For graduate school admissions
Visit the Office of Graduate Education for info on our many doctoral programs and the graduate education application process at the School of Medicine.
For medical school admissions
Visit the Office of Admission for info on application process, financial aid, and student life.
Give online to the Biomedical Sciences PhD Fund
Use our secure online giving form to make your gift to Case Western Reserve University now.
Make a difference
Find out how you can Take Three Steps to make a difference at Case Western Reserve University.
Welcome to campus
Visit Case Western Reserve University's uniquely urban campus, located in the heart of Cleveland's cultural hub, University Circle. Plan your trip:
Find it here
...at the School of Medicine
Look for people
Search for School of Medicine faculty in our Faculty A to Z or search their research interest through the Faculty Research Interest Directory.
Look up other people in the University Directory.
Browse departments and centers
Browse other listings
The Doctoral Excellence Award in Biomedical Sciences is established to recognize exceptional research and scholarship in PhD programs at the School of Medicine. Nominees' work should represent highly original work that is an unusually significant contribution to the field. A maximum of one student per PhD program will be selected, but a program might not have a student selected in a particular year. A subcommittee chosen by the Office of Graduate Education will review the nominations and select recipients of each Award.
Eligibility
Open to graduating PhD students in Biochemistry, Bioethics, Biomedical Engineering, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Genetics, Molecular Medicine, Neurosciences, Nutrition, Pathology,
Pharmacology, and Physiology and Biophysics.
This nomination form will also be used to nominate students for the Hughes Award in Developmental Biology or Embryology, that awards
an outstanding graduate with scholarship in this area.
Molecular Biology/Molecular Virology/Cell Biology students should contact the Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology to compete for the departmental Krampitz Award.
Genetic Epidemiology students can contact the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics to compete for the Olson Award.
To be eligible for the Doctoral Excellence Award, a student must have completed all doctoral degree requirements and have a conferral date between August and May of the academic year.
Process
Nominations occur electronically and must include:
1) A brief letter of nomination (or self-nomination) in non-technical language, presenting the purpose, methods, and results of the research, and a
clear statement of its significance within the discipline. It is important to make clear the intellectual contributions of the nominee. Maximum two pages total.
2) An updated copy of the nominee's curriculum vitae.
3) A letter of support from a member of nominee's dissertation committee or research advisor. The letter of support will be requested online, so please be prepared
to provide the name and email of the letter writer. Nominators who are research advisors or dissertation committee members of nominee will have the option to use the
nomination letter as the letter of support.
Nominations must be received by Thursday, March 1, 2012.
Winners will receive a certificate and small monetary award at the Graduate and Postdoctoral Award Ceremony, and Award information will appear in the commencement booklet.
If you have any additional questions, please contact Alison Hall, PhD, Assoc Dean for Graduate Education.
Ganga Karunamuni is originally from Abu Dhabi and earned her baccalaureate in Biology from Johns Hopkins University before coming to CWRU. In her thesis work with Dr. Michiko Watanabe, Ganga mapped the lymphatic network within the embryonic heart that may play a role in fluid retention in congestive heart failure. She used several animal models and a combination of cellular markers, and learned that the outermost epicardium gives rise to lymphatic endothelial cells. She was awarded an American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship, and won local and national awards for her research presentations. She has elected to remain in the Watanabe laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow to develop optical coherence tomography approaches to study mouse embryo heart physiology.
Wenqian Hu graduated from Wuhan University in China, and joined Jeffrey Coller's lab just as it opened its doors in 2005. He was a whirlwind of stellar activity, publishing several first author papers in Nature and other collaborative studies on the context in which eukaryotic mRNA is degraded. He won an American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship, and was awarded first prize two years in a row at the CWRU Research Showcase. He was described as "an extremely rare find and will undoubtedly be a star." Dr. Hu is currently a postdoctoral trainee with Harvey Lodish at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Melissa Krebs earned her baccalaureate degree and Master's of Science in Chemical Engineering at University of Rochester, and worked in industry before
joining the CWRU Biomedical Engineering program.
Her work with Eben Alsberg focused on gene delivery systems in scaffolds to promote bone formation.
