Cell Biology Trainee Awards

Fia L. Stratton won the 2025 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program award, one of the most esteemed fellowships supporting graduate students in STEM disciplines. NSF fellows receive an annual stipend for three years as well as funds to defray research and travel costs. An exceptionally competitive selection process, Ms. Stratton was one of only 16 scientists across the United States to receive the fellowship in the category of cell biology. A graduate student in the lab of Lindsay M. LaFave, Ph.D., Ms. Stratton focuses on the role of transcription factors in lung biology. Congratulations!

Sriram Sundaravel, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Ulrich J. Steidl, M.D., Ph.D., received the Special Fellow Award from Blood Cancer United (formerly the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society), the largest nonprofit funder of cutting-edge blood cancer research. The Special Fellow Award supports postdocs and instructors who clearly demonstrate success in their current position and who are be competitive for an independent position. This award supports Dr. Sundaravel’s research into developing innovative approaches to study leukemia stem cell heterogeneity. 

Randall S. Carpenter, Ph.D., working in the lab of mentor Maria Marianovich, Ph.D., received a 2024 Dennis Shields Postdoctoral Research Prize from Einstein’s Belfer Institute for Advanced Biomedical Studies. Learn more.

Eric Liu, a Ph.D. candidate mentored by B. Hilda Ye, Ph.D., received a Best Poster Award at the 21st Biennial International Conference on Human Retrovirology: HTLV and Related Viruses, which took place in London. This is the first ever conference award given by the International  Retrovirology Association to a study conducted at Montefiore Einstein. Mr. Liu’s poster was entitled “North American adult T-Cell leukemia/lymphoma has  frequent mutations in CCR4 and responds in vitro to a small molecule  CCR4 antagonist.” In this study, the research team discovered that nearly half of the NA-ATLL cohort studied carried CCR4 mutations. CCL22 but not  CCL17 induced strong chemotaxis in NA-ATLL, which can be potently  inhibited by a small molecule CCR4 antagonist, suggesting a novel  therapeutic opportunity for this devastating cancer. Congratulations to Eric Liu and Dr. Ye!

High school student Brandon Kim was selected by the Society for Science as a Top 300 Scholar in the 83rd Regeneron Science Talent Search––the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science and mathematics competition for high school seniors. Kim attends Great Neck South High School (NY) and is being mentored by his high school teacher Nicole Spinelli and Montefiore Einstein Depatment of Cell Biology faculty Lindsay LaFave, Ph.D. His project was selected from a pool of more than 2,000 applications across the country, underscoring his significant research achievements as a promising, young scientist.

Michael Papanicolaou, Ph.D., with support of mentor Julio A. Aguirre-Ghiso, Ph.D., received a Cancer Research Institute Irvington Postdoctoral Fellowship. This  prestigious fellowship provides funding to qualified post-doctoral  fellows at leading universities around the world who pursue research in  fundamental immunology or cancer immunology. For the awarded project, co-mentored by Ross Levine, M.D. (Sloan Kettering), and Xingxing Zhang, Ph.D. (Einstein), Dr. Papanicolaou is investigating how age-related clonal hematopoiesis influences breast cancer dormancy and metastasis. Congratulations, Dr. Papanicolaou!

Postdoctoral fellow Rama Kadamb, Ph.D., from the Aguirre-Ghiso Lab, gave an oral presentation at the Society for Melanoma Research in Philadelphia. Dr. Kadamb shared findings that NR2F1, a lineage commitment and dormancy regulator transcription factor, critically regulates disseminated cancer cell dormancy in spontaneous uveal melanoma (UM). Her study reveals that NR2F1 epigenetically opposes oncogenic Gaq-YAP1 signaling, which drives progression of advanced metastatic disease in  UM. These findings help elucidate the mechanism for the longstanding  medical mystery surrounding late relapse in UM patients and hold promise for the development of anti-metastatic therapies.

Weihan Li, Ph.D., and Peiqi Yin, Ph.D., won the 2023 Dennis Shields Postdoctoral Research Prize from Einstein’s Belfer Institute for Advanced Biomedical Studies. Dr. Li’s work was conducted in the lab of Robert H. Singer, Ph.D., and Dr. Yin’s work was performed in the lab of Margaret Kielian, Ph.D.

