Interns and Graduate Students Archives - Sanford Burnham Prebys
Institute News

SPARK interns ignite their passion for research at Sanford Burnham Prebys

AuthorMiles Martin
Date

August 2, 2023

The SPARK program aims to train tomorrow’s experts in regenerative medicine.

Sanford Burnham Prebys welcomed its second cohort of SPARK interns this summer. SPARK, which stands for Summer Program to Accelerate Regenerative Medicine Knowledge, is an initiative by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to provide research opportunities for high schoolers from underrepresented groups throughout California. The SPARK interns completed a six-week project under the supervision of a faculty mentor and presented their work to scientists at the Institute.

“It was great connecting with everybody in the lab and learning about their background, why they came here, and what they’re trying to learn,” says SPARK intern Katelyn Gelle. “Getting to compare their experiences with mine was really inspiring, because there’s so much to learn from other people who love science.”

Sanford Burnham Prebys is one of 11 institutions throughout California that hosts SPARK interns, and the program was funded by a grant from CIRM. This year’s interns were the second cohort of five to be supported by that grant.

“Last year’s SPARK program was a great success, and we’re so happy to be able to keep up the momentum with another group of bright, talented interns,” says Program Director Paula Checchi, PhD Checchi is an administrator in the Office of Education, Training and International Services at Sanford Burnham Prebys. Paula developed and oversaw the educational components of the internship program.

SPARK students worked in labs learning the hands-on techniques that scientists use to study degenerative diseases—with the goal of finding new approaches to treat the millions of people affected by these conditions. Completing an individual project with a faculty mentor gave interns the chance to experience the real-life ins and outs of research.

“It was really unexpected how much refining and editing it takes to get a result from experiments” says SPARK intern Medha Nandhimandalam. “You don’t cure cancer in a day.”

The internship also included other educational opportunities, such as a tour of the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine and a Diversity in Science seminar series. The program culminated in a final celebration at the Institute where students had the chance to share the results of their work and what they’ve learned from their time in the lab.

“The lab itself was my favorite part of the experience – not just the academic side but the whole lifestyle and experience of working with the scientists and spending time with them day to day” says SPARK intern Rini Khandelwal.

As a final capstone to the internship experience, the students will travel to Los Angeles August 8–9 for CIRM’s annual SPARK conference, where they presented their work and networked with interns from other Institutions across the state.

Institute News

Preuss internship celebrates 15 years of inspiring young scientists

AuthorMiles Martin
Date

August 2, 2023

“I liked how hands-on everything was,” says Preuss intern Amayrani Calderon “The scientists would show us how to do the experiment but then let us do it ourselves. I’d never had that type of experience in a lab before.”

Each year, Sanford Burnham Prebys welcomes a cohort of high school interns from the Preuss School, whose students strive to be the first in their family to graduate from college. This year’s Preuss interns learned hands-on research skills from scientists at the Institute’s NCI-designated Cancer Center and about career possibilities in STEM beyond research.

“My favorite part of the program and about Sanford Burnham Prebys is all the diverse people I met,” says Alejandra Ruiz Ramirez, who is first-generation Mexican American. “I had mentally prepared myself not to see any scientists that look like me, or to potentially be stereotyped as a Mexican American woman, but that isn’t what happened at all. Everybody I met was very welcoming.”

The Preuss internship is an intensive three-week program designed to jumpstart the careers of the next generation of scientific researchers. This year, the first two weeks were spent learning state-of-the art research techniques, such as staining cells for immunohistochemistry and separating proteins with gel electrophoresis.

“Seeing a real lab was a lot different than what I expected,” says Preuss intern Mohamed Haghi-Mohamed. “At school we just do labs on our desks, but seeing the incubators and other machines really changed my perspective and on how science works in the real world.”

For the final week of the program, interns shadowed staff scientists working in various labs throughout the Cancer Center, where they saw the research process firsthand.

“Consuming a lot of media makes you see science as always exciting and fast-paced, but it’s a very different experience actually working in the lab day to day,” says Preuss intern Juan Lomas Hoeung. “Sometimes there’s a lot of downtime but other times things are hectic.

The Preuss internship program also included activities outside of the lab, including panel discussions with scientists, a tour of the Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics, and a workshop on diversity and equity and STEM. The interns also had lunch with Institute staff each day, where they had the chance to learn and ask questions about varied STEM careers such as research administration, science communication, and philanthropy.

