Academics

Congratulations to Laurence Maeyens for winning the AGE Poster Pitch Award!

Written By: Gina Jenkins Laurence Maeyens, a PhD student in Biology of Aging, won the Poster Pitch Award, along with a cash prize, at the 2025 American Aging Association meeting in Anchorage, Alaska in July. His winning poster, titled “Timing of castration modulates its...
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A Look Back at My Time at UT Health San Antonio

Written by Jacob Essif I started my career at UT Health San Antonio as a research assistant in the lab of Dr. Daruka Mahadevan, after the lab relocated from the University of Arizona to the well-regarded UT Health San Antonio. I joined UT Health in January of 2020, and right as I...
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2025 GSBS Hooding Speakers Announced: Caitlyn Fastenau and Dr. Jodie Gray

The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences is pleased to announce the 2025 Hooding Ceremony Speakers. The student speaker will be Caitlyn Fastenau, an IBMS Student in the Biology of Aging Discipline. Dr. Jodie Gray, a 2020 graduate of the Radiological Sciences PhD Program, will...
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How to Make the Most of BioMed Fest: A Guide for Students

By: Shahad Abdulsahib; Contributor: Caitlyn Fastenau  I had the privilege of attending the very first BioMed Fest in 2023, and since then, I’ve been actively involved in planning the 2024 and 2025 events to ensure the best possible experience for student engagement and success....
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Students

How to Make the Most of BioMed Fest: A Guide for Students

By: Shahad Abdulsahib; Contributor: Caitlyn Fastenau  I had the privilege of attending the very first BioMed Fest in 2023, and since then, I’ve been actively involved in planning the 2024 and 2025 events to ensure the best possible experience for student engagement and success....
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Congratulations to Federal FY 2024 F31, F30, and AHA Awardees

The GSBS would like to acknowledge and congratulate the prestigious FY 2024  Individual Kirschstein National Research Service Award recipients, as well as our American Heart Association (AHA) Predoctoral Fellowship recipient.  These remarkable achievements are a testament to each...
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Racing from the Lab to Marathons: How Linden Williamson Balances Elite Athletics and Scientific Discovery

People often say graduate school is filled with writing, researching, experiments, time in the lab, and if you have time in between that maybe you remember to eat, sleep, and exercise. In anticipation of this, Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP) scholar Linden...
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Mentorship Matters: Daisy Medina’s Journey from SMDP Scholar to F31 Recipient

Daisy Medina applied to the Scientist Mentoring & Diversity Program (SMDP) last spring after hearing positive experiences from Joel Agosto Pena, GSBS alumni and previous SMDP scholar. Daisy, fifth year IBMS student in the Cancer Biology Discipline, shares she applied to be an...
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Faculty

Congratulations to Juan Pablo Palavicini, PhD, on his Rising UT STAR Award!

Written by Gina Jenkins Dr. Juan Pablo Palavicini has received a Rising UT STAR retention award for $150,000. The STARs (Science and Technology Acquisition and Retention) Program provides funding to help purchase state-of-the-art equipment and make necessary laboratory/facility...
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UT Health San Antonio researcher awarded five-year, $2.53 million NIH grant to study alcohol-assisted liver disease

Liver transplants associated with alcohol-related disease are growing at a rapid pace, shifting research to address pathologies behind the ailments in light of a limited supply of organ donors. At the forefront is Mengwei Zang, MD, PhD, an internationally recognized leader in...
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American Cancer Society awards nearly $1 million to UT Health San Antonio cancer researcher

Zhijie “Jason” Liu, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine in the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) and CPRIT (Cancer Prevention and Research Institute...
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Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Martin Schwacha, A Musician and a Scientist

Classical music on the radio. The smell of turpentine and cigar smoke. These were some of Dr. Martin Schwacha’s memories of childhood. Dr. Schwacha grew up in a family that had a fondness for the arts. His father played the violin and was an accomplished artist who painted large...
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Alumni

GSBS Alumnus, John Michael Briceño, Is Bringing Warmth and Hope to the Andes

John Michael Briceño, a 2013 graduate of UT Health San Antonio’s Master’s in Radiological Sciences program, has spent the past decade building a career as a medical physicist in radiation oncology, a field that is deeply rooted in service, compassion, and improving lives. Beyond...
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2025 GSBS Hooding Speakers Announced: Caitlyn Fastenau and Dr. Jodie Gray

The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences is pleased to announce the 2025 Hooding Ceremony Speakers. The student speaker will be Caitlyn Fastenau, an IBMS Student in the Biology of Aging Discipline. Dr. Jodie Gray, a 2020 graduate of the Radiological Sciences PhD Program, will...
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Alumni Reflections: Mukund Bhandari, Ph.D.

Name: Mukund Bhandari Program: PhD in IBMS, Cell Biology, Genetics, and Molecular Medicine Graduation: 2024 Dissertation Title: “Benchmarking Mouse Contamination Removing Protocols in Patient-Derived Xenografts Genomic Profiling” Mentor Name: Siyuan Zheng, PhD Please tell me...
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Alumni Reflections: Joel Agosto, Ph.D.

  My name is Joel A. Agosto-Peña. I was a student of the IBMS- Cancer Biology PhD program and I worked under the supervision of Dr. Feng-Chun Yang on my dissertation titled “Role of ASXL1 mutations in leukemogenesis and genomic integrity.” I am originally from...
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Community

Volunteer Extraordinaire and Student Leader, Sara Gaiser, Creates New Service Organization

Have you seen the Lab RATS at UT Health? No, not the mice in research laboratories. These Lab RATS are something entirely different. Lab Researchers with Ambition to Serve (Lab RATS) is a UT Health student organization that focuses on volunteer service around San Antonio and...
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Highlights from the November Student Government Association (SGA) Meeting

The Student Government Association is the recognized forum of student opinion of UT Health San Antonio. It is comprised of student representatives from all six schools. The GSBS SGA representatives are Jacob Essif (essif@livemail.uthscsa.edu), Lacey Sell...
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Introducing the Inaugural GSBS Wellbeing Council where at UT Health we prioritize YOU!

This past year, we were excited to kick off the GSBS Wellbeing Council, a dedicated group of students, faculty, and staff passionate about fostering a supportive and thriving community here at UT Health. As you read this, you may be asking- what is the mission and goal of this...
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Racing from the Lab to Marathons: How Linden Williamson Balances Elite Athletics and Scientific Discovery

People often say graduate school is filled with writing, researching, experiments, time in the lab, and if you have time in between that maybe you remember to eat, sleep, and exercise. In anticipation of this, Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP) scholar Linden...
Read More →
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