CCTI Researcher and NYP Surgery Resident Karina Bruestle Awarded the 2022-2023 John Jones Research Fellowship
Dr. Karina Bruestle, MD, is the recipient of the 9th John Jones Research Fellowship (2022-2023) for her research on transplant tolerance and her project “Using Immuno-PET and automated CD8 quantification to diagnose cardiac transplant rejection in a Non-Human Primate Model” under mentorship of Dr. Griesemer at the Columbia Center for Translational Immunology at Columbia University Medical Center.
Dr. Bruestle is currently a 3rd year resident in General Surgery at New York Presbyterian – Columbia University Medical Center.
Karina Bruestle grew up in Southwest Germany and attended a bilingual German-French Highschool. During medical school, Karina spent her clinical years as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar at the University of Massachusetts (UMass), MA. She worked on her doctoral thesis “Enhancing immune cell reconstitution with genetically engineered Tcell precursors” in Dr.van den Brink’s lab at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), NY and received both medical and doctoral degree (MD/Dr.med.) from Freiburg University, Germany. During her first years as a surgical resident in the Department of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery at the University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland, Dr Bruestle continued her research work on the role of regulatory T cells in transplantation in an orthotopic murine lung transplant model. She received the Filling the Gap award, successfully acquired research grants, published and presented at national and international conferences.
She came to work on transplant tolerance in a non-human primate model at the Columbia Center for Translational Immunology (CCTI) under mentorship of Dr Griesemer and Dr Sykes. For her work on inducing immune tolerance with autologous expanded regulatory T cells in a kidney transplant model, she received among others the Community of Transplant Scientists Award and the award for Best Presentation in Basic Science at the Columbia Department of Surgery Research Symposium 2021. Her work on tracking T cells with the help of immuno-PET in a primate kidney transplant model was recognized as one of the most influential abstracts of the American Transplant Congress in their section “what’s hot what’s new – basic science”.
Her current research projects on transplant tolerance induction using kidney and heart primate transplant models at the Columbia Center for Translational Immunology were recently recognized with the Nelson Transplant Innovation Award. With the help of the John Jones Fellowship at Columbia, she is working on translating the immuno-PET for cardiac allografts. Karina is thrilled about the clinical and research opportunities at Columbia and hopes to solidify her career as a surgeon-scientist.
The John Jones Surgical Society established the John Jones Fellowship Fund within the Department of Surgery at Columbia University to generate support for young surgeon-researchers and surgeon-educators through a formal process.The Society's goal is to support basic and clinical research initiatives at the resident level. The fund currently supports the research activities of one surgery resident annually, selected on a competitive basis. A Research Committee composed of Department of Surgery faculty reviews applications. The John Jones Fellowship is awarded to the best submission.