Congratulations to FAER’s Fall 2025 Grant Recipients!

October 24, 2025

The Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research (FAER) is proud to announce the physician-investigators awarded research grants in fall 2025. Totaling $1.6 million in funding, awards include five Mentored Research Training Grants and two GEMSSTAR Grants. This cycle also features the 2025 Alison Cole, PhD, MRTG Award Recipient, as well as MRTGs partially funded by the Association of University Anesthesiologists (AUA) and Society of Academic Associations of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine (SAAAPM).

“We are pleased to support Drs. Adelmann, Guichard, Leimer, Potnuru, Scarpa, Torrie, and Wingert on their research journeys. Their research will span a diverse range of topics, including cardiac, neurology, and pediatrics and has the potential to significantly impact anesthesiology along with our patients. To achieve such impacts, it is imperative that physician-scientists like those awarded this cycle have access to early-career support to help their research grow and flourish in the long-term.

Details on FAER's fall 2025 grant recipients – including names, institutions, mentors, and project titles – can be found below. Please join us in congratulating and celebrating these future leaders of anesthesiology and research!

FAER would also like to take this opportunity to thank all those serving as mentors on these grants, as well as each grantee’s institution and department, for their part in nurturing the next generation of physician-investigators. We would similarly like to thank the AUA and SAAAPM for their generous support in partially funding grantees this cycle.

Mentored Research Training Grants (MRTG) help physician-investigators develop the skills, preliminary data for subsequent grant applications, and research publications needed to become independent investigators. These grants are eligible to faculty members who have completed their core anesthesiology residency training within the past 10 years and comprise $300,000 in funding over two years.

The Alison Cole, PhD, Award honors the MRTG recipient with the best application score among grantees awarded for the year. Their grant is partially funded by the Alison Cole, PhD, Fund, the funds for which were raised during a campaign in 2021 to honor the tenure and retirement of Dr. Alison Cole, a former Program Officer at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), celebrated for her broad impact on anesthesiology and its researchers.

Dieter Adelmann, MD, PhD; University of California, San Francisco
2025 Alison Cole, PhD, MRTG Award Recipient
Primary Mentor: Matthieu Legrand, MD, PhD, Msc
Secondary Mentor: Sachin Kheterpal, MD, MBA
Tertiary Mentor: Nicholas Douville, MD, PhD
Additional Collaborator: David Chen, PhD
Project Title: Perioperative Blood Pressure Management in Kidney Transplantation: Variations in Practice Patterns and their Association with Graft Outcomes

Lauriane Guichard, MD; University of North Carolina
Primary Mentor: Matt Mauck, MD, PhD
Secondary Mentor: Daniel Clauw, MD
Tertiary Mentor: Meredith Adams, MD, MS
Additional Collaborators: Xinming An, MS, PhD; Afton Hassett, PsyD; Christopher Hughes, MD, MSc; Vijay Krishnamoorthy, MD, MPH, PhD; Samuel McLean, MD, MPH
Project Title: Predictors of Nociplastic Pain after Cardiac Surgery Requiring Intensive Care

Elizabeth Leimer, MD, PhD; University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Primary Mentor: Bradley Taylor, PhD
Secondary Mentor: Ajay Wasan, MD, MSc, MA
Tertiary Mentor: Keith Vogt, MD, PhD
Project Title: Brainstem Mechanisms in a New Model of Chronic Low Back Pain

Paul Potnuru, MD*; UTHealth Houston
Primary Mentor: Holger Eltzschig, MD, PhD
Secondary Mentor: Daniel Sessler, MD
Tertiary Mentor: Xiaoqian Jiang, PhD
Project Title: Safety and Efficacy of a Vadadustat for the Treatment of Pathogen-Associated Nonintubated Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: A Phase IIa Randomized Controlled Trial

*Partially funded by the Association of University Anesthesiologists (AUA)

Theodora Wingert, MD*; University of California, Los Angeles
Primary Mentor: Maxime Cannesson, MD, PhD
Secondary Mentor: Eran Halperin, PhD
Tertiary Mentor: Eric Cheng, MD, MS
Additional Collaborators: Julia Galvez Delgado, MD, MBI; Lena Sun, MD; Robert Whittington, MD
Project Title: Predicting Pediatric Postoperative Complications using Waveform and Electronic Health Record Data

*Partially funded by the Society of Academic Associations of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine (SAAAPM)

FAER GEMSSTAR Grants supplement the two-year NIA scientific awards with support for simultaneous career development activities. FAER GEMSSTAR Grants are eligible to new investigators with R03 GEMSSTAR awards from the National Institute of Aging (NIA) and comprise $50,000 in funding over two years.

Joseph Scarpa, MD, PhD; Weill Cornell Medicine
Primary Mentor: Jan Krumsiek, PhD
Additional Collaborators: Michelle Humeidan, MD, PhD; M. Carrington Reid, MD, PhD; Elizbeth Whitlock, MD
Project Title: The Impact of Biological Age on Surgical Outcomes

Arissa Torrie, MD, MHS; University of Maryland School of Medicine
Primary Mentors: Nathan O’Hara, PhD, MHA; Gerard Slobogean, MD, MPH
Additional Collaborators: Jay S. Magaziner, PhD, MSHyg; Mark Neuman, MD, MSc; Robert V. O'Toole, MD
Project Title: Association of Peripheral Nerve Blocks with Postoperative Outcomes and Readmissions in Older Adults Undergoing Hip Fracture Surgery

FAER is also pleased to share information on the funding opportunities available as part of its upcoming Spring 2026 Grant Cycle. Standard FAER grants available for the Spring 2026 Cycle include the Mentored Research Training Grant, Research in Education Grant, and Research Fellowship Grant. Applications for the Transition to Independence Grant are also accepted on a rolling basis. See below for more information and links, or visit FAER.org/Grants.

Applications Open: December 1, 2025 - February 15, 2026

Available Grants:

• Mentored Research Training Grant ($300,000 over two years)
• Research in Education Grant ($100,000 over two years)
• Research Fellowship Grant ($75,000 over one year)
• Transition to Independence Grant ($75,000 over one year)

In addition to the grants linked above, FAER is excited to team with the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (APSF) to offer the APSF-FAER Mentored Research Training Grant (MRTG) as part of the Spring 2026 Cycle. Note that a Letter of Intent must be submitted before interested applicants are invited to submit a full application for this award. Read the APSF-FAER MRTG announcement here, and follow the link below to learn more and apply.

Letter of Intent Submissions Open: December 1, 2025 – January 1, 2026

APSF-FAER Mentored Research Training Grant ($300,000 over two years)

THE FOUNDATION FOR ANESTHESIA EDUCATION AND RESEARCH (FAER)
FAER is a related foundation of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA). For over 35 years, FAER has been dedicated to developing the next generation of physician-investigators in anesthesiology. Charitable contributions and support to FAER help fuel the future of anesthesiology through scientific discovery. Funding priorities include: Research, Education, and Training. At the time of this article's publication, FAER has awarded more than $61 million in research grants and programs since 1986. To donate to FAER, visit FAER.org/donate.