Pre-Doctoral Fellowship Recipients

Pre-Doctoral Summer Fellowship Award Program

The Pre-Doctoral Summer Fellowship Award Program encourages and fosters the next generation of researchers by cultivating interest in the cause and cure of scleroderma under the mentorship of an established scleroderma researcher.

Applications for the 2026 Awards Cycle will open in January 2026! 

Application Deadline Date:  April 30, 2026, 5 p.m. Eastern Time

We are happy to announce the 2025 Pre-Doctoral Summer Fellowship Awardees. 

2024 Pre-Doctoral Summer Fellowship Awardees

Neerja Marwaha Bhagat Research Scholar Fellowship

Each year, one recipient will be honored as the Neerja Marwaha Bhagat Research Scholar in recognition of their drive to discover the cause and cure of scleroderma. The Neerja Marwaha Bhagat Research Scholar Fellowship was established to honor the legacy of a longtime leader of the National Scleroderma Foundation Mid-Atlantic Chapter.

This year, the Neerja Marwaha Bhagat Research Scholar Fellowship Award was given to Madeline Morrisson, from Dartmouth College.  She is currently in the Molecular and Cellular Biology Graduate Program, working with her mentor Dr. Michael Whitfield, on her project Characterization of the Causative Mutation of a Mouse Model of Scleroderma.

Arnold Postlethwaite Fellowship Pre-Doctoral Summer Fellowship

Annually one recipient will be awarded the Dr. Arnold Postlethwaite Summer Fellowship. The endowed memorial fellowship was established by the family of Dr. Arnold Postlethwaite and honors his career as a scleroderma specialist and his 22-year relationship with the National Scleroderma Foundation’s Medical & Scientific Advisory Board and support group leader.

This year the Arnold Postlethwaite Fellowship Pre-Doctoral Summer Fellowship Award was given to Aarohi Mehendale from Boston University.  She is currently in the Biomedical Engineering PhD Program, working with her mentor Dr. Darren Roblyer on her project Spatial Frequency Domain Imaging (SFDI) as a Method to Track Skin Involvement in Scleroderma.

The 2024 Pre-Doctoral Summer Fellowship Awardees are: 

Madeline Morrisson, Dartmouth College
Neerja Marwaha Bhagat Research Scholar Fellowship
Graduate Program:  Molecular and Cellular Biology
Mentor:  Michael Whitfield, PhD
Project Title:  Characterization of the Causative Mutation of a Mouse Model of Scleroderma

Aarohi Mehendale, Boston University
Dr. Arnold Postlethwaite Fellowship Award
Graduate Program:  Biomedical Engineering
Mentor:  Darren Roblyer, PhD
Project Title: Spatial Frequency Domain Imaging (SFDI) as a method to track skin involvement in Scleroderma

Emily Ann Morris, Dartmouth College
Graduate Program:  Molecular and Cellular Biology
Mentor:  Patricia A. Pioli, PhD
Project Title:  The Role of Fibroblast-derived Exosomal Wnt5a in Pro-Fibrotic Macrophage Metabolic Activation in SSc

Gayathri Guru Murthy, University of Rochester
Graduate Program:  Translational Biomedical Science
Mentor:  Benjamin Korman, MD
Project Title:   Role of Insulin Growth Factor Binding Protein 7 (IGFBP7) in Scleroderma pathogenesisIGFB7 in Scleroderma Pathogenesis

Michelle Wu, Yale University
Graduate Program:  Biomedical Engineering
Mentor:  Anjelica Gonzalez, PhD
Project Title: Unraveling TNFα-TGFβ1 Crosstalk in Microvascular Driven Fibrosis of Localized Scleroderma

Sandra Sandria, Yale University
Graduate Program:  Cell Biology
Mentor:  Megan King, PhD
Project Title: Defining a mechanism for SUN2’s mechanical regulation of SSc-associated skin fibrosis

2023 Pre‑Doctoral Summer Fellowship Awardees

Annually one recipient will be awarded the Dr. Arnold Postlethwaite Summer Fellowship. The endowed memorial fellowship was established by the family of Dr. Arnold Postlethwaite and honor’s his career as a scleroderma specialist and his 22-year relationship with the National Scleroderma Foundation’s Medical & Scientific Advisory Board and support group leader.

This year the Arnold Postlethwaite Fellowship Pre-Doctoral Summer Fellowship Award was given to Elfa Beaven from the University of Texas at El Paso.  She is currently in the Biomedical Engineering graduate program, working with her mentor Dr. Md Nurunnabi.

The 2023 Pre-Doctoral Summer Fellowship Awardees were:

Helen Jarnagin, Dartmouth College,
Graduate Program: Molecular Cellular Biology, Guarini Graduate School
Mentor: Michael L. Whitfield, PhD
Project Title: Identifying key regulators in SSc adipose derived stem cell to myofibroblast transition

Qinmengge Li, University of Michigan,
Graduate Program: Biostatistics
Mentors: Lam C. (Alex) Tsoi, PhD, John Varga, MD
Project Title: Systemic Scleroderma polygenic risk score (PRS) construction based on transfer learning with Bregman-divergence to solve health inequity of African ancestry population

Qiannan Ma, Case Western Reserve University,
Graduate Program: Biology
Mentor: Radhika Atit
Project Title: Wnt signaling activation stimulates ATGL-dependent lipolysis in mature dermal adipocytes in skin fibrosis