“We wanted the students to see that there are varied paths to a career in STEM, and that these paths aren’t always linear,” says Victoria Carrillo, senior program administrator for the Cancer Center, who oversaw the Preuss internship along with faculty organizer Svasti Haricharan, PhD

The program culminated in a celebratory luncheon with students, researchers and Institute staff, where the interns had the opportunity to share what they’ve learned from their experience at Sanford Burnham Prebys.

“This was the best environment to learn in because the people here are some of the most expressive and passionate people I’ve met when they’re in the lab talking about what they do,” says Hoeung. “Everybody was so enthusiastic.”

Institute News

Sanford Burnham Prebys graduate student selected for prestigious Women in Science scholarship

AuthorMiles Martin
Date

June 20, 2023

Katya Marchetti has had her heart set on research since childhood. Today, she’s a bright, confident scientist making her dream a reality at Sanford Burnham Prebys.

Katya Marchetti, a first-year PhD student in the lab of Karen Ocorr, PhD, was recently awarded an Association for Women in Science (AWIS) scholarship. This competitive award encourages outstanding women pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields at San Diego colleges and universities.

“Receiving this recognition highlights the importance of advocating for women’s empowerment in STEM and fostering an inclusive and diverse scientific community,” says Marchetti.

Marchetti grew up in Bakersfield California and finished her undergraduate degree from UC San Diego in just three years. Last year, she enrolled as a graduate student at 21 years old, making her one of the youngest PhD students to ever join the Institute. For her, the AWIS award is a culmination of a lifelong enthusiasm for science, inspired and encouraged by her family.

“I’m a very curious person,” says Marchetti. “I just inherently have to know how everything works, and my dad is the one got me inspired and interested in exploring things. I am so grateful for the opportunities that he fought for me to have, because he gave me everything that he didn’t.”

With the enthusiastic support of her family, Marchetti began her research career at the ripe age of nine years old. 

“My first-ever science project was heart research,” she says. “My favorite song was “Kickstart My Heart” by Mötley Crüe, and I wanted to see if it would raise blood pressure. I tested myself and my family, and we actually found that it did, obviously.” 

Today, Marchetti’s heart research is a bit more sophisticated. She studies hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), a rare disease in which the left side of the heart is underdeveloped and unable to effectively pump oxygenated blood to the rest of the body. HLHS is a congenital disease that is nearly always fatal without heart surgery. Marchetti’s research focuses on uncovering the genetics that underpin this disease to find new ways to prevent and treat it.

“Researching heart disease is very rewarding in and of itself, but it’s also really motivating to work on a disease that occurs in one of the most vulnerable populations,” says Marchetti. 

Marchetti is also heavily involved on campus at the Institute, as one of just two graduate students to serve on the Institute’s Education and Training committee, part of the Institute’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion Council. She has also mentored interns for the Institute’s CIRM-sponsored SPARK program, which provides research experiences to high school students from underrepresented backgrounds.

“I really love mentoring people who don’t have a lot of lab experience,” says Marchetti. “It’s my favorite thing I’ve done in graduate school so far. I think that’s kind of my way of paying forward the opportunities that I’ve had.” 

Marchetti will use the funds from the AWIS scholarship to further support her HLHS research. She also maintains that even after finishing her PhD, her long-term goal is to continue working in the San Diego research community. 

“If were to describe myself as a city, it would be San Diego,” she says. “It’s really the perfect place for me.” 

Institute News

New internship program ignites a SPARK

AuthorMiles Martin
Date

August 8, 2022

For the first time, Sanford Burnham Prebys hosted high school interns from the SPARK program, an initiative by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) that provides biomedical research opportunities for underrepresented groups throughout California. The SPARK interns each completed a six-week project under the supervision of a faculty mentor and presented their results to scientists at the Institute as well as at CIRM’s annual SPARK conference. 

“Our SPARK program selects diverse students from San Diego and Imperial Valley, and we were proud to have these students at Sanford Burnham Prebys as the inaugural class,” says Program Director Paula Checchi, PhD Checchi is an administrator in the Office of Education, Training and International Services at Sanford Burnham Prebys. She developed the educational components of the program and also organized several community outreach events for interns.

Ameera Ali presenting her research

SPARK stands for Summer Program to Accelerate Regenerative Medicine Knowledge, and students worked in labs learning the hands-on techniques that scientists use to study degenerative diseases—with the ultimate goal of finding new approaches to treat the millions of people affected by these conditions.

