Roy Xiao, MD, MS, a PGY-3 resident in the Harvard Combined Residency Program, was recently awarded a Centralized Otolaryngology Research Effort (CORE) grant by the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF).
Dr. Xiao, who completed the Medical Research Scholars Program at the National Institutes of Health prior to entering his residency program, formally received the AAO-HNSF Resident Research Award, which is one of several grants awarded through the AAO-HNSF CORE Grants Program.
The grant will fund Dr. Xiao’s research on a common procedure used to treat patients with peripheral motor nerve deficits, including facial palsy. The procedure, called motor end-to-side neurorrhaphy (ETSN), helps restore facial movement by connecting the end of a donor nerve to the side of a recipient nerve. While the procedure is often employed to restore facial expression, doctors are still trying to understand exactly how the donor nerve contributes to muscle contraction. Dr. Xiao believes his research could lead to substantial changes in microsurgical nerve repair.
“Coming into residency, I wanted to secure a CORE grant because I knew it would be a huge stepping-stone in my academic career,” he said. “Learning how to write this grant with the guidance of my mentor and preceding residents who had already gone through this process was incredibly formative.”
Dr. Xiao will perform his research during his PGY-3 and PGY-4 years of residency and will work alongside his mentor Nate Jowett, MD, FRCSC, who is director of the Bethiaume Family Surgical Photonics and Engineering Laboratory at Mass Eye and Ear.
“Part of our duty is to train the next generation of surgeon-scientists on how to write grants to obtain funds needed to conduct research,” said Dr. Jowett, who also serves as an Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery at Harvard Medical School. “Roy did an excellent job in writing his grant. I’m excited to visualize how these nerves connect.”
Dr. Xiao is the sixteenth resident from the Harvard Combined Residency Program to receive a CORE grant since 2011. Last year, residents Shekhar Gadkaree, MD and Alan Workman, MD were both named recipients.
Below is a full list of residents who have received CORE grants since 2011, along with the title of their research project:
2011
Sunshine Dwojak, MD
“Outcomes among American Indians in South Dakota with squamous cell carcinoma”
2012
Rebecca Hammon, MD
“The role of apoptosis in clinical response of HNSCC to Cisplatin therapy”
2013
Dunia Abdul-Aziz, MD
“Epigenetic regulation of hair cell differentiation”
Elliott Kozin, MD
“Optogenetic control of auditory neurons using a new generation opsin”
2015
Taha Jan, MD
“Effects of secreted factors from human vestibular schwannomas on hearing”
Sidharth Puram, MD, PhD
“Identification of intratumoral subpopulations in oral cavity SCC”
2016
Yin Ren, MD, PhD
"Tumor-penetrating delivery of nanoparticles to human vestibular schwannomas"
2017
Jenny Chen, MD
“Smartphone technology to improve intraoperative feedback”
Ashton Lehmann, MD
“Perisotin as a biomarker for chronic rhinosinusitis”
2018
Vivek Kanumuri, MD
“Optogenetic stimulation of the facial nerve”
Suresh Mohan, MD
“Enhancement of axonal penetration through cross-facial nerve grafts”
2019
Adeeb Derakhshan, MD
“The effect of electrical stimulation on schwann cell states along nerve grafts”
Allen Feng, MD
“Biomechanical analysis of force loadings during suspension microlaryngoscopy”
2020
Shekhar Gadkaree, MD
"Geographic and socioeconomic barriers to access to care in otolaryngology"
Alan Workman, MD
"Murine model of cystatin-induced coagulation pathway derangements in CRSwNP"
2021
Roy Xiao, MD, MS
"Visualizing the mechanism of end-to-side motor neurorrhaphy"