The scientific leaders of tomorrow gathered to showcase their work at the 20th Annual Trainee Research Symposium on September 23rd. The talented group of presenters included postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and staff scientists from labs across Sanford Burnham Prebys.
After introductory remarks by Sanford Burnham Prebys Student Network co-chairs Stephen Sakuma and Marie Berenguer, PhD, as well as president Kristiina Vuori, MD, PhD, the young scientists gave 20-minute podium presentations about their research, which were judged by a panel of Sanford Burnham Prebys faculty and staff. Speakers included:
Cynthia Lebeaupin, PhD and Valeria Guglielmi, PhD were respectively awarded first and second place by the judges for their presentations, for which they’ll each receive a cash prize to go towards career development activities. Lebeaupin’s research focuses on the progression of fatty liver disease to liver cancer, and Guglielmi studies the role of nuclear pores the development of bone marrow cells.
After the first two sessions of presentations, the keynote speech for the Symposium was given by Katherine Thompson-Peer, PhD, an assistant professor of developmental & cell biology at the University of California at Irvine.
Following the last podium presentation was a poster session where 30 early-career scientists were given the chance to present their work. A panel of judges selected the top three posters—presented by Shaun Lim from the Kumsta and Hansen labs, Aleksandr Arzamasov from the Osterman lab, and Michaela Lynott from the Colas lab—and they will also receive a cash prize. The day was capped off with closing remarks from Sanford Burnham Prebys CEO C. Randal Mills, Ph.D.
The Fishman Fund Awards were presented on September 23, 2021, in a virtual ceremony that honored the enduring legacy of our Institute’s founders, Dr. William and Lillian Fishman.
The three exceptional winners were welcomed by Fishman Fund co-founder Reena Horowitz; co-founder designee Jeanne Jones; and 2018 award recipient Laura Martin-Sancho, who commented, “A Fishman Fund Award is more than the money—it means that someone believes in you and believes in your goals.”
Longtime supporter, Institute trustee and namesake Malin Burnham reflected on his first meeting with the Fishmans more than 40 years ago when they were setting the stage for Sanford Burnham Prebys. “The Fishmans were creating a collaborative, inspirational atmosphere for postdocs—the lifeblood of scientific enterprise. This award pays tribute to their vision that young, talented scientists hold the key to curing disease.”
Sanford Burnham Prebys CEO Randy C. Mills thanked our supporters and shared, “Fishman Fund Award winners are on a journey not only to make their mark through scientific discovery, but also to define themselves as scientific leaders. I’m excited to see the vision of better science that they will translate into reality for the benefit of patients in need.”
Reena Horowitz and the late Mary Bradley established the Fishman Fund Awards in 2001 to honor the Fishmans and advance the careers of promising young scientists. Ever since the fund was launched 20 years ago, more than 70 awards have been conferred—now worth $10,000—to support career-development activities.
This year’s awards were presented to:
Cynthia Lebeaupin, PhD The Lenka Finca and Erna Viterbi Fishman Fund Prize
“I’m especially grateful to be affiliated with a community that supports its postdoctoral researchers, helping us transition into the great leaders of tomorrow.”
Dr. Lebeaupin is studying how fatty liver disease progresses to liver cancer. Fatty liver disease is rapidly increasing in the U.S. and around the world—and there is no cure. Studying how cells respond to stress conditions may open new avenues to target those responses and prevent cancer. Dr. Lebeaupin, a postdoctoral associate in the lab of Randal J. Kaufman, PhD, aims to become a professor of biology in academia.
Valeria Guglielmi, PhD The Reena Horowitz and Mary Bradley Fishman Fund Founders Award
“Now more than ever, we need people like you who trust scientists and believe science can really make a difference in our lives.”
Dr. Guglielmi is researching nuclear pore complexes and their role in the development and activity of immune cells. This research may lead to novel treatments for health conditions caused by dysregulated immune-cell production and function. Guglielmi is a postdoctoral associate in the lab of Maximiliano D’Angelo, PhD, and her goal is to become an independent investigator to further research on the immune system.
Paulina Sosicka, PhD The Jeanne Jones and Kathryn Fishback Fishman Fund Prize
“I’m very grateful and honored to receive this Fishman Fund Career Development Award. Thank you to the founders and donors who made this possible.”
