SCI Fellowship Awards

Award Information
Awardees

As an NCI Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Stanford Cancer Institute (SCI)’s mission is to translate Stanford discoveries into individualized cancer care and prevention. In keeping with its important goal of educating and empowering the next generation of cancer researchers, the SCI offers funding to cancer research fellows at Stanford University.

The SCI Fellowship Awards have been offered since 2014 to increase the number of clinical, laboratory, and population researchers who are carrying out cancer research with applicability to the basic biology, prevention, diagnosis or treatment of cancer. This source of funding enables trainees to achieve faculty positions and obtain career development awards.  

Evaluation Criteria

The most important criteria for the fellowship awards are that applicants:

Have clear evidence of intent to pursue an academic career
Have a commitment to apply during the 2026-27 academic year for peer-reviewed funding from the NIH, foundations, or other sources

Eligibility

The RFA is open to individuals who are completing their clinical or post-doctoral training and are pursuing clinical, laboratory, or population-based research projects with direct cancer relevance at Stanford University. These individuals are in the final year of their residency and planning to look for faculty positions in the next year.

Award Amount

Maximum funding amount: $75,000

2026 Awardees

Debanjan Bhattacharjee, PhD

Debanjan Bhattacharjee, PhD is a postdoctoral scholar at the Stanford Cancer Institute. Bhattacharjee earned his PhD at CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, studying metabolic rewiring in cancer cells and developing potential therapeutic approaches to counteract these effects. As a postdoctoral scholar in Dr. Jason Sheltzer's lab, Bhattacharjee is uncovering the mechanisms underlying the effects of anti-cancer drugs. His long-term goal is to establish a research program that uncovers new mechanistic insights into how cancer drugs function and resistance arises, and to partner closely with clinical colleagues to translate these discoveries into improved therapeutic strategies for patients.

Sanja Bojic, MD, PhD

Sanja Bojic, MD, PhD, is a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Bojic completed her medical studies at the University of Nis, Serbia, and went on to earn a PhD at the Institute of Genetic Medicine, Newcastle, UK. Her graduate work focused stem cells of the eye. As a postdoctoral research associate at Newcastle she focused on computer modeling of retinal cryopreservation. Her current work with Dr. Michael Longaker explores the biology of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), cells found in the tumor microenvironment, with a focus on melanoma. She aims to pursue a tenure-track academic faculty position and continue studying the tumor's interactions with its environment in solid cancers, with an ultimate goal of translating her findings into therapies. Her proposal investigates the contribution of CAFs to wound healing defects in melanoma tumors.

Brendan Dwyer, PhD

Brendan Dwyer, PhD, is a postdoctoral scholar at the Stanford Cancer Institute. Before coming to Stanford, Dwyer was an NSF-funded graduate student at the Scripps Research Institute, where he pioneered chemoproteomic methods to uncover cellular targets of therapeutic small molecules. His PhD work led to the first demonstration of optical control of drug metabolism and identification of an inhibitor of the protein BRAT1, which plays a role in the DNA damage response. His current work in Dr. Nathanael Gray's lab focuses on designing and evaluating molecular 'glues', which work by selectively inducing protein-protein interactions to reshape protein function. His proposal applies deep learning models to predict the molecular selectivity based on structure. Dwyer's goal is to establish an independent laboratory at a leading R1 research institution, developing innovative therapeutics that re-wire disease-specific protein-protein interactions.

Byungang Ha, PhD

Byungang Ha, PhD, is a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Gastroenterology. He obtained his PhD in mechanical engineering at Stanford, developing microfluidic and optical devices for biochemical applications. Continuing at Stanford, he pursued postdoctoral training with mentor Dr. Ovijit Chaudhuri, studying how T cells migrate through the extracellular matrix. His long-term goal is to lead an independent research group at the intersection of fluid mechanics, biomaterials and cell biology, with a broader vision of advancing cancer therapy. His current project is focused on understanding the biophysical mechanisms that control immune cell migration and infiltration into solid tumors.

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Julia Ransohoff, MD

Julia Ransohoff, MD, is a senior postdoctoral clinical fellow in oncology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, seeking to pursue a career as a physician-scientist. Ransohoff completed her medical training at Stanford University, where she also conducted research with both Dr. Paul Khavari (cell biology) and Dr. Nigam Shah (biomedical informatics). As a fellow working in Dr. Ash Alizadeh's lab, Ransohoff's research focuses on developing and applying quantitative molecular methods to detect breast cancer disease that remains after treatment (residual disease). She is developing a personalized test for residual disease, with an ultimate goal of improving treatment and prognosis for patients. She is hoping to pursue an academic career that utilizes her multidisciplinary background in basic cell biology, computational science, epidemiology, and genomics to change how we monitor and treat disease.