“I had no idea that people even worked on zebrafish in labs,” said SPARK intern Ameera Ali, who used zebrafish as a model to study heart disease in the lab of Karen Ocorr, PhD “Traditionally in science you only hear about lab mice and lab rats, but zebrafish are so much more interesting. I can’t wait to work with them again.” 

For intern Saranya Anandakumar, who studied in the lab of Victoria Blaho, PhD, the best moment was a simple one. She says, “My favorite part of the internship was getting to see human blood under the microscope! Seeing all the different types of cells was the coolest thing ever.”

Four interns from high schools in Imperial Valley had the added experience of living away from home for the first time. Samantha Alvarez, who completed her internship in the lab of Brooke Emerling, PhD, stayed with a family in the San Diego area.

“I loved it,” says Alvarez. “I got a chance to take a peek at what it’s going to be like in my adult life once I graduate and I’m independent.”

At Sanford Burnham Prebys, the internship program culminated in a final celebration where students had the chance to share the results of their work and what they’ve learned from their time at the Institute. The students then traveled to Northern California August 2–3 for CIRM’s annual SPARK conference, where they presented their work and networked with interns from other Institutions. 

“My biggest takeaway was all the cultural diversity on campus and in the lab,” says Alvarez. “One of my mentors is from Barcelona, and it was so interesting to compare cultures and experiences. Everybody was so nice and welcoming. It was great.”

Institute News

Preuss internship inspires young scientists

AuthorMiles Martin
Date

August 1, 2022

Future first-generation college students gained valuable research experience and learned what it’s like to be a scientist.

Each year, rising high school juniors from the Preuss School come to Sanford Burnham Prebys to try their hands at biomedical research in an intensive three-week internship program. This year, students performed a two-week laboratory course followed by a rotation in six labs at the Institute’s NCI-designated Cancer Center, where they learned about state-of-the-art techniques used in cancer research.

Preuss intern Lilly Hoang with (left to right) Wainwright Fishburn,  Malin Burnham and Max D’Angelo, Ph.D
Preuss intern Lilly Hoang receives a certificate of completion.
(l-r) Wainwright Fishburn, Lilly Hoang, Malin Burnham
and
 Max D’Angelo, PhD

“This experience has been great,” says Preuss intern Brian Pham. “I love that we get to learn from people who are actually doing science instead of just hearing about it in a classroom.” 

Students from the Preuss School, affiliated with UC San Diego, strive to become the first in their families to graduate from college. The Sanford Burnham Prebys Preuss internship program helps train the next generation of scientists by inviting students from the Preuss school to work alongside Institute scientists.

“I got to hear from other first-generation scientists,” says Preuss intern Vickey Martinez. “They didn’t know anything about science or college or anything when they were younger, and that’s kind of my story. It’s nice to know that there are people with similar backgrounds.”

The students also got to get their hands “wet” by doing real experiments alongside Senior Scientist Marcela Raices, PhD, and graduate student Stephen Sakuma, both researchers in the lab of Maximiliano D’Angelo, PhD

Preuss students and Marcela Raices
Preuss students with the Laboratory Course Director
Marcela Raices, PhD

“We want to teach the students practical skills that will come up in their research careers so they can get a taste of what scientists actually do day-to-day, and have the satisfaction of getting results,” says Raices. “We also wanted to make it clear that anybody can be a scientist—it’s just about putting in the work and learning the skills.”

Topics for the lab workshops included separating proteins with gel electrophoresis and performing Western blot tests with fluorescent proteins. Understanding the proteins involved in the development and growth of cancer is an important approach to finding new treatments.

“The students have been so enthusiastic, and we hope that carries over into their future careers,” says Sakuma. 

Preuss interns Bryan Pham and Vivana Espino work with Marlenne Perales
Preuss interns Bryan Pham and Vivana Espino work
with Marlenne Perales, a research assistant in the
lab of Ani Deshpande, PhD

The internship program culminated in a celebratory luncheon with students, researchers and Institute staff, where students had the opportunity to share the results of their experiments and what they’ve learned from their experience.

“This internship was eye-opening for me,” says Preuss intern Angelina Solis. “As a first-generation student, it’s really hard to imagine yourself in different careers because you don’t even know what’s possible. It’s like an unexplored area of life.”

The 2022 Preuss High School summer internship program was carried out by Sanford Burnham Prebys’ NCI-designated Cancer Center under the direction of Maximiliano D’Angelo, PhD, associate professor and associate director of Education and Training.