Dr. Sosicka is investigating the application of dietary supplementation to treat debilitating genetic conditions called CDGs, which are rare diseases—mainly affecting children—caused by defects in the human enzymes and proteins responsible for adding sugar molecules onto proteins and lipids. The research may also provide insights into new approaches to treat obesity and cancer. A postdoctoral associate in the lab of Hudson Freeze, PhD, Dr. Sosicka aspires to become a professor in academia in the field of glycobiology.
Event recording
Institute News
Graduate student awarded American Heart Association Fellowship
The heart is the core of life, and for PhD graduate student Katja Birker, it’s the foundation for the beginning of a career.
Birker recently received a prestigious predoctoral fellowship from the American Heart Association (AHA) to continue her research on hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), a congenital heart disease that affects between two and four of every 10,000 babies born. As of today, the only cure for HLHS is three open-heart surgeries that begin two weeks after birth.
“I’m very grateful to the AHA for supporting my research,” says Birker. “I’ve embarked on a career to study the genes that contribute to HLHS, and this award will help me continue my work that may eventually lead to targeted prevention of HLHS as well as other congenital heart diseases.”
Birker is collaborating with the Mayo Clinic to identify and test whether genes found in HLHS patients—or “candidate” genes—have similar consequences in the hearts of fruit flies—a model organism for cardiovascular research. The research aims to identify novel gene functions and pathways that are likely to contribute to HLHS.
“Many believe that HLHS is a genetic disease, but the genes that are involved are not well known,” says Birker. “The fruit fly is a very good genetic system to model disease because it has many similar genes to humans and a short life span. I’m able to film videos of fly hearts to understand the impact of the candidate genes on heart function.
“My goal is to find genes that can be used in the future for the diagnosis and treatment of HLHS in babies. The research approach could also be used to screen for genes that might be involved in many other types of heart disease,” adds Birker.
The AHA supports early-career scientists with passion, commitment and focus by providing fellowships that fund their pursuit of cardiovascular research. Birker, a graduate student in the lab of Rolf Bodmer, PhD, professor and director of the Development, Aging and Regeneration Program, received her first AHA fellowship in 2018.
Institute News
Alumni adventures: Catching up with student intern Daniel Million
Million reflects on how a summer internship at Sanford Burnham Prebys accelerated his scientific career.
Daniel Million was always fascinated by biology. But, like most high school students, he wasn’t sure what life as a scientist was really like. That all changed when he had the opportunity to complete a summer internship at Sanford Burnham Prebys.
“We thought it would be a strict environment where we were all very serious, with nobody talking,” says Million. “But my mentors both made the work in the research lab exciting. They taught me early on that you can have fun while doing great science.”
For six weeks during the summer of 2013, he and nine other classmates from the Preuss School at UC San Diego—a charter school for students who would be the first in their families to graduate from college—gained valuable laboratory skills while working directly with cancer researchers.
“Now that I’ve had the opportunity to do biological research in college and grad school, I look back and am amazed at what we were able to accomplish while in high school,” says Million. “We were doing PCRs, gel electrophoresis—techniques you usually don’t get to experience until college. They gave us a great preview of what it’s like to work in science.”
Million believes that this experience gave him a leg up that led to his acceptance to the University of Southern California, and to his receipt of a prestigious GATES Millennium scholarship, which covered all of his college costs through graduation. The benefits also extended to when he arrived on campus to start his degree.
“When you go into a research lab, that can be an intimidating place,” says Million. “If I didn’t get the chance to build my confidence in the research setting, I don’t feel that I would have performed as well when I got to college.”
Today, Million is wrapping up his master’s degree in infectious disease at Keck Graduate Institute. Whatever his future holds—perhaps medical school, or a master’s degree in public health—he remains a supporter of the internship program.
“This experience not only changed my life but changed a lot of students’ lives at Preuss,” says Million. “For a student who is going to be a first-generation college student, and who is already going to have a lot of barriers entering higher education, this is the extra push and extra knowledge they need to be successful.”
This internship was funded by the National Cancer Institute’s Continuing Umbrella of Research Experiences (CURE) program, which supports training and career-development opportunities from middle school through junior investigator levels with the goal of increasing diversity in the cancer research workforce.
