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Home > Prizes > Prize Recipients > Roberta Capp

Roberta Capp

2016 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science

Location

Denver, CO

Title

Assistant professor of emergency medicine, University of Colorado, Denver

Area(s) of Research

Molecular and cell biology; emergency medicine

Education

Yale University (fellowship); Harvard Medical School (PhD); University of Colorado, Boulder

Country of Birth

Brazil

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biomedical science Brazil cell biology emergency medicine global health healthcare molecular biology
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Roberta Capp hopes to make health care easily accessible to those in dire need of it. Raised in Sao Paulo, Brazil, by a single mother who eked out a living through fortune-telling and sundry jobs, Capp immigrated to the United States at the age of 14, arriving in Orlando, Florida, with her sister and mother. She graduated as high school valedictorian, and enrolled in premedical studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

She proved to be a standout in molecular and cell biology, winning more than a dozen scholarships. Capp was accepted to Harvard Medical School, where she found her true calling through a traumatic personal experience: Her uninsured mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer that had spread to her lymph nodes. Though the tumor was quickly removed, the harrowing episode proved to be a compelling eye-opener on the continuing plight of the uninsured. “My mom’s experience shaped my choice of specialty,” says Capp, who soon began a residency in emergency medicine at Harvard.

Roberta Capp is pictured standing on a rooftop with a picturesque view of the city and the Rocky Mountains behind her.

She completed a competitive two-year clinical research fellowship on health care policy at Yale University. Her studies found that patients who suffer from complex and chronic conditions face a seemingly insuperable cavalcade of informational, logistical, and financial barriers to primary care. “They get the run-around and end up in the emergency department, which they know will be open 24/7,” says Capp.

She developed a program to identify and pair patients with trained professionals in their own communities. She found that patient navigation services led to reduced emergency department use and hospital admissions — tantamount to a potential economy of more than a million dollars in health care costs. Capp’s efforts have also been focused on mitigating bounce-back visits. Over the coming years, she hopes to make health care patient-centered, reduce its cost, and improve its quality.

Roberta Capp is pictured seated alongside a portable hospital bed fitted with equipment, wearing scrubs and a white lab coat.

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biomedical science Brazil cell biology emergency medicine global health healthcare molecular biology

Jury Members

2016 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science

Heran Darwin

Professor of Microbiology, New York University School of Medicine

Laurie Dempsey

Senior Editor, Nature Immunology, Nature Publishing Group

Yibin Kang

Warner-Lambert Parke-Davis Professor of Molecular Biology, Princeton University

Peter Palese

Horace W. Goldsmith Professor and Chair of Microbiology, Professor of Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Leslie Vosshall

Robin Chemers Neustein Professor, The Rockefeller University

Jedd Wolchok

Lloyd J. Old Chair for Clinical Investigation, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
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Related Prize Recipients

Mikhail G. Shapiro

Mikhail G. Shapiro receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for developing tools based on sound waves and magnetic fields, allowing for an unprecedented range of high-resolution, noninvasive imaging and control of cells in living organisms.
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Kivanç Birsoy

Kıvanç Birsoy receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for developing cutting-edge tools to unravel the altered metabolism of cancer cells and uncovering molecular targets for treatment.
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Fernando Camargo

Fernando Camargo receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for unraveling the mechanism of blood cell production and uncovering crucial cellular signaling processes implicated in cancer treatment and regenerative medicine.
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