Pamela Basto, MD, PhD

Pamela Basto, MD, PhD, is a physician-scientist and fellow in Dr. Edgar Engleman’s laboratory at the Department of Pathology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She is interested in understanding how tumor cells evolve to evade the immune system, and how cell therapy may be used to target them. As a graduate student at Harvard/MIT Dr. Basto worked at the intersection of immunology and chemical engineering to develop next generation nanoparticle vaccines, work that has been patented and translated into clinical trials. Subsequently, in medical school at Stanford, she investigated approaches to strengthen endogenous and exogenous immune responses against solid tumor metastases. Dr. Basto’s career goal is to pursue a career as a physician scientist, specializing in gastrointestinal oncology and researching immunotherapies and new treatment options for patients with advanced malignancies.

Jess D. Hebert, PhD

Jess D. Hebert, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Monte Winslow’s laboratory in the Department of Genetics at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Hebert is interested in understanding how tumor genotype regulates metastasis, the process responsible for the overwhelming majority of cancer deaths. During his PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Dr. Hebert studied how cancer cells metastasize to different organs by modifying the extracellular matrix. At Stanford he has developed and employed novel CRISPR-based approaches to test the metastatic ability of lung adenocarcinoma tumors with diverse genetic alterations. Dr. Hebert’s goal is to become an independent investigator working to deconvolute the complex genetic factors that control lung cancer metastasis. This work will help to predict metastasis before it occurs and lead to the development of therapies to prevent it.

Masashi Miyauchi, MD, PhD

Masashi Miyauchi, MD, PhD, is a physician-scientist specializing in hematology, oncology, immunology, and stem cell biology, with a decade of clinical experience in hematology and oncology. His career journey has combined both clinical and research training, and his ultimate goal is to pursue an independent academic career. In his PhD research at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine, Dr. Miyauchi specialized in disease modeling of cancer stem cells, employing patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). This work notably included scalable ex vivo manufacturing of human neutrophils. In 2019 he embarked on postdoctoral studies in Hiro Nakauchi’s laboratory in the Department of Genetics at the Stanford University School of Medicine. In his postdoctoral research Dr. Miyauchi is developing a stable hematopoietic stem cell expansion system in humans. Specifically, his proposal is focused on deriving macrophages for use in cancer immunotherapies.

Eunji Choi, PhD

Eunji Choi, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Summer Han’s laboratory in the Quantitative Sciences Unit at Stanford University School of Medicine. As a cancer epidemiologist with diverse training in economics, health policy evaluation, and statistics, Dr. Choi’s ultimate career goal is getting a faculty position at a research-intensive cancer institution. She first became interested in microeconomic analysis and economic policy as an undergraduate. Dr. Choi pursued her PhD in public health at the National Cancer Center of South Korea, where she was able to use her economic policy evaluation skills to assess cancer policy performance and develop fundamental epidemiologic methods and national-level big data analysis. Since coming to Stanford as a postdoctoral scholar in Feb 2020, Dr. Choi has led research in various aspects of managing second primary lung cancer among lung cancer survivors and has taken full advantage of the methodologically rigorous environment at Dr. Han’s laboratory. To become an independent cancer researcher, Dr. Choi is dedicated to acquiring innovative research skills and obtaining funds.

Nicholas H. Juul, MD

Nicholas H. Juul, MD, is a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Tushar Desai’s laboratory in the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Juul’s research is focused on using “’omics” and translational assays of primary human tissue to examine mechanisms of lung tumor growth. He has made novel and exciting observations surrounding how the cell of origin of cancer impacts the behavior of the resulting tumor, developing a model of lepidic lung adenocarcinoma in the mouse and discovering evidence that demonstrates the clinical relevance of this model in human lung adenocarcinoma. Dr. Juul has discovered that the Kras and Braf oncogenes can cause a terminally differentiated cell to take on the phenotype of its stem cell en route to tumorigenesis. His observations regarding Wnt in both this murine model and in spheroid assays of primary lung adenocarcinoma have established exciting avenues for further research into the role of Wnt signaling in tumor biology.

Shannon M. White, PhD

Shannon M. White, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Michael Snyder’s laboratory in the Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. White received her PhD in Tumor Biology from Georgetown University, where she gained extensive experience in molecular signaling, cancer biology, and epigenetics. Dr. White has a passion for studying epigenetic mechanisms of gene regulation in cancer. Throughout her research career in cancer biology, she has trained in a spectrum of disciplines ranging from protein signaling to metabolomics to epigenetics and led both mechanistic and computational-driven projects. Dr. White aspires to become an independent investigator and wants to focus on using 3D cultures of tumor samples to identify the myriad of diverse molecular mechanisms that drive drug resistance and cancer progression and investigate new therapeutic strategies based on these findings.