Weihan Li, Ph.D.,a postdoctoral fellow in the Singer Lab, received the prestigious K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health. The award provides two years of support for Dr. Li’s continued postdoctoral research at Einstein (K99 phase) followed by three years of independent funding after he transitions to a tenure-track  faculty position (R00 phase). Dr. Li joined Albert Einstein College of  Medicine as a postdoctoral fellow in November 2018 after completing his  Ph.D. in Biophysics at University of California, San Francisco. Since then, he has developed an improved RNA imaging system that has minimal perturbation to the RNA’s stability and was recognized with the American Heart Association Postdoctoral  Fellowship. Dr. Li’s K99/R00 project is entitled "The Spatial  Coordination Between Cytosolic and Mitochondrial Translation.”

Lindsay Gurska, Ph.D., a graduate of the lab of Kira Gritsman, M.D., Ph.D., received the 2023 Julius Marmur Award for graduate student researchers. Along with her colleagues, Dr. Gurska showed that crizotinib, a drug approved for non-small cell lung cancer, can  suppress aberrant signaling in cells of patients with myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN), setting the framework for initiating clinical testing of crizotinib for MPN patients. Her work has led to  several awards, including the American Society of Hematology Abstract  Achievement Award. Dr. Gurska also had a first author paper published in Clinical Cancer Research. Congratulations, Dr. Gurska and Dr. Gritsman! 

Nayem Haque received a prestigious 2023 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program scholarship. Past NSF fellows include some of the nation’s most outstanding  scientists, including Google co-founder Sergey Brin and former U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, as well as Nobel laureates and members of the National Academy of Sciences. Haque, a graduate student co-mentored in the Coleman Lab and Parua Lab, is focusing on elucidating the coordination between cyclin-dependent kinases and chromatin modifiers in the regulation of gene expression.

John Hobbs received the New York Consortium for Interdisciplinary Training in Kidney, Urological, and Hematological Research (KUHR) grant. The award aims to provide training and interdisciplinary collaboration in  research related to nephrology, urology, and hematopoiesis. This grant supports Mr. Hobbs’ graduate school research in both the Coleman Lab and Steidl Lab, where he is studying how transcription factors dynamically regulate hematopoiesis.

Jessie Larios-Valencia, a M.D./Ph.D. predoctoral candidate in the lab of Wenjun Guo, Ph.D., received a National Institutes of Health F31 Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award Fellowship. He is pursuing studies dissecting the role of dedifferentiation in basal-like breast cancer.

Emily Schwenger received a Google Ph.D. Fellowship in health research, which directly supports her graduate research in the Steidl Lab. The award is granted to  innovative research in areas relevant to computer science and related  fields with the intention of supporting promising Ph.D. candidates of all backgrounds who seek to influence the future of technology.

Dr. Yuhong Ma, a postdoctoral scientist in the lab of Britta Will, Ph.D., received one of the 2022 American Society of Hematology Scholar Awards. This prestigious and highly competitive award supports fellows and  junior faculty dedicated to careers in hematology research as they  transition from training into careers as independent investigators. The  award recognizes and supports Dr. Ma's exciting work on the role of chaperone-mediated autophagy in leukemic stem cell maintenance.

Postdoctoral fellow Mohd Nauman, Ph.D., received a poster award at the 2021 Society for Glycobiology Annual Meeting. Dr. Nauman presented the poster, “Glycans that Regulate Notch Signaling in Small Intestine,” which he authored in collaboration with Pamela Stanley, Ph.D. They discovered that deletion of Eogt, an enzyme that adds O-GlcNAc to Notch EGF repeats, rescues the altered intestinal phenotype of triple Fng knockout mice which cannot extend O-fucose on Notch EGF repeats. This  study reveals an unexpected, negative regulatory role played by O-GlcNAc in Notch signaling in this context. Congratulations, Dr. Nauman!

Rajni Kumari, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Ulrich G. Steidl, M.D., Ph.D., received the 2021 Indian National Science Academy (INSA) Medal for Young Scientists. This prestigious award recognizes contributions in research along with great potential to be a leader in research in the future. Each year, a total of only 40 young Indian researchers are selected for the INSA Young Scientists Award. Considered to be the highest recognition of promise, creativity, and excellence in a young scientist, the award is made annually to honor investigators who conduct research in India.