PhD Physician-Scientist · Harvard & MGH-Trained · MD Candidate
MD Candidate | Physician-Scientist
Translating immunology into medicine that reaches patients.
Harvard- and MGH-trained physician-scientist with a PhD in immunology, 113 citations across four peer-reviewed papers — including Nature Biomedical Engineering and first-author work in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
10+ years in biomedical research
4 peer-reviewed articles
113 citations
Training and research environments
Mission
Translational research with direct clinical relevance.
Current focus
Targeting academic internal medicine and oncology — with a PSTP focus.
Open to IM/oncology residency programs, PSTP inquiries, research collaborators, and physician-scientist mentors.
Research Focus
Each focus area is tied to the same standard: the work should help explain disease more clearly and move biomedical insight closer to better patient care.
Positioning
General physician-scientist profile with a research identity rooted in immunology, translational systems, and clinical relevance.
Bridging mechanistic discovery in the lab to questions that can improve diagnosis, therapy, and patient outcomes.
The strongest biomedical research earns its value when it changes what clinicians can measure, explain, or offer at the bedside.
Studying immune signaling, microRNA regulation, and cellular decision-making across complex disease states.
Understanding how cells switch between activation, tolerance, and dysfunction helps reveal where intervention can be most effective.
Applying medical training to cancer and immune-mediated disease — targeting academic internal medicine with an oncology focus where clinical and scientific work inform each other.
Clinical context sharpens scientific judgment. An oncology-focused physician-scientist can ask the questions that actually matter to patients with cancer and immune disease.
Building platform thinking through diagnostics, biomaterials, organoids, and systems-based approaches to disease.
Future-facing medicine will depend on tools that connect biological complexity to faster, smarter decisions in care and research.
Current Work
My present work is about connecting clinical training, translational judgment, and long-term academic direction so each next step strengthens the full physician-scientist platform.
Right now
Open to academic internal medicine and oncology residency inquiries, PSTP programs, research collaboration, and physician-scientist mentorship.
Current priority
Building bedside perspective through medical education while staying focused on the long-term role of physician-scientist leadership.
Current priority
Pursuing academic internal medicine programs — ideally with a medical oncology or cancer immunology track and a dedicated Physician-Scientist Training Program (PSTP) — where clinical excellence and translational discovery reinforce each other.
Current priority
Carrying forward prior work in immunology, molecular systems, and translational platforms toward future clinically meaningful investigations.
Selected Publications
Representative publications in translational immunology, molecular signaling, and platform-oriented biomedical research.
Demonstrated that immune-instructive biomaterials can capture bacterial signals in vivo and generate protection against sepsis, highlighting a path from materials engineering to clinically relevant infection control.
Super M, Doherty E, Cartwright M, Ureña FR, et al. · Nature Biomedical Engineering · 10.1038/s41551-021-00756-3
Showed that activation-driven loss of miR-15a/16 releases the MEK1-ERK-Elk1 pathway and expands T-cell proliferative capacity, clarifying a tractable lever in immune regulation.
Ureña FR, Ma C, Hoffmann FW, et al. · Journal of Biological Chemistry · 10.1016/j.jbc.2022.101639
Defined selenoprotein I as a regulator of T-cell fate, linking metabolic control to tolerant versus inflammatory immune phenotypes in ways that matter for immune-mediated disease.
Ma C, Hoffmann FW, Nunes LGA, Ureña FR, et al. · Journal of Leukocyte Biology · 10.1002/JLB.1A0122-080R
Built a rapid molecular diagnostic assay for field detection, reflecting a broader interest in translational platforms that shorten the distance between measurement and action.
DeLude A, Wells R, Boomla S, Chuang SC, Ureña FR, et al. · Scientific Reports · 10.1038/s41598-022-22023-4
Experience
This is not just a record of roles. It is the sequence that built a durable physician-scientist identity across pathology, preclinical systems, doctoral research, postdoctoral work, and medicine.
2023 - Present
UK, Grenada, and U.S. clinical rotations
Clinical training that keeps future research grounded in real patient questions, real workflows, and real outcome gaps.
Postdoctoral training
2022 - 2023
Boston, MA
Extended translational training into cancer biology, tumor immunology, organoid systems, and the immune microenvironment — work that directly informs a long-term research agenda in oncology.
Doctoral research
2019 - 2023
Honolulu, HI
Built a mechanistic immunology program around microRNA control of T-cell proliferation and signaling.
2019
Pullman, WA
Supported gene-editing workflows that turned experimental questions into tractable biological models.
Approach to Medicine and Research
I view medicine as a system that extends beyond individual patient encounters — one that needs physicians who also generate and evaluate the evidence. The patients I most want to help are the ones whose diseases we still understand poorly, and whose best treatments have not yet been discovered.
My goal is to be that physician: one who treats disease today and produces the science that changes how it is treated tomorrow.
Contact
Whether you are reaching out about residency fit, translational research, mentorship, or academic collaboration, this site is built to make the next conversation easy.
Preferred contact
Please use the contact form for all inquiries, including residency outreach, research collaboration, mentorship, and academic opportunities.
Contact form only
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