Uzma Rani, MD, MPH is a University of Iowa Institute for Clinical and Translational Science (ICTS) K12 scholar and has a passion for addressing the real-life barriers that impact obesity care for children and adolescents. She plans to do this by discovering the facilitators that can help make the necessary care happen. Rani has seen how childhood obesity is shaped by factors outside of the child's control, and how families want to help their children thrive, but often face systemic barriers. With this knowledge, Rani wanted to do more.

As a radiation oncologist and University of Iowa Institute for Clinical and Translational Science K12 scholar, Kailin Yang, MD, PhD, has seen firsthand how aggressive diseases like glioblastoma can be. He has seen his patients suffer and is researching a way to help them. Yang is researching the role of N6-methyladenosine (m6A), the most prevalent modification that directly modulates mRNA.

Doug Bennion, MD, K12 scholar with the University of Iowa Institute for Clinical and Translational Science (ICTS), saw the disconnect for his grandfather, who lost his hearing in his prime working years at a steel factory. His grandfather missed out on the nuanced auditory cues present in our everyday listening environments. It was these experiences and more that drove him to pursue a low-cost pharmacologic option for those who are hearing-impaired or at-risk for hearing impairment all over the world.

Amanda Irish, MD, MPH, MS, DTMH, has a passion for emerging infectious diseases. A passion that stemmed from somewhat untraditional beginnings: as a young adult Irish read “The Hot Zone” by Richard Preston, a nonfiction book about the origins of deadly viruses like Ebola and Marburg. Irish found herself transfixed by the biosafety lab doctors as they fought to contain dangerous infections “I imagined myself treating fatally infected villagers in a hospital tent one day while analyzing new virus strains the next” Irish shared.