Institute News

Meet the incoming class of 2016!

AuthorJessica Moore
Date

September 15, 2016

Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) welcomes the incoming graduate class of 2016:

Ayako Murao (B.A.Sc., Cal State San Marcos) will explore the mechanisms of cancer progression, especially melanoma, in the lab of Ze’ev Ronai, PhD

Katja Birker (BS, University of British Columbia) is joining the lab of Rolf Bodmer, PhD, where she will study heart development in fruit flies.

Joseph Fromm (BS, UCLA) will work under Nicholas Cosford, PhD, designing small molecule inhibitors of cell death to treat cancer.

Pavel Rhyzov (BS, Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences) will probe the structure and function of proteins involved in plague infectivity and cell death in the lab of Francesca Marassi, PhD

Since its launch in 2006, SBP’s Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS) has awarded PhD degrees to 27 students who have gone on to careers in both academic research and biotechnology. In 2015 the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) granted accreditation to the GSBS, a distinction that assures the quality of our resources, policies, and practices to achieve educational goals.

“We’re excited to have these great new graduate students,” said Guy Salvesen, PhD, dean of GSBS and professor in the NCI-designated Cancer Center. “Graduate school can be a long haul, but our program allows students to start their research project immediately so that the average time to degree completion is 4.7 years compared to the national average of 6 years.”

“Our Institute provides access to the most sophisticated minds and technologies in biomedical sciences. There has never been a better time for aspiring scientists to explore careers in biomedical sciences, and SBP’s graduate program provides an outstanding environment to embark on this path,” adds Salvesen.

 

Could you be part of next year’s class? GSBS is accepting applications now.

Institute News

Aspiring scientists tackle big data at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute

AuthorGuest Blogger
Date

June 24, 2016

Growing up, Courtney Astore was inquisitive about science and technology. So when she had the opportunity to participate in middle school science fairs, she jumped at the chance. In high school, Astore’s research in behavioral and social science, medicine and elaborate statistical algorithms led to her being a finalist at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair three times.

Today, as an incoming sophomore at the University of Central Florida (UCF), Astore is majoring in Biotechnology with a focus on Bioinformatics. Together, with her lifelong friend Rebecca Elsishans at the University of Florida, she plans to launch a start-up company called Enasci-x that will use genetic analysis to aid in vaccine development.

Executives at UCF’s business incubator contacted Leslie Molony, PhD, senior director of Business Development for Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute’s (SBP)  Lake Nona campus to inquire about providing  training to aspiring scientists enrolled in the National Science Foundation- iCorps™ funded  LaunchPad program.

The LaunchPad program fosters entrepreneurial research designed to help the commercialization of technology. Molony guided Astore and Elsishans in the biological science and business aspects of forming a start-up for their first product-in-development called Genes4Vaccines.

Her students received guidance on a top-level list of ‘how-to’s’

  • how to understand protein structures
  • how to generate data that can lead to new drug discovery
  • how to define new products and commercialize them
  • how to develop business plans and ‘pitching’ strategies

 

“Courtney and Rebecca are phenomenal young women who are very eager to understand how the medical research process—vaccine discovery–can lead to commercial products,” said Molony.  “They have great potential to become software service providers, or to use their talents to discover new vaccine targets that may lead to partnerships with pharmaceutical companies.”

“In terms of where we are today and how we’ve been able to map out what we need to do, we couldn’t have done any of this without Dr. Molony,” said Astore. “Her drug discovery background and business development expertise have opened our eyes to the potential of what we can accomplish, and what we need to do to get there. We know our next big steps are to finalize our minimum value product, get data validation in the lab and then attract investors.”

Big data for medical research, adds Molony, is a growing niche in the field of infectious disease where vaccine and therapy needs arise quickly and unexpectedly.

To augment her student’s training, she connected Astore with Fraydoon Rastinejad, PhD, professor in SBP’s Center for Metabolic Origins of Disease at Lake Nona who offered her a summer internship where she’ll be collecting data and analyzing human disease databases.

“Dr. Rastinejad is one of the most renowned researchers in the field, and I’m honored to have the opportunity to work with him.  My internship will give me a deeper base of scientific knowledge to advance my research,” said Astore. “To work hands-on in his lab, analyzing data that recognizes patterns and clues to disease development is a dream come true.”

