Eleven participants completed six weeks of hands-on biomedical research at Sanford Burnham Prebys
Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute welcomed its fifth cohort of interns this year for the Summer Program to Accelerate Regenerative Medicine Knowledge (SPARK). SPARK is an initiative by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) that provides research opportunities for high schoolers from underrepresented groups throughout California.
The SPARK participants completed six-week internships at Sanford Burnham Prebys and completed projects under the supervision of their faculty mentors.
“My experience was amazing right from the get-go,” said Jonathan Wang, a rising senior who worked in the lab of Shengjie Feng, PhD. “The whole lab came to greet me on my first day and it was really inviting.”
“It was all very new to me as both my first research experience and my first internship,” said Tannishtha Dhar, a rising junior who worked in the lab of Kelly Kersten, PhD. “I’ve always wanted to be a clinician or surgeon, but now I have a growing interest in biomedical research as well.”
In the first of two capstone events, the interns delivered poster presentations at the Sanford Burnham Prebys campus on July 30, 2026. The students detailed their projects and what they had learned over the course of their internships.
“Beyond what I learned about progressive liver disease in my project, I’m walking away with a greater appreciation of the importance of communication,” said Shiva Ambatipudi, a rising junior who worked in the lab of Debanjan Dhar, PhD. “With lab meetings every week, I saw how valuable it was to be able to share the results of your experiments and make connections with each team member’s work.”
The SPARK internship culminated with CIRM’s annual SPARK conference at the University of California Berkeley from July 31 to August 1, 2026. The participants from Sanford Burnham Prebys presented their work and networked with more than 110 interns from other institutions across the state.
“Being a part of the CIRM symposium was a great way to become more confident in your skills as a scientist,” said Rishab Ghosh, a rising junior who worked in the lab of Timothy Huang, PhD. “I think that growing your personal network and learning how to collaborate with other researchers also are very important aspects of this program.”
“I’m simply blown away at the quality of the work completed by these SPARK interns over six weeks,” said SPARK program director Sanjeev Ranade, PhD. “It was incredibly rewarding to help guide these bright, curious and ambitious students.”
2026 Sanford Burnham Prebys SPARK interns:
- Shiva Ambatipudi, Dhar lab
- Adhiban Arulselvan, Zhang lab
- Shreyas Dillon, Colas lab
- Tannishtha Dhar, Kersten lab
- Rishab Ghosh, Huang lab
- Iris Huang, Snyder lab
- Ashlie Lindsey, Deshpande lab
- William McArthur, Snyder lab
- Ysabella Ocampo, Kumsta lab
- Jonathan Wang, Feng lab
- Rosalind Yong, Tharp lab