Meet Our CA1 AIRR Research Scholars

Inaugurated in July 2012, the Anesthesiology Intensive Research Residency (or AIRR — formerly the Research Scholars Program) is a research-intensive 5-year residency whose purpose is to produce independent and innovative investigators in anesthesiology.

We caught up with the UCSF Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care’s four CA1 AIRR scholars to learn about their backgrounds, current projects, what advice they’d give to those considering a career in research, and how they spend their limited free time. Many thanks to Drs. Abood Abuhashem, Harper Kim, Kun Leng, and Paul Wei for their willingness to share their experiences and contribute to this article. Answers have been edited for length and clarity.

Can you share a brief overview of your professional background and area of expertise?

Abuhashem: My teachers back home in Gaza, Palestine inspired me to embrace my interest in science, which led me to pursue higher education at Harvard. While there, I found basic science and immediately felt like it was the path for me. I studied stem cells and regenerative biology and did research on cardiac regeneration potential.

The impact that research can have on human health drew me to learn more about medicine and I decided to apply to MD/PhD programs. I attended the Tri-institutional MD/PhD program (Weill Cornell/Rockefeller/Sloan Kettering). While there, I wanted to understand the basic mechanisms that allow a certain stem cell to become a neuron, while another would become a blood cell, so I studied how genes are read in early developmental stages.

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Kim: I majored in neuroscience at Brown University and completed my MD/PhD training at UAB. During my undergraduate years at Brown, I developed a strong interest in the biology of aging, particularly the fundamental question of why all animals age. For my PhD thesis, I investigated how a transient surge in protein translation during young adulthood can lead to protein aggregation later in life, ultimately contributing to age-related functional decline and neurodegeneration. Looking forward, I aim to apply my background in aging biology to the field of anesthesia to better understand why older adults experience higher rates of adverse perioperative outcomes, including postoperative cognitive dysfunction. By integrating mechanistic insights from aging research with perioperative medicine, my goal is to identify modifiable pathways and develop targeted interventions to mitigate these complications and improve surgical outcomes in the elderly population.

Leng: I have wanted to be a physician-scientist since my college days, which was when I first got “hooked” on research. I had worked in a lab starting senior year of high school but had really no idea what I was doing at the time; I was eager to learn but didn’t grasp what I was working on at a deep level.

In college, I joined a protein biochemistry / biophysics lab, and it was there that I experienced the thrill and reward of thinking deeply about a problem and making a discovery for the first time.

I discovered that I wanted basic science to be a part of my career. I already knew that I wanted to be a doctor, and I began to understand better the role of the physician-scientist after reading some inspirational books such as The Emperor of All Maladies. I realized that if I could build a career where I used my clinical experience to advance the field of medicine I worked in and to possibly bring advances in the lab to the clinic, that it would be the best fit for my interests and skills.

Wei: I grew up in Texas and went to college at Harvard before heading to UCSF for my MD/PhD. My PhD was in neuroscience, focusing on brainstem control of breathing. I was particularly interested in the neural circuits that coordinate breathing with behaviors like vocalization and yawning. For my thesis, we discovered a new neural circuit that controls crying in baby mice. I also worked on projects examining how opioids cause respiratory depression at the molecular, cellular, and circuit levels—an issue with direct relevance to clinical medicine.

What attracted you to UCSF/our department?

Abuhashem: As I finished my PhD and went back to finish my clinical rotations, I felt a deep connection to molecular biology, protein engineering, and genetics, but I was not sure where I wanted to apply it next and let my clinical interest guide my research. I was lucky to be exposed to anesthesiology as a medical student.

For me, anesthesiology had the perfect balance of mastering fundamental knowledge of human physiology, acting on it in a hands-on manner, and an incredibly high impact on patients’ lives compared to the brief time spent with them.

It was also an expansive field that covers OR anesthesia, critical care, pain, and other roles under it, widening the potential areas of research. I was lucky to be mentored by a UCSF-trained anesthesiologist-scientist at Weill Cornell (Dr. Paul Riegelhaupt) who showed me it is doable and even enjoyable to have a basic science laboratory and anesthesia practice at the same time. For my residency, I sought top academic anesthesia departments that are willing to support a broad array of scientific interests, and UCSF was at the top of that list.

