SCI Fellowship Awards

2024 Awardees

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.

Roman Sarott, PhD

Roman Sarott, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Nathanael S. Gray at the Department of Chemical and Systems Biology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Before coming to Stanford, Dr. Sarott earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry at ETH Zurich where he developed photo-switchable and fluorescent probes for investigating cannabinoid receptor signaling and expression. In his current research he is developing innovative strategies for cancer treatment using chemically-induced proximity to re-wire cellular pathways. For example, Dr. Sarott has designed bivalent molecules that rewire oncogenic kinase activity to induce cancer-specific cell death. This gain-of-function approach contrasts with conventional inhibitor- and degrader-based pharmacology and accesses a new therapeutic space. Dr. Sarott’s goal is to establish an independent research program at the interface of synthesis, molecular biology, and medicinal discovery.


Prior Awardees

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Closed

RFA Announced: July 10, 2023
Notification of Selection: January 19, 2024
Funding Period: July 1, 2024- June 30, 2025