New Faculty in the Department of Medicine

Rebecca Berhanu, MD

Assistant Professor of Medicine, ivision of Infectious Diseases Infectious Diseases

Division

ID

MD - Baylor College of Medicine

Laura Binari, MD

Clinical Fellow Instructor

Division

NP

Eastern Virginia Medical School

Hometown

Annandale, VA

Laura grew up in Annandale, Virginia with her parents and older sister. She traveled a short drive from home to the University of Virginia for college, where she majored in Neuroscience. During her time at UVA, she developed a passion for medicine while volunteering at the free clinic and the university hospital. After graduation, she stayed in the beautiful city of Charlottesville for another year to complete her research project on the development of the peripheral nervous system. She continued her migration south for medical school at EVMS where she met her fiancé, Barron, who will be starting residency in Pediatrics at Vanderbilt. Outside of medicine, Laura enjoys running, playing soccer, baking (and eating) desserts, cheering for the Washington Redskins, and relaxing with family and friends. Laura is very excited to move to Nashville and to join the Vanderbilt family! Member of AOA.

Cristian Chandler

Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases

cristian.chandler@vumc.org

Division

ID

PhD - University of Pittsburgh

Michael Diatte, MD

Instructor in Clinical Medicine

Instructor in Clinical Pediatrics

michael.diatte@vumc.org

Division

IM

MD - Loma Linda University School of Medicine

David Erasmus, MBChB, MD

Assistant Professor of Medicine, Medicine

Medical Director of the Lung Transplant Program, Allergy, Pulmonary, and Critical Care Medicine and The Vanderbilt Lung Institute

Division

AP

Specialty

Lung Transplant

David earned his MD from the University of Pretoria in Pretoria, South Africa in 1993. Subsequently, he completed a one-year internship at Universitas Hospital in Bloemfontein, South Africa in 1994 and then moved to the United States for additional training. He completed his Internal Medicine Residency and Pulmonary/Critical Care training at Saint Louis University in Saint Louis, MO in 1999 and 2002, respectively. He served as one of the Chief Medical Residents for the 1998-1999 academic year. Following the completion of his fellowship training, David went back to his native South Africa and worked in private practice until 2006 when he was recruited to the Division of Transplant Medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL. David rose through the ranks at Mayo and became the Medical Director of the Lung Transplant Program in 2015. Under David’s leadership, Mayo’s lung transplant program had substantial growth and was recognized for its excellent quality indicators.

Xiangke Huang, MD

Assistant Professor of Medicine

Division

CA

Previous Role/Title

Interventional Cardiology/Assistant Professor

Specialty

Cardiovascular Disease

M.B.B.S. - Peking University Health Science Center

M.S. - University of Memphis

Hometown

Hunan, China

Dr. Huang is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Cardiology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. His clinical research is currently focused on the development of innovative treatments for coronary artery disease and improving patient outcomes in acute settings. He is specialized in percutaneous diagnostics and interventions for patient with chest pain, heart attack, pulmonary embolism, cardiogenic shock, and other critically illness in cardiology. Prior to joining the Vanderbilt faculty, Dr. Huang completed a year of interventional cardiology fellowship at the University of Massachusetts College of Medicine Baystate Medical Center. He completed internal medicine residency and cardiovascular medicine fellowship at The University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine Erlanger Health System, where he served as an interventional cardiologist from 2019-2021. Dr. Huang obtained his medical degree from Peking University Health Science Center in China and a Masters in Statistics from University of Memphis.

Paras Karmacharya, MD, MS

Instructor of Medicine, Department of Rheumatology

Division

RH

Previous Role/Title

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Specialty

Rheumatology

Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN - Master's Degree in Research - Clinical and Translational Science (CCaTS)

Hometown

Rochester, MN

Dr. Karmacharya’s clinical expertise include psoriatic arthritis (PsA), ankylosing spondylitis, inflammatory bowel disease associated arthritis, and reactive arthritis. He is part of the Psoriatic Arthritis Research Consortium (PARC), which includes five PsA-dedicated clinics in the US aimed to improve patient-centered care and advance personalized medicine in PsA. The mission of his clinical and research program is to improve outcomes in PsA by developing better treatment strategies for PsA, and to understand the factors leading to the development of PsA enabling early intervention.

As a result of his post-doctoral MSK research training and Master of Science training in Clinical and Translational Sciences, he is proficient in the use of large databases, designing and performing longitudinal studies with primary data sources, and outlining clinical and treatment heterogeneity in different patient subgroups using machine learning methods. He received the Medical and Pediatric Resident Research Award as a resident and the Philip S. Hench Award 2020 for Outstanding Achievement as a Rheumatology fellow. He has received research grants from Spondyloarthritis Research and Treatment Network (SPARTAN), Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA), and Assessment of spondyloarthritis international society (ASAS) to understand how chronic conditions influence the risk and outcomes in spondyloarthritis.