Support the Groundbreaking Work of Dr. Evan Snyder, MD, PhD
Dr. Evan Snyder is a pioneer in stem cell research, unlocking the potential of these versatile cells to treat devastating diseases. Dr. Snyder has dedicated his career to harnessing the power of stem cells to repair damaged tissues, combat neurodegenerative disorders, and address rare genetic conditions.
Your gift today will support Dr. Snyder’s research, fueling innovative therapies that offer hope to patients and their families. By supporting Dr. Snyder’s research, you are investing in a future where regenerative medicine revolutionizes how we treat and cure disease.
Join us in advancing science and changing lives.
The Fishman Awards
Fostering the Next Generation of Scientists
The Fishman Awards provides funding for exceptional postdoctoral researchers through a competitive application process.
2025 Fishman Award winners. From left: Theophilos Tzaridis, Kokila Shankar, Meenakshi Sudhakaran, Bastien Cimarosti and Alejandro Lillo.
To nurture the careers of future research trailblazers, Sanford Burnham Prebys introduced the Fishman Awards in honor of the Institute’s founders, Dr. William and Lillian Fishman.
In 2001, the Fishman Awards was established by Sanford Burnham Prebys supporters Mary Bradley and Reena Horowitz, to honor the Fishman’s. In 2010, Jeanne Jones became the co-founder designee.
Postdoctoral students can apply for the Fishman Fellowship, a two-year postdoctoral research fellowship, and Fishman Career Development Awards.
The Fishman Fellowship will provide exceptional Sanford Burnham Prebys postdocs with a two-year fellowship award. This fellowship will be bestowed every other year to the young scientist who is ranked highest by the selection committee, and it will be unique from other institutional postdoctoral grants because of the level of the Institute’s commitment and support. Most fellowships match or only slightly increase the salary compared with standard NIH postdoctoral salary funding. By compensating exceptional postdocs at a higher level, the Fishman Fellowship will be a sustained investment in future scientific leaders and pioneers.
Fishman Research Excellence Award
Established in 2024, The Cynthia Schwartz Shenkman Research Excellence Fishman Award is given to a Sanford Burnham Prebys postdoc for their outstanding biomedical research contributions and demonstrated track record of research excellence.
Fishman Career Development Awards
The Fishman Career Development Awards will provide exceptional Sanford Burnham Prebys postdocs with $10,000 awards. With the funds, postdocs can attend workshops, seminars, conferences and network with top scientists in their field.
Jeanne Jones and Kathryn Fishback Fishman Career Award
Lenka Finci and Erna Viterbi Fishman Career Award
Reena Horowitz and Mary Bradley Fishman Founders Career Award
Don Barach Memorial Fishman Career Award
2025 Fishman Fund Awardees
Alejandro Lillo, PhD
Jeanne Jones and Kathryn Fishback Fishman Career Award
Alejandro Lillo, PhD, is a postdoctoral associate in the lab of Elena Pasquale, PhD. Lillo is studying a family of membrane proteins called Eph receptors. These receptors play important roles in many biological processes and in various diseases, including cancer.
Among these receptors, the Eph receptor A2 is most profoundly linked to cancer. Lillo’s work explores how Eph receptor complexes influence cancer cell signaling networks. His ongoing studies aim to identify new ways to target these receptor complexes for cancer therapy.
Kokila Shankar, PhD
Lenka Finci and Erna Viterbi Fishman Career Award
Kokila Shankar, PhD, is a postdoctoral associate in the lab of Douglas Sheffler, PhD. Shankar focuses on neuroscience therapeutics discovery with a special interest in the stress system. The stress system plays a crucial role in the onset and maintenance of alcohol addiction and other substance use and mood disorders.
Shankar aims to identify new small molecules that modify how the stress system sends and receives biochemical signals in the brain. New drugs targeting the stress system may mitigate aspects of addiction such as withdrawal symptoms.
Meenakshi Sudhakaran, PhD
Reena Horowitz and Mary Bradley Fishman Founders Career Award
Meenakshi Sudhakaran, PhD, is a postdoctoral associate in the lab of Kelly Kersten, PhD. Because cancer cells and tumors do not exist in a vacuum, Sudhakaran is interested in how tumors develop in and alter the nearby milieu of immune cells, connective tissue, blood vessels, proteins and carbohydrates.
