Newborn Medicine Program Fellow Hayley Varela, MD, Earns Clinical Trainee Research Award
February 15, 2024
Congratulations to UPMC Newborn Medicine Program fellow, Hayley Varela, MD, (PGY-5) for receiving a Magee-Womens Research Institute (MWRI) Clinical Trainee Research Award (CTRA) in December 2023. The highly competitive award is designed to support research being conducted by trainees at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital.
Dr. Varela’s research project is titled “Studies of Group B Streptococcus Surface Proteins That Promote Neonatal Intestinal Colonization and Infection.”
For her research project, Dr. Varela seeks to identify novel ways to prevent infection with group B Streptococcus (GBS), a major cause of infections in newborn babies.
Specifically, she is using CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) to knockout specific surface proteins on GBS to determine their role in invasion of intestinal epithelial cells.
Dr. Varela is mentored in her research by Thomas Hooven, MD, assistant professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Newborn Medicine and principal investigator of the Hooven Laboratory.
More About Dr. Varela
Dr. Varela is a neonatology fellow at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Arkansas Fayetteville. She earned her medical degree from the University of Arkansas School of Medicine followed by her residency training in pediatrics at Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health.