Matalonga-Borrel is on the hunt for a treatment that could help children born with a rare, life-threatening condition
Thanks to the sequencing of the human genome, scientists have helped parents get answers to the cause of mysterious conditions that have affected their children. Now, researchers are tackling a new challenge: translating this knowledge into life-altering medicines.
Did you always know you wanted to be a scientist? I actually wanted to be an airplane pilot until my senior year of high school. But during the application process, I learned that I have very mild color-blindness, so I had to quickly decide what I wanted to do next. I pivoted to biology, a topic where I had some interest, thinking I would become a teacher. Then, when I was in college, I got the opportunity to complete a lab internship, which is where I discovered my passion for research. I would have never guessed that I would be where I am today, leading a project that might directly help families and children.
What do you study, and what is your greatest hope for your research? I study Alagille syndrome, a rare disease that affects kids from the day they are born. Many organs are affected, especially the heart and the liver, and almost half of these children die before the age of 19.
Luckily, Alagille syndrome is associated with mutations in only two genes, both belonging to the same pathway, called Notch. This makes our goal easier to achieve: identify drugs that target Notch, which currently don’t exist. I’m excited that we’ve identified a promising option. My greatest hope is to create a medicine that truly helps these children and their families, who currently live without any treatment.
When you aren’t working in the lab, where can you be found? You will likely find me playing golf at Torrey Pines! There is nothing like playing a twilight round, feeling a slight breeze and looking at the immensity of the Pacific Ocean. With that said, since I became a father, my golfing time has been severely impaired. Now it’s most likely that you’ll find me at home, entertained by the early stages of development of my son…and changing a lot of diapers!
What do you wish people knew about science? How patient one has to be to move science forward. It can take weeks—or months—of trial and error until a big breakthrough happens.
We live in a world that seems to spin faster and faster. It is critical for our society to understand that proper science is not about rushing experiments. It is about setting the right ones.
How do you think your lab colleagues would describe you? Upbeat, reliable and organized (hopefully!).
How has the pandemic affected your life? I had my first baby last June, and the pandemic prevented any relatives to come from our home country, Spain, and meet their first grandchild. Thankfully, we had Skype to get in touch. Looking on the bright side, daycares have never been so clean, and the rate of sickness around kids has dropped significantly!
What is the best career advice you have ever received?
“Have fun and make friends,” from Dr. Eduardo Chini of the Mayo Clinic. It is possible to do great science and have fun—don’t feel guilty about it. My best collaborations came from my greatest friendships among colleagues.
What do you wish people knew about Sanford Burnham Prebys? It’s an amazing community. Science moves forward thanks to communication and collaboration and it wouldn’t happen without a strong sense of community. This includes wise faculty members who train graduate students and postdocs, an Office of Education and International Services that offers year-round seminars and workshops, and a group I am part of, called SBP-Social Network (SBP-SN), which organizes fun social and scientific events. All of this creates a place where scientific excellence thrives.
Barbosa Guerra is working to find better treatments for a deadly leukemia
For Karina Barbosa Guerra, touring a lab and meeting scientists as part of her Girl Guides troop—Mexico’s equivalent of the Girl Scouts—was a life-changing experience. Suddenly, she could see herself as a scientist.
Today, Barbosa Guerra is a graduate student in the Deshpande lab at Sanford Burnham Prebys, where she’s working to find better treatments for a blood cancer called acute myeloid leukemia (AML). We caught up with Barbosa Guerra as she prepares to take the virtual stage at the Diversity and Science Lecture Series at UC San Diego (DASL) to learn more about when she decided she wanted to be a scientist and where she can be found when not in the lab.
Tell us about the moment you realized you wanted to be a scientist. According to my mother, I stated that I wanted to become a chemist to develop vaccines when I was ten years old. However, it wasn’t until middle school that I started cultivating my own sense of scientific curiosity. At that time, I was in a Girl Scouts program centered on HIV/AIDS peer education, so I began to read a bit more about viruses. It was incredibly amazing that they could linger undetected in our bodies—and that many questions about their biology remained unanswered. The more I learned, the less I felt I knew, and I wanted to follow that endless string of questions.