I have been lucky to witness truly exceptional clinical care delivered by providers across the department and UCSF. I was particularly impressed with the support researchers receive in this department. Science is a team sport, and being able to see all the teams on display during special symposia or our incredible annual Anesthesia Research Day is inspiring.

Kim: UCSF has long been my dream place to train, and both the interview experience and my second visit fully confirmed that belief.

I felt that UCSF is a community where I would genuinely belong—one that values intellectual rigor while fostering a culture that is collaborative, forward-thinking, and deeply humane. I immediately felt comfortable being my authentic self, surrounded by passionate individuals who are both accomplished and remarkably humble.

Everyone at UCSF has been exceptionally warm and supportive. During my interview, after I spoke with Director of Education Jannot Ross about my research interests in postoperative delirium and how my work was grounded in Dr. Maze’s research, she kindly connected me with him. Dr. Maze was equally warm and supportive, and I had the privilege of contributing to a book chapter on the pathogenesis of delirium in the elderly even before matching at UCSF. These experiences further highlighted UCSF’s extraordinary, personalized commitment to nurturing residents as physician-scientists—something I have not seen matched elsewhere.

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Leng: I ended at UCSF for my MD/PhD training. I worked in Professor Martin Kampmann's lab where I developed a deep interest in neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation and became familiar with functional genomics approaches such as CRISPR-based screening and single-cell transcriptomics. After completing my PhD, I discovered that clinically I was drawn to the field of anesthesia because of how anesthesiologists deal with physiology in real time in a hands-on manner, which I found rewarding in a similar way as a well-executed experiment in the lab.

I liked the role of the anesthesiologist as the protector of the patient when they are the most vulnerable.

Choosing to stay at UCSF was an easy decision because of the world-class training here and the fact that I never met a single person in the department who was not extremely nice and cool.

Wei: Having done medical school here, I already knew and loved the department’s culture. I wanted a place where I could receive exemplary clinical training while continuing to grow as a researcher. On a personal level, my spouse is an attending neurologist here, and we really enjoy the Bay Area’s nature and community, so staying was the perfect choice.

What motivated you to specialize in anesthesia, and pursue the research track in particular?

Kim: I was initially drawn to anesthesiology through personal experience. I spent many days in the ICU when my grandma was hospitalized after a hip fracture complicated by pneumosepsis, postoperative cognitive dysfunction, ultimately leading to Alzheimer’s disease. I was profoundly impressed by the anesthesiologists’ attentiveness to her pain, their calm decisiveness, and their ability to provide immediate, life-saving care during crisis.

I was drawn to both the philosophy and the practice of anesthesiology—the constant, meticulous decision-making required to manage rapidly changing physiology.

The ability to help patients in a concrete and immediate way while deeply engaging with physiology strongly resonated with me. I am also motivated to advance the field by applying my research background in neuroscience and aging. We still do not fully understand why certain patients, like my grandma, develop irreversible postoperative cognitive dysfunction, nor how anesthetics induce and regulate consciousness. There are currently no effective therapies to prevent delirium or postoperative cognitive dysfunction, or to control chronic pain without significant side effects. Recognizing these gaps and the vast potential for improvement in perioperative care drew me to the research track, where I hope to generate mechanistic insights that translate into meaningful clinical advances.

Wei: My first exposure to anesthesia was through research—much of the foundational work on brainstem control of breathing has been done by anesthesiologists. Clinically, I enjoy thinking about physiology and practicing high-acuity medicine, so anesthesia felt like a natural fit. I also love that so much of anesthesia is quantitative and measurable, which isn’t always the case in medicine. From a research perspective, anesthesia gives a window into the fundamental processes that keep us alive, yet there are still so many unanswered questions—making it a rich field for exploration.

Can you tell us about your research project and which lab you’ll be joining?

