Meet the scholarship winners in USC’s stem cell master’s program

For the second consecutive year, USC’s master’s program in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine has been able to offer scholarships to its talented students. Supported by the generosity of an anonymous donor who established the Cardinal Scholarship, Atul Dhablania and In Cha Kim, and the Office of the Dean of the Keck School of Medicine of USC, these scholarships recognize need as well as academic achievement and community engagement.

This year’s Dean’s Fellowship was awarded to Gabriela Lopez in recognition of her efforts to give back to her community to promote diversity and help the disadvantaged, while the three Cardinal and Dhablania-Kim Scholarships recognized Tianli “Sheldon” Ding, Navneet Kumar and Manuel Santana for their academic excellence.

“We are so pleased to be able to offer scholarships for our master’s students, thanks to the vision and generosity of our donors and the Dean’s office,” said Francesca Mariani, faculty director of the master’s program. “Scholarship support is critical to increasing access for the diverse students that will become the next generation of stem cell leaders.”

The Dean’s Fellowship

Gabriela Lopez

As an undergraduate majoring in biopsychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Manuel Santana spent countless hours pondering the enigma of the nervous system and its connection to the human mind.

“There seems to be a mismatch between human cognition and the material body,” he said. “How can an idea or concept be instantiated in a material object?”

Santana’s curiosity about such questions prompted him to join the laboratory of Antonio Damasio at the Brain and Creativity Institute at USC, and perform research identifying the brain regions that underpin social emotions in the decision-making of adolescents.

Inspired to learn more about the molecular basis of the brain, he completed the Biotechnology Program at Pasadena City College. He was then accepted in the CIRM Bridges Program, which enabled him to perform a year-long research internship studying ALS in the laboratory of Justin Ichida’s lab at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC. After his internship, he became a technician in the Ichida Lab, co-authored a paper in the journal Cell, and was accepted into the master’s program in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine with a Cardinal and Dhablania-Kim Scholarship.

After graduation, Santana intends to apply a PhD program in neuroscience with the eventual goal of entering academia.

“I hope to work in academia and teach at a local college or university in Los Angeles, where I can give back to the community that has served me throughout my life,” he said. “I also plan to stay connected with the scientific community by pursuing bench-side research. I am as curious today about the nervous system as I was as an undergraduate, and I look forward to the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.”

To donate or learn how you might help the scholarship program, please contact Joel Smith, Senior Associate Vice President for Health Sciences Advancement, at [email protected] or visit https://stemcell.keck.usc.edu/support.