2008 ASH-AMFDP Recipient

After residency, Dr. Rivera began his fellowship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center before transferring to the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, to complete his fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine. Dr. Rivera also obtained a Doctor of Philosophy in Cellular and Molecular Pathology at the University of California, Los Angeles, with his thesis entitled "Hepcidin as the Central Mediator of Anemia of Inflammation."

Currently, Dr. Rivera is Assistant Professor in Residence and Co-Director of the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship in the Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. While he devotes the majority of his time to research, Dr. Rivera does attend in the intensive care unit six weeks a year and is active in medical student and resident education.

Dr. Rivera's research project is entitled "Identifying the erythroid regulator and defining its role in disease." The overall goals of his proposal are to identify the erythroid regulator and determine its prevalence in diseases with disturbances in the iron-erythroid axis. Working closely with mentor Tomas Ganz, MD, PhD, using a combination of ex-vivo, animal, and human models, they expect to 1) isolate the erythroid regulator, 2) determine whether the erythroid regulator is dysregulated in human diseases with disturbances in the iron-erythroid axis, and 3) study the effects of the erythroid regulator.

This project fits in well with Dr. Rivera's overall goal of understanding the pathogenic factors that lead to anemia of inflammation (anemia of chronic disease) and anemia of cancer. This grant will allow him to hone his research skills while transitioning towards independence.