What do you study, and what is your greatest hope for your research? I study a cancer called acute myeloid leukemia—specifically, subtypes that are hard to treat. Certain cancer cells, like stem cells, are pretty resilient and can self-renew. This enables them to resist therapy, so we want to discover better ways to target this particular feature. My research aims to find ways in which we can treat these leukemias based on their stem cell–like capabilities. My hope is that we can ultimately benefit the patients enduring harsh treatments and disease relapse, and along the way, illuminate the fascinating aspects of the biology behind effective treatments.
What do you wish people knew about science? That it’s a team effort. The current coronavirus pandemic has really shown us that collaboration is at the heart of transformative science. I think that great ideas are best developed through discussion—and the thrill of putting the pieces together is way more enjoyable with company.
How do you think your lab colleagues would describe you? Maybe as the girl with a bunch of notebooks. I like to make notes of everything. My notebooks are way more reliable than my memory.
What is the best career advice you’ve ever received? Early in the graduate program, one of my mentors told me, “Be there,” meaning that I had to spend time with my science. If I were to discover something or make a great insight, I had to be there to do it, think it or see it.
What do you wish people knew about Sanford Burnham Prebys? That this is such a welcoming community. I felt this the very first time I visited the campus, and I feel so at home here as a student. There are plenty of opportunities to engage with others and help each other out. I really enjoy the collaborative spirit of our little community.
Award pays tribute to postdoctoral researcher who succumbed to cancer at age 33
Eric Dudl’s lifelong dream to be a scientist was just starting to come true. He’d begun his postdoctoral research in a cancer lab at Sanford Burnham Prebys, where he was known as kind, helpful and the “go-to guy” when an unfamiliar piece of machinery arrived.
Watch the virtual ceremony honoring the winners of the Dudl scholarship award, including remarks by Eric’s family, their faculty mentors and the interim head of our National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Cancer Center, Ze’ev Ronai.
Then, at age 32, he was diagnosed with cancer. The diagnosis only reaffirmed his passion for science, and he often returned to the lab after a long day of chemotherapy.
“One day when he was quite ill, I looked at Eric and said, ‘Why don’t you take some time off of work. Get your energy back and go back in when you feel better,’” says Jim Dudl, MD, Eric’s father, at the ceremony honoring this year’s scholarship recipients. “He immediately looked up at me and said, ‘Why would I do that? This is the best job in the world!’”
Eric underwent five rounds of chemotherapy, but the tumor was aggressive. Only nine months after the initial diagnosis, he succumbed to the cancer. He was 33.
Today, Eric’s memory lives on in the form of the Eric Dudl Endowed Scholarship Award, created by Eric’s family in 2007 to support talented postdoctoral researchers working in the cancer field. This year’s virtual event celebrated the 2019 and 2020 scholarship winners: Jennifer Hope, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in the Linda Bradleylab; and Archna Ravi, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in the Brooke Emerlinglab.
“This scholarship fund is truly the best way that we can honor Eric because he was so passionate about education and supporting others,” says Bret Dudl, Eric’s brother. “The fact that he now helps other postdocs further their work to fight cancer is exactly what he would have wanted.”
Where are they now? From left to right: Past Dudl Scholarship award winners include Eric Lau, now an assistant member at the Moffitt Cancer Center; Robert Tinoco, now an assistant professor at UC Irvine; and Gaurav Pathria, now a scientist at Genentech.
“These talented scientists truly pick up where Eric had to leave off,” says Barbara Dudl, Eric’s mother. “We are so grateful to the Institute for their compassion for Eric during his illness and as we worked to create this scholarship, and the scientists who are now working on discoveries that might one day save the life of someone like Eric.”
Jennifer Hope, PhD (Linda Bradley lab)
Tell us a little bit about your research. If all goes well, what do you hope to achieve? I’m working to understand why the immune system, specifically T cells, seems to turn a “blind eye” to tumors—in contrast to other foreign invaders such as viruses.
Over the last few years, our studies have pinpointed one molecule that transforms T cells and can help slow, stop, and in some cases, even eliminate, tumors in mice.
My ultimate hope is that we use this information to create better cancer treatments, particularly for skin cancer (melanoma), which remains a deadly cancer.
What does this award mean to you? It is a great honor to have received this award, particularly because of the story behind it! We may all have different reasons for going into science and research, but one thing we all share is passion for our work. We also know how taxing cancer therapies can be on a patient’s mind, body and soul, so for Eric to have continued his work with such diligence while undergoing treatment is truly inspirational and speaks to his resilience and character.
