A single mast cell enters conjunctival tissue in the eye in response to an inflammatory agent or pathogen. Mast cells are among the first cells of the immune system to react to the presence of an invader, facilitating movement of leukocytes and other immune cells toward the site of infection through the release of histamines (red dots), which act as chemical messengers.
Image courtesy of Donald Pottle, The Schepens Eye Research Institute, Massachusetts.
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:
The adult mouse hippocampus, a region of the brain involved in learning and memory, is depicted. Reactive astroglia cells (pale yellow) have proliferated and enlarged in response to neuronal activity over time.
Image courtesy of Sandra Dieni, Albert-Ludwigs University, Germany.
Connective tissue is the most abundant and diverse tissue type in the human body, colorfully illustrated here with five different fluorescent proteins.
Image courtesy of Daniela Malide, NIH.
Members of the next generation of biomedical researchers and health care professionals spent three weeks training at Sanford Burnham Prebys
On Friday, July 24, 2026, the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute community celebrated the contributions of five high school student interns from the Preuss School. Located on the University of California San Diego campus in La Jolla, the Preuss School educates students striving to be first-generation college graduates.
Participants in the Preuss summer internship program gained valuable hands-on research experience over three weeks. This program is generously funded by Debby and Wain Fishburn.
“For many high school students, biomedical research is something very new to them,” said Yuk-Lap (Kevin) Yip, PhD, associate director of training and education in the NCI-designated Cancer Center at Sanford Burnham Prebys, during the July 24 capstone presentation.
“Over the summer, our five outstanding interns gained hands-on experience as scientists and began to understand why we are so excited about the work we do.”
Graduate student Joshua Minyard introduced the interns and invited them to discuss why they wanted to participate in the program.
“I was looking to test the waters for a potential future career in biomedical research,” said intern Derek Arista.
“I thought this would be a great opportunity to work in a laboratory and deepen my knowledge as I’m considering going into the medical field,” said intern Hailey Villa.
The interns then presented the findings from their three weeks of conducting experiments. In addition to sharing how cancerous tumors in different tissues affected fruit flies, the interns also detailed what they learned about drug discovery research.
“We worked with our mentor Josh Minyard to target a protein called STK4 that is known for allowing leukemia cells to survive,” said intern Eliud Tapia.
The interns tested three different drugs as potential inhibitors of STK4. They found that one of the three was the most successful inhibitor and was effective at lower concentrations.
Katya Marchetti, a graduate student and scientific leader of the 2025 and 2026 Pruess internship programs, provided closing remarks following the interns’ capstone presentation.
“I chose to commit to running this program because eight years ago, almost to the day, I was in these interns’ shoes,” said Marchetti. “I was a high school student participating in the summer research program that completely changed the trajectory of my life.
“You should be incredibly proud of what you’ve accomplished, not just because of the data that you’ve collected, but because of how much you’ve grown. Whether or not you decide to stay in science or pursue something completely different, I hope you know that you are capable of doing hard things, because you just proved it.”
The Preuss summer internship program at Sanford Burnham Prebys has operated since 2009 and is jointly organized by the NCI-designated Cancer Center and Office of Learning and Development. This program’s founding was supported by donors Peggy and Peter Preuss, and Debby and Wain Fishburn.
Apoptosis is a form of programmed cell death used to eliminate damaged, infected or unnecessary cells. In this image, serum arrested L-1210 leukemia mouse cells engage in spontaneous apoptosis after nutrient depletion and acid hydrolysis.
Image courtesy of Frank Abernathy.
The genus Drosophila (fruit flies) are among science’s most used animal models, employed by researchers at all stages of the insects’ life. The larval stage depicted covers the first five days after an egg is laid. Three growth phases later, the larva will pupate.
Image courtesy of Chun Han, UC San Francisco.
A false color scanning electron micrograph depicts the microvasculature of a kidney. Red blood cells are colored blue.
Image courtesy of Ruben Sandoval.
Postbaccalaureate training program participants deliver capstone presentations, thank mentors and colleagues
In late June 2026, trainees in the LEAP (Laboratory Experience As Pathway) to a PhD program at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute participated in a capstone presentation event. The scholars shared their research findings following a year of work and mentorship in labs throughout the Institute.
