Melanoma Research Alliance Announces 13 Dermatology Fellowship Award Recipients

The Melanoma Research Alliance, the largest non-profit funder of melanoma research, is proud to announce its 2021 Dermatology Fellowship Award recipients.

The Fellows, all MD or PhD trainees, either as dermatologists or researchers focused on dermatology, will each receive a $35,000 grant to support an independent research or demonstration project focused on advancing melanoma prevention or detection. The Fellows also receive mentorship, networking opportunities, and other career-development support throughout the fellowship.

“Incidence of melanoma has increased, year-over-year, for the last three decades,” said MRA Board member and melanoma survivor Denise Kellen. “MRA’s Dermatology Fellowship program is attracting some of the brightest minds in the field to do the work needed to disrupt this decades-long trend.”

The MRA Dermatology Fellowship program is part of a broader effort by MRA to further engage dermatologists in research to advance melanoma prevention and early detection. Over the program’s three-year history it has supported a broad range of research projects focused on topics such as telemedicine, artificial intelligence and non- invasive imaging, among others.

“This year, several Fellows will tackle important research questions that contribute to health disparities among people of color,” said MRA Chief Science Officer Marc Hurlbert, PhD. “These projects will help improve artificial intelligence algorithms, raise awareness of melanoma among people of color and identify factors that can help clinicians stratify risk.”

Other awardees will study inherited mutations that increase risk for multiple melanomas, new ways to diagnose melanoma by studying fats in the body as well as other factors that contribute to melanoma metastasis. One award will support women in research while memorializing Grace Wenzel, a young melanoma advocate who succumbed to melanoma at the age of 23 in 2020.

“We are so grateful to the many donors who make MRA’s work possible,” says MRA President & CEO Michael Kaplan. “Without the vision and founding support of Denise and Michael Kellen and the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation, this program would not exist – and we are thrilled to have the returning support of the Polka Dot Mama Melanoma Foundation.”

2021 MRA Dermatology Fellowship Awardees

Germline Genetic Mutations in Patients with Multiple Primary Melanoma
Polka Dot Mama Melanoma Foundation – MRA Dermatology Fellows Award
Audris Chiang MD, Stanford University

Targeting Lipids for Melanoma Detection and Prevention
Grace Wenzel MRA Dermatology Fellows Award for Women in Melanoma Research
Marianne Collard PhD, Boston University School of Medicine