How does this award advance your work? With this award, I was able to travel to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where I spent a week in the lab of a renowned T cell expert. There, I gained invaluable hands-on experience with assays that I could bring back to my lab here and have already implemented in our work. The timing of this award, which I received in 2019, was very lucky. I completed the weeklong residency in January of 2020 just before COVID-19 had taken off in the U.S.
Archna Ravi, PhD (Brooke Emerling lab)
Tell us a little bit about your research. If all goes well, what do you hope to achieve? Scientists know that rapidly growing cancer cells become desperate for nutrients and start to use alternative pathways to get “food.” It’s a bit like, “If you aren’t going to feed me, I’m going to feed myself.” I’m studying a family of proteins that controls two of these alternative pathways (autophagy and mitochondrial metabolism). If we can block two important ways a tumor “feeds” itself, we believe we can create a very effective drug that can starve a tumor.
I hope my work will ultimately lead to better cancer therapeutics, especially for triple-negative breast cancer and sarcomas. These are very difficult tumors to treat; and we need better, targeted therapies to help more people survive these cancers.
What does this award mean to you personally? Anyone who has heard Eric’s story has been inspired by it. It’s the sort of dedication and perseverance that I hope to achieve in my career. In the face of the disease, Eric chose to continue working on something he truly enjoyed and believed in. It’s about doing what you’re passionate about no matter what hurdles are thrown your way. For my work to be recognized with this scholarship is a great honor.
How will this award advance your work? What will you be able to achieve now? As a postdoctoral researcher, I’m on the threshold of a new path in my career. I plan to use the funds to “attend” conferences where I can share my work and network with people all over the world. This award really supports my career goal of becoming an independent scientist.
Anything else you would like us to know? For me, cancer research is not just about doing good science. It’s about ensuring that no one has to fear losing loved ones to this disease. My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer a few years back. Thankfully, she’s doing well now after surgery and chemotherapy. But that experience, and the fear that we both felt, stays with me today.
Along these lines, many people aren’t aware that the research needed to create a new drug starts at nonprofit organizations such as Sanford Burnham Prebys. The hardest part—the actual science notwithstanding—is getting the funding to carry out such research. No contribution to science is too small! Every gift increases the chances that we can find new treatments.
Iyer is studying how proteins “dance,” which could lead to better drugs and a deeper understanding of human health
DNA is often the star of the show when we talk about the body, but proteins are the true front-line workers. Formed by DNA’s instructions, proteins begin as strings of chemical compounds and later fold into a 3D shape that dictates their job in the body. If scientists can solve a protein’s shape—a feat that often takes years or decades—they may be able to create better drugs or better understand disease.
Biologist Mallika Iyer, a graduate student in the Godzik lab at Sanford Burnham Prebys, is harnessing the power of computers to unlock insights into protein structure and movement. We caught up with Iyer as she prepares to take the virtual stage at DASL (the Diversity and Science Lecture Series at UC San Diego) to learn more about her greatest hopes for her research and what makes her tick.
Did you always know you wanted to be a scientist? I’ve known I wanted to be a scientist ever since I learned about the digestive system as a kid. I was fascinated by how the human body works—it’s the most well-thought-out machine ever.
I didn’t, however, imagine myself being a computational scientist until much later. When I was in college, I realized that traditional lab work wasn’t for me. I began learning some basic coding after I graduated and was hooked. That transitioned into computational biology/bioinformatics.
What do you study, and what is your greatest hope for your research? I study protein structure and flexibility. Proteins are often depicted as having a single structure, but they are actually very flexible and transition between many different conformations as a part of their function—sort of like a well-choreographed dance.
My greatest hope for my research, or this field in general, is that we will someday be able to predict the types of movements a protein undergoes during the course of its function, or “job.” Last year, the field saw a huge advancement in the prediction of protein structure (read more in The New York Times). But “structure” is only half the story. Being able to predict all the different conformations and movements would be incredibly useful for medicine—and very cool!
What do you wish people knew about science? That being wrong is a huge part of science. Scientists are supposed to understand and explain how the world works. But that is something that involves a lot of trial and error! Being wrong is, in fact, the way we advance our knowledge.
