By Caitlyn Romanski

Haikun Zhang, a member of Murtaza Lab, received the esteemed NIH Pathway to Independence (K99/R00) Award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences for the project titled “Computational methods for plasma metagenomic sequencing to improve diagnosis of sepsis in critically-ill patients.”

The K99/R00 award is designed to support the transition from postdoctoral research to an independent faculty position and provides up to two years of mentored research and career development support, followed by an independent R00 phase after transitioning into a faculty position. The main goal of Zhang’s research is to develop computational approaches to improve the diagnosis of sepsis by integrating microbial and host cell-free DNA analyses.

“Through this work, I hope to improve pathogen detection and diagnostic accuracy for sepsis, while also using signals in the blood to better understand organ damage and infection status in critically ill patients,” Zhang said. “This award gives me opportunity to further develop my independent research program, and I’m deeply grateful to my mentors, co-mentors, collaborators and colleagues who helped make this possible.”

Congratulations, Haikun!