UB Awards 314 Biomedical Science Degrees; 29 Earn PhDs

By Dirk Hoffman

Eight graduate students and 10 senior undergraduates were singled out for special honors, including three graduates who received a Chancellor’s Award, the highest State University of New York undergraduate honor.

Graduates completed work in the following programs of the Jacobs School:

• biochemistry
• biomedical informatics
• biomedical sciences
• biotechnology
• cellular and molecular physiology
• computational cell biology, anatomy and pathology
• genetics, genomics and bioinformatics
• medical anatomy and experimental pathology
• medical physics
• microbiology and immunology
• neuroscience
• pharmacology 
• physiology 
• structural biology

Graduates also completed programs in cancer sciences and immunology offered in alliance with the Roswell Park Graduate Division.

Eleven of the doctoral degrees and six of the master’s degrees were awarded in Roswell Park’s programs.

Allison Brashear, MD, MBA, UB’s vice president for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School, welcomed attendees to the May 17 event at the Center for the Arts on UB’s North Campus and asked the graduates to pause and reflect on the faculty, mentors, peers, and family and friends who supported them along the way.

“As you move forward, please carry their support with you and recognize the strength it represents,” she said. “Thank you to everyone who supported our graduates and helped to make this day possible.”

“Graduates of 2026, today is the moment you celebrate your well-earned accomplishments. We gather to recognize what you have achieved through years of focused study, perseverance and growth.”

Brashear noted that over the course of her career as a clinician, researcher, and an educator, she has seen how deeply scientific knowledge shapes lives — and how essential it is that the work remain grounded in evidence, inquiry, and a commitment to lifelong learning.

“Discovery moves quickly, especially in this day and age,” she said. “Our responsibility is to move thoughtfully with it.”

Brashear closed her remarks with a call to action.

“Practice science with intention, remain committed to evidence and inquiry and continue to learn. And use your knowledge to serve others.”

She asked the graduates to return often to one central question: How does this work benefit the lives of our community and our country now, and in the future?

“If you hold to that standard, I have complete confidence in your ability to lead, to innovate, and to make meaningful contributions,” Brashear said. 

“Class of 2026, I am extremely proud of you. Please go forward with confidence, integrity, and purpose.”

This competitive award recognizes an outstanding dissertation by a graduate student in the Jacobs School, as well as a distinguished academic record and curriculum vitae that includes publications, abstracts and presentations. 

Doctoral graduate Monica R. MacDonald was honored for her dissertation: “Protein Engineering and Biosynthetic Approaches for Synthesis of Pyrrolobenzodiazepine Analog Natural Products.”

Mentor: Andrew M. Gulick, PhD, professor of structural biology

Master’s graduate David Homer was recognized with this competitive award for excellence in research for a graduating master’s student in the Jacobs School.

Project: “Developing a Mechanistic Understanding of the Functions Within the Msh3 N-Terminal Region”

Mentor: Jennifer A. Surtees, PhD, professor and chair of biochemistry

Nominations for this award are limited to doctoral graduates of the Graduate Division at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. The recipient possesses an outstanding academic history, publication record and dissertation abstract. 

Sarah Rose Athans, a doctoral graduate in the cancer sciences program, was honored for her dissertation titled “STAG2 Controls Chromatin Architecture to Enforce Pro-Tumor Gene Expression Programs Lending Novel Therapeutic Opportunities in Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer.”

Mentor: Anna Woloszynska, PhD, Department of Pharmacology & Therapeutics, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center

Doctoral graduate Janie McGlohon was honored for dissertation research that received national or international recognition and for being selected to give an oral presentation at a major national or international meeting.

Dissertation: “Substrate-Driven Distal-to-Proximal Structural Regulation of CYP11A1 and Its Interaction with Its Redox Partner Adrenodoxin”

Mentor: D. Fernando Estrada, PhD, associate professor of biochemistry

Doctoral graduate Li Li was honored for her dissertation titled “Understanding Neuronal Fate Transition and Degeneration by Transcriptomic Network.”

The award is given to the graduating neuroscience doctoral student who best exemplifies the values and scholarship of Beverly Bishop, PhD, a Distinguished Teaching Professor at UB for over 50 years. This includes the three benchmarks of academic leadership: devotion to research excellence, commitment to teaching, and demonstrated community service.