When you aren’t working, where can you be found? Where is your happy place? Prior to the pandemic, my happy place was actually the climbing gym. I was introduced to indoor rock climbing about two years ago, and I instantly fell in love it with. It’s a great way to exercise both your body and mind, and I have found the climbing community to be really friendly and accepting. What makes my gym even better is that it also has extra space to just hang out, work, read a book, and so on. So, I used to go there a lot!
What is the best career advice you have ever received? Use every opportunity you can to present your work and network with people. I try to present at as many conferences and symposia as I can, and simultaneously use that as a way to meet and network with others in the field. I’ve found that this allows me to practice answering questions about my work, which in turn enables me to think more critically about it. And it can also lead to new opportunities that further my research and career.
What do you wish people knew about Sanford Burnham Prebys? That it has a graduate program! I think our program is really unique. Its small size means that each student gets a lot of attention, and we have an Office of Education, Training and International Services (OETIS) that really offers us a lot of great resources to help us shape our careers.
Prior to the pandemic, Mallika’s happy place was the climbing gym. “It’s a great way to exercise both your body and mind, and I have found the climbing community to be really friendly and accepting,” she says.
Get to know the biomedical researchers of the future
Although Sanford Burnham Prebys has spent more than four decades fostering a reputation for excellence in basic biomedical research, our Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences is relatively young. Founded in 2005, the program’s mission is to educate and train students to become the innovative biomedical scientists of the future.
“This year’s group of graduate students will work on ambitious projects that will help us learn about the biology of aging, the origins of cancer and more,” says Guy Salvesen, PhD, dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. “I look forward to seeing what these talented individuals will accomplish in the coming years under the guidance of our dedicated faculty.”
Meet this year’s incoming class of graduate students and learn about the bold projects they will undertake while at the Institute—and what drives them personally.
Sviatlana Zaretski (Hansen lab)
Sviatlana Zaretski began interning in the lab of Malene Hansen, PhD, as an undergraduate at University of California, San Diego. This led to a lifelong fascination with autophagy, a cellular recycling process that plays an important role in aging—the single greatest risk factor for diseases such as Alzheimer’s, cancer and diabetes.
After graduation, Zaretski continued this work as a research assistant in the lab. Now, as a graduate student, she will build upon the knowledge she has gained to date to decipher the molecular changes that occur during aging and how they alter autophagy. This work could unlock new ways to slow the aging process and promote healthy aging.
“When I’m not in the lab, I can be found on the beach or in the park with my family.”
Rema Iyer (Deshpande lab)
Rema Iyer joins the graduate program with more than a decade of experience working in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries—including roles at Eli Lilly, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, GNF and AnaptysBio. Across these positions, her focus remained on preclinical drug discovery and drug engineering—with the goal of ensuring medicines are safe and effective in the human body.
As a graduate student in Ani Deshpande’s lab, Iyer will work to understand the role of epigenetics—chemical tags placed on DNA that alter gene expression—in cancers like acute myeloid leukemia. Her hope is that this work will lead to therapies that are meaningful to people with these cancers.
“What I love most about research is that I get to use my passion for science to help people. And with a PhD, I can have even more impact.”
Utkarsha Paithane (Bagchi lab)
Utkarsha Paithane obtained an integrated bachelor’s and master’s degree in biotechnology from Amity University in India. She then went on to obtain a master’s degree at Keck Graduate Institute in California, where she worked to determine how non-small-cell lung cancer develops resistance to a targeted treatment called erlotinib.
As a graduate student in the lab of Anindya Bagchi, PhD, Paithane will work to uncover genetic mutations that contribute to cancer initiation, which could lead to treatments that prevent cancers from developing.
“One of my favorite moments in my life is when my first DNA experiment in my undergrad worked. I was so proud!”
Adarsh Rajesh (Adams lab)
Adarsh Rajesh first connected with Sanford Burnham Prebys when he worked as an assistant in the lab of Peter Adams, PhD, studying cellular senescence, a sleeplike state of aged cells. Now, as a graduate student in the Adams lab, Rajesh will investigate the impact of epigenetics—chemical tags placed on DNA that alter gene expression—on cellular senescence, aging and cancer.
Rajesh is interested in combining bioinformatics techniques and cell biology to unlock the cellular mechanisms that drive aging and age-associated diseases—which could lead to treatments that promote healthy aging or prevent age-associated diseases.
