This month, we celebrate 6 new graduates of the Cedars-Sinai Biomedical and Translational Sciences graduate research programs. The 5 PhD graduates and one master of science have studied under the mentorship of expert researchers and clinicians.

"Cedars-Sinai offers students a unique opportunity in translational medicine," says PhD graduate Anisha Madhav. "It has shown me the importance of fostering relationships between scientists and clinicians in different disciplines and establishing collaborations among them, a lesson which I will carry forward in my research career."

Jenieke Reneé Allen, PhD graduate
Jenieke Reneé Allen earned her master of science in cell and molecular biology from California State University, Northridge. After working in Dr. George Liu's laboratory at Cedars-Sinai, she joined the graduate program and conducted her thesis research under the mentorship of Dr. Peter Chen in the Women's Guild Lung Institute. Jenieke has applied to law school with the goal of becoming an intellectual property lawyer specializing in biomedical sciences and technology.

Jae Hyung Cho, PhD graduate
Jae Hyung Cho earned his doctor of medicine from the University of Ulsan, Korea, and finished his residency training in internal medicine at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His graduate research, under the mentorship of Dr. Eduardo Marbán, focused on the mechanisms of ventricular arrhythmias and sudden death in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. Jae will be continuing his journey as a clinical cardiology fellow at Cedars-Sinai.

Anisha Madhav, PhD graduate
Anisha has previously studied the role of telomerase in potentiating therapy resistance. As a PhD candidate at Cedars-Sinai, she joined the laboratory of Neil Bhowmick, PhD to continue her training in the prostate cancer field. Under his mentorship, she has identified a novel metabolic mechanism by which prostate cancer can become radiation resistant. From here, she plans to continue her work in the field of cancer biology.

Ryan Middleton, PhD graduate
After completing his master's degree at Washington State University, Ryan began work as a research technician for Dr. Eduardo Marbán. During this time, he led studies on magnetic stem cell targeting and on the use of cardiac progenitor cells to treat pulmonary hypertension. He continued this work and published his studies while working on his PhD, then went on to study the role of extracellular vesicles in newt limb regeneration. Ryan intends to pursue an academic post-doctoral fellowship on tissue regeneration and extracellular vesicle bioengineering.

Kellee Murayama, master of science graduate
Kellee Murayama graduated from Occidental College with a bachelor of arts in biochemistry. She then joined the Cedars-Sinai heart and lung procurement team where she assisted cardiothoracic surgeons in the operating room and delivered donated organs to Cedars-Sinai patients. As a volunteer in the laboratories of Dr. Joshua Goldhaber and Dr. P. K. Shah, she conducted research into the causes of heart disease. Later, Kellee returned to Dr. Goldhaber's lab to earn her master's degree.

Julie Yang, PhD graduate
As a PhD candidate, Julie trained under the mentorship of Michael Freeman, PhD. Her graduate thesis project was based on the study of hormone regulation in prostate cancer. Julie is currently a postdoctoral fellow at City of Hope, continuing her work in hormone regulation using prostate cancer mouse models.

"Put simply, my mantra for this entire PhD experience has been: 'DON'T GIVE UP,'" says Julie.

Congratulations to all the graduates!