Eduarda Grinsztejn, MD, Case CCC Trainee Associate member, is one of nine individuals selected by the American Society of Hematology (ASH) for its 2024 ASH Minority Hematology Fellow Award (MHFA). This award encourages early-career researchers from historically underrepresented groups in the United States and Canada to pursue careers in academic hematology.
Mentored by Case CCC Molecular Oncology Program member Evi Stavrou, MD, Grinsztejn will continue work on, "Thrombosis risk assessment in transgender women on gender-affirming hormone therapy." Grinsztejn also is supported by Megan McNamara, MD, Physician Director, Gender Identity Veterans Experience (G.I.V.E.) Clinic, Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center.
According to Grinsztejn, "Gender-affirming hormonal therapies (GAHT), particularly estrogen, can increase thrombotic risk, but there is insufficient understanding of the mechanisms that predispose trans women to thrombosis risk. My research utilizes an existing cohort of ~10000 transgender Veterans to develop and validate a discriminative risk-prediction model of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in transgender women." She explains, "Concurrently, I will accrue trans women starting estrogen GAHT from the Cleveland VA G.I.V.E. clinic. I will follow this cohort for a year to characterize changes in platelet reactivity, thrombin generation, and fibrinolytic potential. A comprehensive study of this magnitude has the potential to generate new knowledge in this arena and pave the way for future translational studies.”
Each MHFA awardee receives $100,000 for 2-3 years which guarantees protected time for clinical or laboratory-based hematology research projects, developing additional research skills, and generating preliminary data. They can attend the ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition to present their research findings at the Promoting Minorities in Hematology event at the end of their research term.
Congratulations, Dr. Grinsztejn!