Rajesh is interested in combining bioinformatics and cell biology to understand aging.
Cedomir (Ceda) Stamenkovic (Sacco lab)
Ceda Stamenkovic completed his undergraduate studies at University of California, San Diego, where he majored in neuroscience and physiology. After graduation, he worked in several neuroscience research labs studying the brain’s response to opioids and reward behavior.
As a graduate student in the lab of Alessandra Sacco, PhD, Stamenkovic shifts his focus to muscle stem cells and how they degrade due to natural aging or muscular dystrophy. This work could lead to muscle-boosting treatments that help people maintain muscle mass as they age, or help people living with muscular dystrophy.
“I’ve always been fascinated by the living world. I was interested in both biology as well as ecology, but I chose biology because of its ability to advance health and medicine. That’s very important to me.”
Paloma’s research aims to protect premature babies from brain damage
Newborns have a new scientist in their corner: Paloma Sánchez Pavón, a graduate student in the lab of Jerold Chun, MD, PhD Paloma is working to find a medicine that could protect the still-developing brains of premature babies, which are incredibly delicate and prone to swelling. Called hydrocephalus, the condition is common—affecting one in 1,000 newborns—and repeated brain surgery is the only treatment.
We caught up with Paloma to learn more about what makes her tick, including why she decided to become a scientist and what she wishes people knew about research.
Did you always know you wanted to be a scientist? When you were a child, did you ever imagine you would be in the role you are today? I always knew I wanted to become a scientist, but I didn’t imagine I would be in the position I am today. Growing up, I was obsessed with the idea of becoming a marine biologist. I was fascinated by how much we didn’t know about the ocean. My plan was to move closer to the beach and enroll in a program that would allow me to learn more about it. Nevertheless, I soon realized that I was both mesmerized and terrified of the ocean (sharks, especially), and that I would never be able to spend enough time diving and exploring the water, which is what such a career would require. I was still passionate about biology and science in general, so I decided to study the most unknown (and equally unexplored) organ in the human body—the brain.
What do you study, and what is your greatest hope for your research?
I study hydrocephalus, a condition that often affects premature infants. These newborns are extremely fragile and often accumulate fluid in their heads, which can cause brain damage or death. The only treatment is invasive brain surgery, required multiple times throughout individuals’ lives, to insert a shunt in their brains and drain the excess fluid so it is reabsorbed somewhere else in the body. This procedure is extremely uncomfortable for the patients and, like any other surgery, is associated with several risks that endanger their lives. I’m trying to understand the disease so we can find a better, less invasive treatment.
When Paloma isn’t working in the lab, she can be found enjoying one of San Diego’s many beautiful beaches
What is one scientific question you wish you had an absolutely true answer to? To answer this question, I will step away from biology and turn to the universe. What is there beyond our galaxy? Will we be able to inhabit other planets? If we have so many things to still learn about the ocean and the brain, the universe is in a completely different category, with so many possibilities ahead of us.
What do you wish people knew about science? That it is fun. Experiments are about testing limits and going beyond what is known. I think that is really exciting. Also, science advances because we’re constantly asking new questions. Curiosity is what keeps this field in continuous evolution. And never be afraid to ask questions because science can be understood by everybody—it just needs to be explained well.
When you aren’t working in the lab, where can you be found? Where is your happy place? You will find me at the beach, walking along it or watching a sunset. One of the main reasons why I decided to move to San Diego is because I fell in love with its sunsets. You will also find me having brunch (my favorite American tradition) with my friends or enjoying a beer after work with them, especially around Encinitas or downtown San Diego.
What is the best career advice you have ever received? Never stop pushing the boundaries of knowledge. A curious mind is what keeps a scientist passionate about their job. Experiments usually don’t work the first time. You have to keep asking new questions and learning from your mistakes. Finishing a project takes time, but every day is unexpected and exciting because you don’t know what you’re going to find. That is the thrilling part about being a scientist.
What do you wish people knew about Sanford Burnham Prebys? What a great community Sanford Burnham Prebys is. I’ve never been in such a collaborative environment, where you work closely not only with students and postdocs, but also with faculty members. Everyone is always willing to help, whether that is lending reagents or advising about different techniques. As a student, this is what I value the most because it helps me develop as a scientist in an extremely enriching way.
