Through a generous donation from the Asrican family, the Graduate Programs in Biosciences (GPB) is able to provide support to its PhD students who are pursuing research in areas related to cardiovascular science. Research topics can range from basic science to translational clinical applications in cardiovascular sciences. This award highlights your dedication, innovative mindset, and significant influence in enhancing our understanding of cardiovascular health and disease.
Asrican Sophie & Jack Award
Eligibility Criteria
Students must be a 2nd year or higher PhD student in good academic standing in any GPB Home Area. Successful awardees must be planning research in cardiovascular science, with preference for those who have already demonstrated effots in this area.
Award Information
Awardees will be fully funded at a level commensurate with current GPB funding. The scholarship will be renewed annually, dependent on academic progress and research within cardiovascular science, for up to two years of funding.
Individuals who accept the award will be required to submit a 2-page written summary at the end of each year, describing their research and its (potential) impact. Continued funding is contingent on submission and review of this report and ongoing academic good standing within UCLA and GPB.
Application Information
For this year, applications will be due on November 10, 2025. Please submit all applications to the Biosciences Application Portal. The online application process requires submission of the following:
- A personal statement covering yoru interest in this award.
- A written document consisting of:
- A clear set of specific aims for the research (up to 1 page)
- A description of research methods (up to 2 pages) that must cover the project’s relevance to cardiovascular science and potential impact in research (e.g. knowledge discovery), healthcare delivery (e.g. patient care), or public health.
- A timeline and milestones of the 2-year effort (up to 1 page).
- A letter of support from the sponsoring primary faculty mentor.
- A copy of the most recent academic transcript.
Tim Bartsch, 2025 Awardee
Tim Bartsch earned his B.S. and M.S. in Biochemistry at the University of Cologne in Germany, where his research focused on understanding mitochondrial biology in the context of disease. He then joined the lab of Dr. Lena Pernas at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Aging in 2022 and moved with her lab to UCLA in 2023 to start his PhD in the Molecular Biology Interdepartmental Program. In the Pernas lab, Tim started his dissertation project on determining how and why mitochondria can shed their outer membrane in the form of complex micron-sized vesicles we termed SPOTs. Intriguingly, he has discovered that SPOTs form during protein translation stress, which is commonly associated with I/R injuries. Mitochondrial membrane shedding was also induced by the translation inhibitor homoharringtonine—a potent leukemia chemotherapeutic. In the future Tim aims to define the function of SPOTs in cardiovascular health and disease.
Asha Kar, 2025 Awardee
Asha is a doctoral candidate in the Bioinformatics program, mentored by Dr. Paivi Pajukanta in the Department of Human Genetics. She received her B.S. in Computer Science from UCLA, during which her research focused on cell-type specific aging effects relating to obesity and obesity-related cardiometabolic diseases. Her current work focuses on elucidating cell-type level mechanisms from human metabolic tissues that affect cardiovascular disease outcomes through the integration of cell-type level and biobank-scale omics data.
Alex Macintyre, 2025 Awardee
Alex Macintyre is a second-year doctoral student in the Physics and Biology in Medicine program at UCLA. Prior to joining UCLA, Alex received a B.S. in Physics from the University of Arizona. During his undergraduate, he researched machine learning-based analysis for 2D material spectroscopy and also completed a summer research fellowship at Washington University School of Medicine. He is a member of the Christodoulou laboratory which develops acquisition and reconstruction techniques for multi-dimensional quantitative MRI. In particular, Alex’s research focuses on enabling scans that capture improved hemodynamic information through the use of biophysical models and training-data-free AI reconstruction. Outside of the lab, Alex enjoys biking on the beach and playing the guitar.
Alina Tong, 2025 Awardee
Alina Tong is a Ph.D. Student in the Gene Regulation, Epigenomics, & Transcriptomics Home Area in the laboratory of Dr. Feng Guo. Alina earned her B.S. in Biological Science from California Lutheran University, where her undergraduate research sparked an interest in RNA biology as it applies to human health. Her current work focuses on developing innovative antisense oligonucleotide technology to upregulate coagulation factor XI (FXI) expression. FXI, a liver-derived protein, was recently identified by Dr. Aldons J. Lusis’s lab to be a mediator of liver-heart cross-talk which plays a protective role in heart injury. Alina aims to contribute to the development of therapeutics that may be used to address heart failure, and her research has broad implications for diseases that may benefit from the upregulation of protein expression in a targeted manner.
Jenny Cheng, 2024 Awardee
Jenny Cheng earned her B.S. and M.S. in Physiological Science from UCLA. She is now a PhD candidate in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology at UCLA. She is co-mentored by Drs. Xia Yang and Aldons J. Lusis, leaders in the fields of systems biology, genetics, and cardiovascular disease. Her main dissertation project focuses on the effect of microbiome-derived metabolites in cardiovascular disease. She has proven a causal protective effect of the metabolite indole-3-propionic acid in abdominal aortic aneurysm and has linked trimethylamine-N-oxide to key hallmarks of atherosclerotic plaque instability. Jenny employs both experimental techniques and bioinformatic analyses, primarily centered on single cell/nuclei RNA-sequencing and network modeling, in her research. She is passionate about translational research and aims to contribute to the development of cardiovascular disease therapeutics.
Andeesh Kallapur, 2024 Awardee
Aneesh Kallapur is a Graduate Student in Molecular, Cellular and Integrative Physiology in the laboratory of Dr. Tamer Sallam in the Division of Cardiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine. He obtained his medical degree from JIPMER, Pondicherry, India in 2020. A quest to understand the fundamental mechanisms of cardiovascular disease brought him to the laboratory of Dr. Tamer Sallam at UCLA in 2021, where he spent two years as a research assistant prior to rejoining the lab as a graduate student. Aneesh’s current work focuses on understanding the role of chemical modifications on RNA in the progression of atherosclerosis, the leading cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality worldwide. Aneesh’s research is also supported by an American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship. Outside of the lab, Aneesh enjoys exploring Los Angeles’ world-class food scene and is an ardent cricket fan. In the future, Aneesh would like to combine his research and clinical interests to become a Cardiology physician-scientist.
Rochelle Lai, 2024 Awardee
Rochelle is a third year doctoral student in the Molecular, Cellular and Integrative Physiology program. She is a clinical registered dietitian (RD) by training, but remains fascinated by nutrition and metabolism basic science. Rochelle received her undergraduate degree at UC Berkeley and completed her master’s degree and dietetic internship at USC. Prior to UCLA, she worked at Stanford Medicine Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital as a clinical pediatric RD, specializing in liver and intestine transplant. Currently, her research in the Tarling-Vallim laboratory focuses on how changes in host and microbe bile acid metabolism impacts the development of cardiometabolic disease.
David Wong, 2024 Awardee
David earned his B.S in Molecular Biology from the University of Washington, where his research focused on engineering large-scale DNA logic gates using array-based DNA synthesis. His early work in synthetic biology sparked his interest in the molecular mechanisms underlying cellular function and tissue regeneration. Currently, David is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Integrative Biology at UCLA, where he is mentored by Dr. Pearl Quijada. His doctoral research employs lineage tracing and single-cell transcriptomics to investigate the role of epicardial cells in myocardial infarction. By dissecting cellular fate decisions and paracrine signaling mechanisms, his work aims to uncover novel therapeutic strategies that harness epicardial-derived factors to stimulate angiogenesis and promote cardiac repair following ischemic injury. His research has broad implications for regenerative medicine and heart disease treatment. Throughout his academic career, David has been recognized with several prestigious fellowships and awards, including the Mary Gates Research Scholarship and Eureka Award.