Weill Cornell anesthesiologist named HHMI Hanna H. Gray Fellow

Dr. Jim Castellanos, Ph.D. '18, M.D. '20, an instructor in anesthesiology at Weill Cornell Medicine, has been selected as a 2024 Hanna H. Gray Fellow by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).

Castellanos is one of 25 early-career scientists in the United States selected for this program, which aims to recruit and retain scientists from gender, racial, ethnic and other groups underrepresented in the life sciences. Hanna H. Gray Fellows receive up to $1.5 million over the span of eight years, providing funds for the remainder of their postdoctoral training and also during their early years as independent faculty.

In addition to financial support, the program also includes professional development, mentoring opportunities and active involvement in the HHMI community.

"I finished my clinical residency a few months ago and now I want to tackle a big, important scientific question," said Castellanos, an anesthesiology fellow at Weill Cornell Medicine and a postdoctoral fellow in Elaine Fuchs' lab at Rockefeller University. "It's validating that HHMI believes in the importance of my project and are investing in my development as a physician-scientist."

For his doctorate, Castellanos studied immunology - specifically, how gut immune cells incorporate signals from the microbiome to promote healing in the intestine in inflammatory bowel disease. With the fellowship, he'll now turn his focus to studying how immune cells interact with the skin stem cells to promote healing and regeneration, particularly in critically ill burn patients.

Castellanos hopes that his research will lead to the discovery of innovative diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutics.

"The skin is the largest organ of the body, and your first barrier of immunity," he said. "Yet we still don't understand how skin heals after wounds, let alone how to harness its regenerative power. There's still a lot to be discovered."

The son of immigrant parents who fled El Salvador during its civil war in the 1980s, Castellanos enlisted in the U.S. Marines in 2001, during his senior year of high school, and spent 2004 at Al Asad Airbase in Iraq, about 150 miles northwest of Baghdad. After his base was attacked by insurgents, and his platoon suffered multiple casualties, he witnessed the long, traumatic recovery for his fellow Marines and decided to pursue a career in medicine after his military service.

"My experiences in the Marines and in Iraq have been absolutely central to everything in my life," Castellanos said. "The Marines really pushed me toward writing, toward medicine and science - and it all really stems from a combat tour in Iraq."

Rodney Moore is a freelance writer for Weill Cornell Medicine.