Dr. Jairo Fonseca (pictured above, right) and Dr. Nabil Saleem (pictured above, left)
Congratulations to our 2025 Atlanta Pediatric Scholars K12 Program awardees, Jairo Fonseca, MD and Nabil Saleem, MD!
The Atlanta Pediatric Scholars Program (K12HD072245; PI: Shari Barkin, MD) is funded by The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and is administered and supported by Emory University Department of Pediatrics and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. This program is a mentored institutional career development program for senior fellows and junior faculty who have recently completed postgraduate clinical training in pediatrics and are committed to launching an independent basic science research career. The program provides a dedicated period of career development including didactic coursework, mentored research training and 75% protected research time towards the pursuit of independent extramural research funding.
Dr. Fonseca’s project, “Impact of TGF‑β on Pediatric HIV Reservoir Establishment and Latency Reversal Strategies,” seeks to uncover new strategies for curing pediatric HIV by studying the immune molecule TGF-β's role in creating and maintaining hidden HIV reservoirs and reducing the effectiveness of latency-reversing drugs. His project mentor is Ann Chahroudi, MD, PhD. Dr. Fonseca is an Instructor, Pediatric Infectious Diseases in the Department of Pediatrics at Emory University and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
Dr. Saleem’s project, “Engineering Chemotherapy Resistant CAR T Cells for Acute Myeloid Leukemia,” explores a new way to treat aggressive childhood leukemia (AML) by combining CAR T-cell therapy with chemotherapy, aiming to make CAR T cells resistant to chemotherapy drugs, in order to allow both treatments to work together and improve remission rates for children with hard-to-treat AML. His project mentor is Sunil Raikar, MD. Dr. Saleem is a Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Fellow at the Emory University School of Medicine and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.