She has published extensively in the biomedical engineering field and spoken at national meetings on her work.
She won a National Science Foundation
Graduate Research Fellowship, and has already won an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship for her continued work in with
Dr. Alsberg as a postdoctoral trainee.
Alex Siebold graduated from the College of Wooster in Biology before joining Dr. Peter Harte in the Genetics program at CWRU.
In his doctoral work, he found an
unanticipated role for polycomb repressor complex in extended lifespan and increased stress resistance. He completed a Molecular Biology of Aging summer course
in Woods Hole and won a National Research Service Award from NIH for his work.
Alex has joined Norman Sharpless and has earned a UNC Lineberer
Cancer Center Postdoctoral Basic Science Fellowship for his postdoctoral training.
Fadia Abdallah Mayyas earned her baccalaureate in Pharmacy at Jordan University, an MS in Pharmacy at Norwegian University of Science and Technology
followed by a research fellowship in Norway before joining David Van Wagoner in Molecular Medicine.
She earned an American Heart Association Predoctoral
Fellowship for her work on endothelin-1 signaling in atrial calcium cycling and fibrosis.
She is now an Assistant Professor at Jordan University of Science and Technology.
Chen Liu graduated from East China Normal University in Biology and was a graduate research assistant before coming to CWRU in 2003.
Chen studied the ongoing role of
transcriptional regulation for serotonergic neuron maturation and function. He used original methods to engineer mice in which these factors could be extinguished with
decreases in serotonergic markers and increased anxiety-like behaviors.
He is first author on a Nature Neuroscience paper and has other collaborative work. He has begun a
postdoctoral fellowship with Joel Elmquist at UT Southwestern in Dallas TX.
Nicole Yonkers graduated from Ohio University in Biology before joining the Pathology Department, first as a research assistant and later as a Master's and Doctoral student.
During this time she earned a National Research Service Award Predoctoral Fellowship from the NIH for her work on alcohol and opiods on dendritic cell function
in hepatitis-C and human immunodeficiency virus.
She has earned travel and young investigator awards to national meetings, and has done outstanding work with her advisor Donald Anthony.
Michael Schnetz graduated from Westminster College and completed an Intramural Research Training Award at the NIH before joining Peter Scacheri in
Genetics.
His reserach focused on chromatin structure in the CHARGE developmental disorder that affects multiple organ systems. His papers in high impact
journals report that a remodeling enzyme closely regulates cell specific gene transcription and revealed an novel regulatory mechanism important for development.
He entered CWRU medical school in Fall 2010.
Matt Lalonde (PhD Biochemistry 2009) graduated from The Ohio State University with a BS in Biochemistry before heading north to CCF and then Tariq Haqqi's laboratory as a research assistant. He was pursuing a MS in Biochemistry and considering medical school as a career, when his course instructor Eric Arts noticed his "unique, logical approach to experimentation in addressing complex research problems." Eric convinced Matt his research abilities would be better suited in biomedical research than medicine, and brought him into his lab.
For his doctoral work, Matt developed a method for detecting drug resistant minority variants in samples from HIV+ patients that led to a new understanding of how drug resistant forms of the disease arise. As a team, they developed a patent application on a technology to screen for drug resistant mutations.
His advisor, Eric Arts recalls that Matt is an avid cyclist and triathlete, although "he still can't beat me up hill on a bike."
Dr. Lalonde has joined Wes Sundquist as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Utah.
Jeffrey Beamish (PhD Biomedical Engineering) earned a BS in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University before joining the CWRU MSTP program.
In work with Roger Marchant, Jeff worked on cellular mechanisms that cause failure of cardiovascular implants, and developed new tissue engineering constructs to address these problems. His work led to a new focus of soluble mediators in endothelial cells as key regulators, and he designed new biomimetic scaffolds using a hydrogel to facilitate cell attachment. His work was highly productive and he earned an individual pre-doctoral fellowship from the American Heart Association to support his aims.
"quite rare...for a student to develop in-depth expertise in both the biomaterial component and the cell biology component."
Dr. Beamish has returned to clinical electives to complete the MSTP
.