Elfa Beaven, University of Texas at El Paso,
Graduate Program: Biomedical Engineering
Mentor: Md Nurunnabi
Project Title: Myofibroblast selective pro-fibrotic pathway inhibition to treat scleroderma

Enze Xing, University of Michigan,
Graduate Program: Graduate Program in Immunology
Mentor: Johann Gudjonsson
Project Title: Characterization of Pansclerotic Morphea

Chanhyuk Park, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth,
Graduate Program: Molecular and Cellular Biology
Mentor: Patricia A. Pioli
Project Title: Macrophage-Targeted Immunotherapy for SSc

Return to the Mentor Programs page

2022 Pre‑Doctoral Summer Fellowship Awardees

Annually one recipient will be awarded the Dr. Arnold Postlethwaite Summer Fellowship. The endowed memorial fellowship was established by the family of Dr. Arnold Postlethwaite and honor’s his career as a scleroderma specialist and his 22-year relationship with the National Scleroderma Foundation’s Medical & Scientific Advisory Board and support group leader.

The Postlethwaite Fellowship Award was given to Vivek Jani from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in the department of Cardiology.   He is currently in graduate school working on his PhD in Biomedical Engineering and is enrolled in the Medical Scientist Training Program.   His Mentor is Monica Mukherjee, MD, MPH.  Under the guidance of Dr. Mukherjee, his project submitted is titled:  Machine and Deep Learning for the Early Detection of Scleroderma-Associated PAH

The 2022 Pre-Doctoral Summer Fellowship Awardees were:

Adegboyega Adewale, Medical University of South Carolina,
Graduate Program: Molecular and Cellular Biology and Pathology
Mentor: Carol Feghali-Bostwick, Ph.D.
Project Title: The role of the IL-6-IGF-II axis in Systemic Sclerosis-Associated Lung Fibrosis

Rithika Behera, University of Pittsburgh,
Graduate Program: Cellular and Molecular Pathology
Mentor: Robert Lafyatis, M.D.
Project Title: Understanding FOSL2 mediated regulation of dermal myofibroblasts in systemic scleroderma

Vrinda Dambal, Boston University,
Graduate Program: Molecular and Translational Medicine
Mentor: Maria Trojanowska, PhD
Project Title: Characterization of secretome of GATA-6 deficient Pulmonary Arterial Endothelial cells and to check its effect on activation of fibroblasts in SSc-PAH model

Vivek Jani, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine,
Graduate Program: Biomedical Engineering: Medical Scientist Training Program
Mentor: Monica Mukherjee, MD, MPH
Project Title: Machine and Deep Learning for the Early Detection of Scleroderma-Associated PAH

Suneeti Madhavan, Case Western Reserve University,
Graduate Program: Biology
Mentor: Dr. Radhika Atit
Project Title: Adipocyte lipolysis is activated by Wnt-induced ER stress

Dillon Popovich, Dartmouth College,
Graduate Program: Molecular and Cellular Biology
Mentor: Michael L. Whitfield, PhD
Project Title: Pathway-Driven Drug Repositioning in Systemic Sclerosis from Omics Data

Return to the Mentor Programs page

2021 Pre‑Doctoral Summer Fellowship Awardees

The Pre-Doctoral Summer Fellowship Award Program encourages and fosters the next generation of researchers by cultivating interest in the cause and cure of scleroderma under the mentorship of an established scleroderma researcher.

The 2021 awards were named for Arnold Postlethwaite, MD, a distinguished scleroderma researcher and 22-year member of the Foundation’s Medical & Scientific Advisory Board, who passed away in January 2021.

The five 2021 Pre-Doctoral Summer Fellowship Awardees were:

Elizabeth Caves, Yale University, Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology
Graduate Program: Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Ph.D. (complete April 2024)
Mentor: Valerie Horsley, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and Associated Professor of Dermatology
Project Title: Understanding the role of resident adipocyte fatty acids in dermal fibrosis

Wei Dong, University of Tennessee HSC, Department of Orthopedic Surgery and BME
Graduate Program: Integrated Biomedical Sciences (complete August 2021)
Mentor: Weikuan Gu, Ph.D.
Project Title: The potential role of β-Caryophyllene in the treatment of systemic sclerosis

Noelle Kosarek, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Department of Biomedical Data Science, Microbiology/Immunology
Graduate Program: Quantitative Biomedical Sciences (complete June 2023)
Mentors: Michael L. Whitfield, Ph.D., Chair and Professor of Biomedical Data Science, Professor of Molecular and Systems Biology and Patricia Pioli, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
Project Title: Using Single Cell RNA-sequencing to Elucidate the Mechanisms of Fibrosis in a Systemic Sclerosis 3D Human Tissue Model

Joe Mouawad, Medical University of South Carolina, Department of Medicine
Graduate Program: Molecular and Cellular Biology and Pathology (complete June 2023)
Mentor: Carol Feghali-Bostwick, Ph.D., Professor of Medicine, and SmartState^® and Kitty Trask Holt Endowed Chair for Scleroderma Research, Division of Rheumatology & Immunology
Project Title: The Role of Extracellular Vesicles in the Propagation of Scleroderma-Associated Lung Fibrosis

Helen Warheit-Niemi, University of Michigan, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Graduate Program: Microbiology and Immunology (complete August 2022)
Mentor: Bethany Moore, Ph.D., Chair, Microbiology & Immunology, Nancy Williams Walls, Ph.D. Professor of Microbiology & Immunology
Project Title: Dissecting the role of neutrophil

Return to the Mentor Programs page