News and Congratulations
Congratulations to CTSC KL2 Alumna, Dr. Veronica Rotemberg, MD, PhD, on being appointed a Melanoma Academy (MA) Scholar! As a MA Scholar, Dr. Rotemberg's work "Developing an Application for Following Images of Nevi to Detect Melanoma" will be funded over 3 years with almost $1,000,000.
According to Dr. Rotemberg the KL2 program was critical to her subsequent Department of Defense award as she was able to have protected time to complete research projects, prepare grant submissions, develop long-term mentorship relationships, and take relevant coursework to improve clinical translational skills. The research performed during her KL2 award validating AI technologies for melanoma detection provide important benchmarks and outcome measures from which to build off of for her MA study.
The Melanoma Research Program (MRP) funds the Melanoma Academy (MA), a unique, interactive virtual academy providing intensive monitoring, national networking, collaborations, and a peer group for outstanding early-career investigators (called Scholars) in the field of melanoma to build strong scientific collaborations and network with a diverse group of melanoma experts. The overarching goal of the MA is to develop a network of successful, highly productive melanoma researchers in a collaborative research and career development environment.
Dr. Rotemberg is currently the Director of the Dermatology Informatics Program, an Assistant Professor of Dermatology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and an Assistant Professor of Dermatology at Weill Cornell Medicine. With her lab, The Veronica Rotemberg Lab at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Dr. Rotemberg and the Dermatology Imaging Informatics Group are focused on developing, benchmarking, and validating artificial intelligence (AI) tools for dermatologic applications, especially melanoma detection. Their interests include model development, human-AI interaction, and prospective validation of image classification tools.
Dr. Rotemberg was appointed a KL2 Scholar in 2021 where her research focused on "Improving Clinician Melanoma Diagnostic Accuracy using Artificial Intelligence". During her KL2 training, Dr. Rotemberg's mentoring team included Dr. Olivier Elemento, PhD of Weill Cornell Medicine, Dr. Michael Marchetti, MD formerly of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Dr. Milind Rajadhyaksha, PhD of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
The CTSC KL2 Career Development Core Program supports junior faculty and senior residents and fellows by providing salary support, protected time, advanced degree training, and practical skills necessary to conduct interdisciplinary Clinical Translational Investigation within a team research environment.