Johnie Rose (PhD Epidemiology and Biostatistics) completed his BS in Economics, a MD at Unviersity of Tennessee Collge of Medicine and Internship at Univeristy Hospitals of Cleveland, when he started a new career in Health Services Research.
His innovative work with Mendel Singer involved computer simulation of rotavirus vaccination in developing world settings. He introduced new methods to study how to best prevent over half a million annual childhood deaths attributable to rotavirus diarrhea. Among his observations were assessments of the impact of universal rotavirus vaccination in developing nations on hospitaliazaitons, deaths and costto the health care budget.
"he is an original, creative and very deep thinker, outstanding quantitatively and qualitatively, and is a sensational writer."
Dr. Rose is currently a Clinical Instructor in the Department of Surgery at University Hospitals Case Medical Center.
Joshua Rosenblum (PhD Pathology) earned a BS in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Trinity Unviersity in Texas before coming to Cleveland to work in CWRU anatomy and CCF transplant institute.
He then joined the MSTP program and earned his PhD with Rob Fairchild on the role of specific chemokines important for immune rejection in cardiac transplants. This led to a new understanding of alloimmune responses and T cell activation. He was awarded an individual NIH National Research Service Award to pursue his aims, and was highly productive.
"his work was original and important...Josh's work spurred an entirely new direction of research."
Dr. Rosenblum has returned to clerkships to complete the MSTP.
Bryan Doreian (PhD Physiology and Biophysics) is a graduate of Geneva College where he majored in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, and pursued internships in product discovery at several pharmaceutical firms.
As a graduate student with Corey Smith, Bryan worked on molecular mechanisms of exocytosis in chromaffin cells, His work was recognized as the Grand Prize Winner at CWRU Research Showcase, and a publication was nominated for "paper of the year" in Molecular Biology of the Cell. His advisor said because of Bryan's innovative studies, their colleagues nationally said while they first "didn't know what to make of our data...it just makes sense now."
Dr. Doreian is currently a postdoctoral trainee with Kurt Lu in Dermatology at CWRU.
Charlie Huang (PhD Nutrition) came to CWRU after earning his baccalaureate degree in Molecular Cell biology at UC Berkeley, and following a stint as a research assistant at UCSF.
Charlie worked on specific proteins in cell membranes that transport essential amino acids into cells, particularly in cancer cells with Maria Hatzoglou. He used bioinformatics and mass spectroscopy approaches to identify regulatory switches that controlled whether the transporter was made. In addition to his own outstanding discoveries, he contributed to publications on measuring protein synthesis in stressed cells, mechanisms to control osmolarity, and diabetes resistance.
Philip Kiser (PhD Pharmacology) came to CWRU after earning a BS in Pharmacy at St. Louis College of Pharmacy, followed by work in Molecular Biology and Pharmacology at Washington University.
Phil's work with Krzysztof Palczewski focused on a membrane protein in the retina that works to regenerate the visual pigment, rhodopsin. The protein is complex, difficult to study, and had to be purified from eyes themselves. He eventually purified and crystallized the enzyme, and the game was on! The structure of the protein revealed unexpected insights into its enzymatic functions, and Phil was very productive in a short period. He also contributed to teaching discussion in Dental Pharmacology, and served as President of the Graduate Student organization in Pharmacology.
"the only graduate student that has ever been allowed to teach a small group alone, which says a great deal about the respect he is accorded."
Phil Larimer (PhD Neuroscience) first came to CWRU as an undergraduate intern in the SPUR program, from Oberlin College. He returned as an MSTP student, earning a PhD with Ben Strowbridge.
Phil worked largely on defining the function of neurons in the dentate hilus of the hippocampus, a region commonly damaged in patients with temporal lobe eplilepsy. He had truly outstanding prominent publications from his work. He was also chosen for the highly competitive "Methods in Computational Neuroscience" summer course at Marine Biological Labs, and TA'd in a Neurobiology course there.
"incredibly demanding triple- and quadruple simultaneous patch clamp recordings to study relatively infrequent synaptic connections in brain slices."
Dr. Larimer has returned to clerkships to complete the MSTP.