Sudhakaran studies how this tumor microenvironment influences anti-tumor immunity and reduces the effectiveness of immunotherapy in solid tumors. She seeks to identify new immunomodulatory targets to help treat patients whose tumor microenvironment prevents an effective immune response.
Bastien Cimarosti, PhD
Don Barach Memorial Fishman Career Award
Bastien Cimarosti, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Sanjeev Ranade, PhD. Cimarosti investigates how early-life genetic and environmental factors shape heart development and cardiovascular health.
He is particularly interested in the role of neural crest cells which migrate during embryonic development to become many types of cells. Cimarosti studies links between these cells
and congenital heart defects, including those associated with Down Syndrome. He also works on identifying molecular pathways that drive heart cell dysfunction in hypoplastic left heart syndrome.
Theophilos Tzaridis, MD
Cynthia Schwartz Shenkman Research Excellence Fishman Award
Theophilos Tzaridis, MD, is a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Peter Adams, PhD. Tzaridis studies ways to enhance immunotherapy for diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), the deadliest brain tumor in children.
Tzaridis found that targeting a checkpoint molecule called CD155 leads to an enhanced immune response and tumor control. Tzaridis is testing the antibody’s potential efficacy for treating DIPG in order to pave the way for a clinical trial to improve survival for patients.
Fishman Awards Community Advisory Board
The Fishman Awards Community Advisory Board Members have been so important to the continued success of the Fishman Awards. Their participation, advice, and counsel are what makes these awards possible.
The Fishman Awards relies on support from community members. To invest in the next generation of scientists please considering making a gift to support the program.
In Memory Of Will Down
Sanford Burnham Prebys is working on a groundbreaking treatment for addiction.
Will Down had shared his personal journey with the Institute’s Board of Trustees and researchers. He was aware of the research and was excited about it.
Please honor Will and the Down family by making a contribution to support this important research.
Nancy Angus Memorial Fund
Remembering a Champion for the Institute and Science
The Nancy Angus Memorial Fund is established to remember Nancy, an accomplished, donor-centric, major and principal gifts development officer. Although she was only with us for a short time her presence will be deeply missed. Nancy had a sincere passion for her work in helping to make the world a better place. She very much enjoyed everyone she worked with at the Sanford Burnham Prebys, which only fed her motivation to secure funds in support of the Institute. Nancy was young at heart and her legacy will live on in the lives she is able to help though her selfless choice to become an organ donor.
If you have any questions, please contact us at (858) 795-5070 or email giving@sbpdiscovery.org.
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Karen L. Anderson Memorial Fund
Supporting Science Specialists
Remembering a Gifted Cell Biologist and Electron Microscopist
The Karen L. Anderson Memorial Fund is established to remember a gifted cell biologist and highly skilled electron microscopist whose dedicated service and career in science made her an invaluable member of the Sanford Burnham Prebys family. Karen lost her battle to cancer, a challenging disease she herself studied with meticulous detail.
Karen developed unique protocols that would allow researchers to learn the behavior of individual molecules in living cells that promote cell migration and, on the flip side, spread cancer cells through metastasis. Karen worked on these cell preparations on the most advanced microscope in the world, the Titan Krios Microscope located here at the Institute. In her 16 years at Sanford Burnham Prebys, dozens of technicians and researchers from laboratories all over the world came to learn her protocols that enabled scientists to see details in cells. Though she was due for retirement, she delayed her plans so she could pass on her knowledge to the scientific community.
If you have any questions, please contact us at (858) 795-5070 or email giving@sbpdiscovery.org.
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Dongxian Zhang Memorial Fund
“One of the most positive people I’ve ever met.”
The Dongxian Zhang Memorial Fund is established for Dongxian Zhang, Associate Professor in our Degenerative Diseases Program and who served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Pathology at University of California San Diego since 2004. He joined the Institute in the fall of 1999 after working at Harvard Medical School in Boston.
Dongxian made key advances in the study of motor neuron degeneration, including the discovery of novel neuroprotective factors and biomarkers of early events in disease pathology. His work will inform future development of therapies and diagnostics for conditions including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and spinal motor atrophy.
