A Michigan Medicine urologist seeking to improve early detection of prostate and kidney cancer is the newest Taubman Emerging Scholar.
Simpa Salami, MD, MPH, has been named the Brian and Rosaline Chamberlain Emerging Scholar, and will receive a five-year financial grant as well as mentorship and other support from the Taubman Institute community.
Dr. Salami’s research interests are in early detection and staging of prostate and kidney cancer. He seeks to leverage novel imaging, machine learning, and next generation sequencing approaches to characterize cancer tumors. The goal of his research is to develop novel cancer biomarkers and to optimize early detection of cancer, risk stratification, prognostication and prediction of treatment response.
“The Emerging Scholar grant has allowed me to pursue high-risk, high-reward research with great potential to transform the way we manage patients with prostate cancer,” said Dr. Salami. “It is an honor to be selected for this award and it serves as a wonderful recognition of the impactful work being done by our laboratory team.”
Dr. Salami is a fellowship-trained urologic oncologist, and associate professor of urology at the University of Michigan. He obtained his medical degree from the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Thereafter, he graduated from the Master of Public Health program at Harvard University.
He subsequently pursued his general surgical internship training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, urology residency at Hofstra Northwell Health School of Medicine in New York, and urologic oncology fellowship at U-M.
The Taubman Emerging Scholars program was established in 2011 to accelerate the research of early-career clinician-scientists at Michigan Medicine, providing funding while these talented investigators build the credentials to qualify for traditional support such as National Institutes of Health grants.
Emerging Scholar grants are named for the philanthropists who provide monetary support of the physician-researchers. Donors are welcome to meet with the investigators for periodic updates, laboratory tours and other connections.
“When we first began thinking about supporting medical research at U of M, we came up with two basic requirements: One, we wanted to focus on areas that affected us in our personal lives. The opportunity to support Dr. Salami’s research in Prostate Cancer seemed to be a good fit for us,” said Brian Chamberlain, whose family is providing the funds for Dr. Salami’s grant.
“And, in addition to simply providing funding, we wanted to learn as much as possible about his research techniques, goals, objectives, and results as they emerge,” he said. “Dr. Salami enthusiastically agreed to this, and we look forward to learning from him.”
