completed postdoctoral training in biomedical engineering at the University of California, Davis, followed by a President's Postdoctoral Fellowship at Georgia Tech and Emory, before transitioning into her current role. Her primary research focuses on engineering biomaterials that reprogram the body's own cells to produce therapeutic signals for tissue repair, with the goal of designing treatments that account for how patients' biology differs. Dr. Dartora's KL2 project will focus on decoding how patient characteristics such as age, skin pigmentation and other biological characteristics influence the molecular signals cells produce in response to biomaterials, and using this information to engineer therapies informed by biological and clinical characteristics for wound healing. Dr. Dartora's goal with her KL2 project is to generate the molecular and machine-learning-based design tools needed to validate that therapies tailored to patient characteristics outperform one-size-fits-all treatments in human skin tissue. Her long-term goal is to establish a career in precision regenerative medicine, leading translational research that bridges biomaterials engineering and personalized therapeutic design.
Complete list of Dr. Dartora’s published works
Young-Rock Hong, PhD, MPH, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Preventative Medicine in the Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Hong is a health services researcher and population health scientist whose work has examined how health system- and provider-level factors shape treatment decisions and healthcare access for patients with obesity-related chronic conditions, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, where his research applies ML/AI and causal inference methods to identify clinically meaningful patient subtypes and optimize obesity treatment selection. His KL2 research project will characterize patient subtypes that incorporate clinical and contextual factors, model optimal timing and sequencing across available obesity treatments, and involve patients and clinicians to inform pathways for implementing precision approaches in primary care. Findings from this work will establish a foundation for a larger trial testing whether precision-guided treatment selection enhances outcomes compared to standard obesity care.
Complete list of Dr. Hong’s published works
Muhammed Idris, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Public Health Education at Morehouse School of Medicine and Associate Director of the Clinical Research Center, where he leads digital transformation. He holds a PhD and MA from Pennsylvania State University and a BA from the University of Washington. His research spans biomedical, clinical research, and public health informatics, with a focus on the responsible design, development and evaluation of AI/ML tools and interventions. His KL2 project will develop and validate a competency framework for participant-centered recruitment communication and translate it into a generative AI–enabled simulation platform for training clinical research coordinators. Through the KL2, he will expand his expertise in clinical and translational research, implementation science, clinical trial design, and competency-based assessment. His long-term goal is to become an independently funded investigator developing AI-enabled interventions to improve clinical trial access, recruitment, and participant engagement.
Complete list of Dr. Idris’ published work
Pedro Lamothe, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine. He is a pulmonary and critical care physician-scientist with clinical and research interests in severe asthma and type 2 inflammatory diseases. His research focuses on understanding how immune-targeted therapies for type 2 inflammatory diseases affect adaptive immunity. As a Georgia CTSA KL2 Scholar, Dr. Lamothe is investigating the roles of IL-4 and IL-5 signaling in human B-cell differentiation and long-lived plasma cell maintenance. His long-term goal is to establish an independent translational research program at the intersection of B-cell biology and type 2 inflammatory disease, with the goal of translating insights from human immunology into improved care for patients with asthma and related conditions.
Complete list of Dr. Lamothe’s published works
Nirja Mehta, MD, MSc, is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases. She is interested in the microbiome and its intersection with infectious diseases pathophysiology. Clinically she specializes in advanced therapies for Clostridioides difficile infection and works as site PI for several novel C difficile therapies in order to maximize therapeutic options to patients suffering from this infection. Her KL2 project aims to evaluate the stool metabolome to improve C difficile diagnostics. She hopes to use this work to launch an independently funded research career to both better understand how the human microbiome and metabolome can be used to better diagnose and treat infectious diseases.
Complete list of Dr. Mehta’s published works
Samuel Opara, MBBS, MPH, is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine. He holds an MBBS from the University of Jos, Nigeria, and an MPH from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. He completed a fellowship in Infectious Diseases (HIV track) at Emory University. His growing research program focuses on integrated approaches to healthcare delivery for populations with high HIV burden. His KL2 project will assess barriers and facilitators to integration of treatment for stimulant use disorders (StUD) into HIV treatment and prevention settings. Using data from his KL2 project, his future research will focus on implementation of StUD-HIV care integration for persons living with HIV and persons with elevated likelihood of HIV infection. Dr. Opara’s long-term goal is to become an independent investigator who develops, implements, and evaluates integrated interventions to improve health outcomes among people affected by HIV.