The LEAP program was designed to bridge the gap between college graduation and a PhD program. It provides recent graduates with hands-on biomedical research experience, career development opportunities and mentorship to enhance their applications for—and ability to succeed in—highly competitive biomedical PhD programs.
With generous support from the Prebys Foundation, the LEAP program is offered through a collaborative partnership between the Sanford Burnham Prebys NCI-designated Cancer Center and Office of Learning and Development.
“Today we celebrate five of our LEAP program participants who have gained new skills, demonstrated research successes and grown as scientists throughout their journeys here,” said Kevin Yip, PhD, during his introductory remarks.
Following Yip’s welcoming address, the LEAP program mentors introduced the participants and invited them forward for their capstone presentations.
Yun Ma, a trainee in the Feng and Yip labs, discussed her study of proteins that group together in what are called protein complexes to carry out biological functions.
Ma developed a method for comparing data on RNA and proteins to identify priority genes affecting how protein complexes form. These priority genes may help shed new light on how diseases progress and may inform efforts to design new medications.
Her presentation was titled, “Inferring disease-associated changes in protein complex assembly from multimodal data.”
Kevin Yip, PhD, the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Distinguished Chair and director of the Center for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, provided opening remarks at the event.
Sarina Safavi, a trainee in the Dhar lab, described her work to understand why cardiovascular disease—especially heart failure with preserved ejection fraction—is the leading cause of death among liver disease patients. Safavi developed tools needed to make new liver disease research models to study how the disease affects the heart.
The continuation of this research may lead to the discovery of new drug targets and methods for identifying liver disease patients at greater risk of heart failure to enable earlier treatments.
Her talk was titled, “Mechanistic understanding of MASLD-associated cardiac dysfunction and its reversibility.”
Josue Navarrete, a trainee in the Deshpande and Yip labs, detailed his project focused on small proteins from areas beyond the protein-coding genes that get the most scientific attention. Increasing amounts of evidence supports these microproteins’ biological importance, including in cancer.
Navarette optimized a computational technique for discovering microproteins which enables large-scale studies of thousands of genes. He tested the approach and found microproteins involved in stem cells becoming blood cells and other cells. Studying these microproteins may lead to new diagnostic techniques and potential treatments for blood cancers.
His lecture was titled, “Optimized pipeline enables genome-wide discovery of candidate microproteins in hematopoiesis.” Navarette will be joining the Institute as a doctoral student this fall.
Mahek Shah, a trainee in the Spruck lab, shared her study of a cancer treatment strategy that compels tumor cells to act as if they are infected by a virus. Known as viral mimicry, this therapeutic approach triggers the innate immune system to respond against cancer cells. Shah described drug screening experiments that identified promising novel candidate compounds.
In further tests, these compounds were found to activate viral mimicry, cause an immune response and to be toxic to cancer cells. Continued research may lead to new treatments that can boost the effectiveness of chemotherapy, radiation therapy and targeted therapies.
Her presentation was titled, “Novel compounds targeting histone modifying enzymes induce viral mimicry in breast cancer.”
Isabel Sakowicz, a trainee in the Tharp lab, discussed her research regarding the most common and difficult-to-treat form of ovarian cancer. These tumors can wall themselves off from the immune system with structural collagen proteins that resemble scar tissue.
Yun Ma, a trainee in the Feng and Yip labs, discussed her study of proteins that group together in what are called protein complexes to carry out biological functions.
Sakowicz explored how a potential treatment strategy might reduce levels of a form of collagen known to promote ovarian cancer invasiveness and metastasis. Lowering collagen VI levels may break down the barrier around ovarian cancer cells to make other treatments more effective, including immunotherapies.
Her presentation was titled, “FAK protein loss rewires amino acid metabolism in high-grade serous ovarian cancer.” Sakowicz will be joining the Institute as a doctoral student this fall.
In addition to discussing their respective projects, the trainees credited their mentors, fellow lab members and access to avenues for training and advancing as professionals.
“Beyond my scientific achievements, I have enjoyed many career development opportunities, including attending and presenting at workshops, seminars and conferences,” said Ma.
“Everyone in the lab has contributed to a truly supportive and cooperative environment,” said Safavi. “I would also like to thank the LEAP program coordinators for their efforts and making sure we were set up for success.”
The small intestine of a mouse on the 15th day of embryonic development.
Image courtesy of John Hatch, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, NIH.