“He was a valued associate professor in our Degenerative Diseases Program and served as an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Pathology at UC San Diego since 2004,” says Kristiina Vuori, MD, PhD, president of Sanford Burnham Prebys. “His positive and helpful personality will be missed and always remembered.”
“He told me he was surprised that he had been accepted to college, but that acceptance motivated him to go on to make major contributions to his chosen field of study,” says Randal Kaufman PhD, director of the Degenerative Diseases Program at the Institute.
“When Dongxian shared the news about his diagnosis, he was incredibly brave and at peace with his life,” says Kaufman. “I will truly miss my friend. I will also miss the times we played golf. We enjoyed the camaraderie, which I will never forget.”
Dongxian made key advances in the study of motor neuron degeneration, including the discovery of novel neuroprotective factors and biomarkers of early events in disease pathology. Recent findings in collaboration with Huaxi Xu, PhD, Sanford Burnham Prebyss Jeanne and Gary Herberger Leadership Chair in Neuroscience Research, professor and director of the Neurosciences Initiative, should be published soon and may lead to new diagnoses and treatments for motor neuron diseases.
Xu says he will remember his friend for his gentle demeanor and extreme dedication to his trainees. “Dongxian would never hesitate to jump into the lab to finish an experiment, calibrate instruments or perform molecular biology to help out members of his lab, as well as our lab,” Xu says. “His illness came as a surprise to everyone. He faced his sickness with great integrity and humor.”
“To me, he was more than a mentor for my work but also to my life,” says Lu-Lin Jiang, PhD, who worked in Dongxian’s lab. “He gave us much freedom to explore the beauty of the science. He took care of us like he took care of his own kids. When he was recovering from his first brain surgery, he told us he was not afraid of death, but he was worried about us. Later, he tried to help us to find new positions. Dongxian was the most positive person I have ever met.”
More About Dongxian Zhang
In 1969, during the Culture Revolution in China, Dongxian, like many students in big cities, was sent from Shanghai to a rural village to be “re-educated” by farmers. He was only 16 years old and had completed less than one year of middle school. When the Revolution ended in 1977, the Chinese government reopened enrollment for college entrance and Dongxian took the national college entrance exam. Using textbooks he borrowed from the headquarters of a local railroad, he taught himself enough middle and high school subjects to receive one of the top 10 exam scores in Yunnan province in 1978. He went on to study at Peking University, one of the most prestigious in China.
Dongxian was hoping to write a novel based on his life experience, but sadly this never happened.
Following an 18-month fight against glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer, Dongxian passed away on March 23, 2017 at the age of 64.
He leaves behind his wife Dong-Er Zhang and two sons, David and Phillip.
If you have any questions, please contact us at (858) 795-5070 or email giving@sbpdiscovery.org.
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The Rocket Fund
Help Battle Childhood Diseases
The Rocket Fund Supports the Heroic Battle Against Heartbreaking Rare and Neglected Children’s Diseases.
Named after John Taylor “Rocket” Williams IV who suffered from a rare condition known as CDG, or Congenital Disorders of Glycosylation, Rocket’s family and friends generously started The Rocket Fund in 2007. Sadly, Rocket passed away in November 2008. His spirit lives on as Sanford Burnham Prebys tirelessly works hard to understand devastating childhood diseases.
Rocket touched the lives of many, including Sanford Burnham Prebys’ Dr. Hudson Freeze, Director and Professor of the Human Genetics program. Your support can help children like Rocket.
We work for families with kids like Rocket because we believe: From research…the power to cure.
If you have any questions, please contact us at (858) 795-5070 or email giving@sbpdiscovery.org.
Hudson Freeze, PhD
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Eric Dudl Endowed Scholarship Fund
Support Future Postdocs
Remembering a Promising Young Postdoc Who Left a Legacy For Young Scientists
The Eric Dudl Endowed Scholarship Fund was established at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute to remember a promising young postdoc at the Institute whose life was tragically cut short at the age of 33 years old. He was stricken by cancer, the very disease he dedicated himself to researching. He cherished the Institute so dearly that he left his life’s savings to help other postdocs continue the work he loved.
If you have any questions, please contact us at (858) 795-5070 or email giving@sbpdiscovery.org.
The Dudl Family presents the 2021 Eric Dudl Scholarship Award to Guillem Lambies Barjau.