This post was written by Jackie Kelvington

Related:
Genes4Vaccines – UCF I-Corps

 

Institute News

Gearing up for summer internships

Authorjmoore
Date

April 13, 2016

Scientific staff at SBP’s Lake Nona campus are excited to welcome this year’s crop of high school interns in June. The highly competitive program—one of very few in Florida to offer such extensive hands-on research—received 48 applications from students for seven coveted slots. The majority of the academically talented, highly motivated students have taken advanced science coursework at area schools including Edgewater, Winter Park, Jones, East River, Trinity Prep, Timber Creek, Dr. Philips, Boone, Seminole and many others.

“We hope to provide transformative experiences—to immerse students in real, modern research using sophisticated techniques,” said Peter Crawford, MD, PhD, associate professor and director of the Cardiovascular Metabolism Program, who will oversee the internship program this year.

The interns will be involved in cutting-edge projects such as:

  • Analyzing levels of thousands of types of fat molecules to identify possible biomarkers of early Alzheimer’s disease
  • Using chemical profiling and mouse models to understand the metabolic origins of diabetes and heart disease
  • Large-scale production of recombinant proteins using bioreactor systems

In their two to four weeks at SBP, trainees will work one-on-one with staff scientists and postdocs. In addition to lab training, they’ll be exposed to research from across the Institute through weekly seminars and discuss their work in lab meetings.

 

This involvement in the scientific community helps summer interns gain a lot more than knowledge of how to do experiments. Past intern Christina Lee, now a sophomore at UCLA preparing for medical school, reflected that she acquired “an invaluable perspective on how quickly the scientific community is moving forward.”

“What surprised me most in the lab,” said intern Mitchell Thomas, “is the unwavering motivation researchers have. Though some procedures are very time consuming and may not work the first time, they continue on.”

Appreciating the pace of scientific progress and the rigors of laboratory research will be a great benefit for these students, who plan to pursue life science careers. The 50 SBP Lake Nona internship alumni are now pursuing higher education at such prestigious universities as Duke, Stanford, the University of Florida, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Institute News

Mirco Guigli graduates SBP’s PhD program, will continue project at Vala Sciences

Authorjmoore
Date

March 18, 2016

Mirco Guigli, who defended his PhD thesis on February 25, represents another success for SBP’s graduate program. He not only developed a prototype microscope that has generated commercial interest, but has a clear plan for his future—he will join Vala Sciences to continue this work.

Guigli knew before coming to SBP that he intended to work in industry, which made him a good fit for the laboratory of Jeffrey Price, MD, PhD, an associate professor here and president and CEO of Vala. Price’s lab develops high-performance imaging technologies to support drug screening.

When asked how he decided on SBP for his graduate training, Guigli explained, “Jeff contacted me and suggested I come back to his lab to do a PhD—I had done an internship with him in 2009 as part of my masters program. I was actually pretty happy where I was, working as an electrical engineer designing a dialysis machine for a company in Italy, but I was 25 and had nothing to lose.”

His background in engineering was helpful for Guigli’s project, in which he designed, built, and adapted software for a microscope that offers a promising alternative to confocal microscopy. This system offers similar resolution to confocal, but takes up much less space and uses less intense illumination, allowing imaging of biological processes in real time.

This high resolution is possible because the microscope employs structured illumination, in which portions of the specimen are illuminated in sequential complementary grid patterns. While this approach has already been employed in commercially available microscopes, the key to this new system is the use of a digital micromirror (also used in IMAX projection) to control which parts of the specimen are illuminated. Because digital micromirrors are not microscopic, they’re easier to synchronize with image collection, which could make this microscope faster than what’s currently available.

While this project, focusing on technology rather than biology, is unusual for SBP, Guigli greatly values the knowledge he gained. “I was basically learning what a protein was at age 27. My fellow students, who mostly had experience in biological research, were really helpful. As we were discussing our projects over beers, they really wanted to help me understand their work. From those discussions, I also got a feel for biology as a whole, since they’re working on everything from HIV to muscle regeneration to Alzheimer’s.”

Institute News

SBP graduate student Victoria Thaney’s internship at Illumina

AuthorGuest Blogger
Date

February 9, 2016

Congratulations to Victoria Thaney, who was chosen for an internship at Illumina, a leader in developing sequencing technologies that was named the world’s smartest company by MIT Technology Review in 2014. She was recently interviewed about her experience by Alexia Pimentel, SBP’s graduate program coordinator. Continue reading “SBP graduate student Victoria Thaney’s internship at Illumina”