Abuhashem: My broad plan is to be able to use some of the molecular tools I learned and developed during my PhD to build scalable cellular models of pain that enable more granular functional interrogation of proteins contribution to pain signals transductions on the hope of identifying novel mechanisms and targets in a field that desperately needs innovation.

Kim: Surgical stress can accelerate cellular aging, yet intriguingly, cells often recover over time, returning to a more youthful state. The mechanisms underlying this epigenetic resilience remain unknown. I plan to investigate these mechanisms to understand how cells recover from perioperative stress and to develop pharmacological strategies that enhance these pathways, with the goal of reducing adverse perioperative outcomes such as delirium or organ dysfunction. Additionally, I am interested in exploring whether promoting these resilience pathways outside the surgical context could have broader implications for delaying aging and improving long-term health. To address these questions, I am considering collaborations with both Dr. Saul Villeda, an expert in aging, and Dr. Mervyn Maze, a leader in delirium research.

Leng: Going forward, I am interested in studying post-operative delirium, which can be thought of as the intersection of my prior research interests in neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation. My research mentoring team will consist of Dr. Odmara Barreto-Chang and Dr. Mervyn Maze within the anesthesia department, as well as Dr. Katerina Akassoglou at the Gladstone Institutes, and Dr. Niccolo Terrando at Duke University; these mentors have the expertise and research infrastructure for me to investigate how perturbation of the blood-brain barrier contributes to post-operative delirium at a mechanistic level.

Wei: I’m still finalizing the details, but I’m interested in exploring the intersection of pain and the autonomic nervous system.

What are your goals for the remainder of your time here?

Kim: My primary goals for the remainder of my time here are to continue developing into a clinically excellent anesthesiologist while laying a strong foundation for a sustainable physician–scientist career. Clinically, I aim to refine my intraoperative decision-making, perioperative management, and crisis leadership skills so that I can provide consistently high-quality, patient-centered care across diverse and complex cases. In parallel, I plan to further develop a focused research niche at the intersection of anesthesiology, neuroscience, and aging, particularly in perioperative neurocognitive disorders. I hope to deepen my mechanistic understanding, generate publishable work, and build strong mentorship and collaborative relationships that will position me for future independent investigation. Ultimately, my goal is to integrate rigorous science with clinical practice to improve perioperative outcomes—especially for older and vulnerable patients.

Wei: My main goal is training to become the best clinician I can be while dedicating time to research projects that, hopefully, will one day improve care for our patients.

What advice would you give to medical students considering a career in research?

Abuhashem: Being a physician-scientist requires discipline, patience, and sacrifice. However, the pride you carry when you explain to a patient exactly how their medications work or imagine how your research can impact a patient’s life is incredibly unique.

Surround yourself with innovative, supportive mentors, work on questions that matter to you and to patients, and build a social support system that will nurture you during this journey. It will be worth it.

Kim: I would encourage medical students interested in research to start by finding a question that genuinely excites you, because sustained curiosity is what carries you through the inevitable challenges and setbacks. Seek out mentors who not only share your scientific interests but are also invested in your development, and don’t be afraid to explore different fields early to understand what truly motivates you. Being a physician–scientist is challenging. Experiments may fail, patient care can be unpredictable, and progress can be incremental, yet it is also incredibly rewarding and fun. Research and clinical practice complement each other; your clinical experiences can inspire important scientific questions, and your research can ultimately improve patient care in ways medicine alone cannot. Embracing both aspects makes for a career that is intellectually fulfilling, impactful, and deeply enjoyable.

Wei: For me, the key to sustaining a research career is twofold.

Find projects and questions that genuinely intrigue you, and surround yourself with mentors and colleagues who make the journey fun and exciting.

How do you spend your time when you’re not working?

Kim: I enjoy spending time cooking and eating Korean food (probably more eating than cooking!), which feels like a way to stay connected to my roots—I was born and raised in Korea until high school. I also love watching and playing soccer, jogging and exploring Golden Gate Park, and chilling with Netflix, especially crime and detective thrillers.

Leng: I enjoy surfing, playing tennis, and learning how to play golf.

Wei: I like learning golf, following Dallas sports teams, and spending time with family.