Mentor: Jian Feng, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of physiology and biophysics

Doctoral graduate Raider Rodriguez was honored for his dissertation titled “Elucidating the Effect of Local Nav1.8 Channel Downregulation on Osteoarthritis-Related Chronic Pain.”

The award is presented to a PhD graduate who has been mentored by a faculty member in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, in recognition of outstanding dissertation research and academic accomplishments. The department looks for these academic accomplishments combined with a spirit of collegiality and community service, reflecting the values exemplified by the late Dennis Higgins, PhD, who was a professor of pharmacology and toxicology.

Mentor: Arin Bhattacharjee, PhD, professor of pharmacology and toxicology

Master’s graduate Niharika Jawalkar received the award from this endowed fund that was created for the purpose of providing an annual prize in physiology for a graduate student who achieves the best academic record over two semesters in physiology required courses.

Donald W. Rennie, MD was the chair of physiology from 1973-1980 and was internationally recognized for his research.

Master’s graduate Ajaykiran Mallavarapu was honored for his thesis titled “Methamphetamine and Mitochondria: A Study on How Methamphetamine Exposure Reshapes Mitochondrial Morphology in Ventral Tegmental Area Dopaminergic Neurons.”

Mentor: Sergio Dominguez-Lopez, PhD, assistant professor of pharmacology and toxicology

Doctoral graduate Monica R. MacDonald was honored for her dissertation: “Protein Engineering and Biosynthetic Approaches for Synthesis of Pyrrolobenzodiazepine Analog Natural Products.”

Mentor: Andrew M. Gulick, PhD, professor of structural biology

Three Jacobs School undergraduate students were named as recipients of the 2026 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence; the highest honor SUNY bestows upon its students.

The award recognizes outstanding students who also excel in a variety of areas, including leadership, diversity, equity, inclusion and justice, campus involvement, civics and service, research and development, or creative and performing arts.

Each year, selection committees from SUNY campuses consider nominees and recommend finalists to the chancellor’s office. This year’s recipients were invited to attend an awards ceremony in Albany.

The Jacobs School honorees are Kymani Getfield, Ishfar Shaan and Emaan Sohail.

Getfield, of Kingston, Jamaica, graduates with a Bachelor of Science degree in nuclear medicine technology and a minor in biological sciences. He is a University Honors College Scholar and has served in the United States Army National Guard.

Shaan, of Clarence, New York, graduates with a Bachelor of Science degree in biomedical sciences and a minor in public health. A Presidential Scholar in the Honors College, he conducted research on novel cancer therapies and authored an abstract presented at the American Association for Cancer Research.

Sohail, of Rochester, graduates with a Bachelor of Science degree in biomedical sciences. She is a Presidential Scholar and Phi Beta Kappa inductee and serves as president of the Pre-Dental Association and co-founder of the University Honors College Book Club.

The following awards recognize outstanding undergraduate degree candidates who have maintained a high level of academic performance and were selected based on their campus and community involvement:

Biochemistry
Arielle Arbel

Biomedical Informatics
Neha Nattanmai

Biomedical Sciences
Colin Manke

Biotechnology
Khandoker Ifaz Ahmed

Medical Laboratory Science
RongHui Lu

Neuroscience
Gavin Labouf

Nuclear Medicine Technology
Kymani Getfield

Pharmacology and Toxicology
Max Wakshlag

Commencement speaker Zhijian “James” Chen, PhD ’91, earned his doctoral degree in biochemistry from the University at Buffalo and is currently a professor of molecular biology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Since 2005, Chen has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. He is also George L. MacGregor Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Science and director of the Inflammation Research Center at UT Southwestern.

Chen has made a series of discoveries that have transformed the understanding of cell signaling and innate immunity.

He has received numerous honors including the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2019), Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (2024) and Japan Prize in Life Sciences (2026). 

Chen told the graduates that 40 years ago he arrived in Buffalo from Southern China and immediately knew he had to catch up quickly as his poor grasp of the English language made it difficult for him to understand what his professors were saying in class.

He also had limited research experience, noting he had never seen a pipette before coming to Buffalo.

Fortunately, he said he found a great mentor, the late Cecile Pickart, PhD, who was a new assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and was a pioneer in a new field called ubiquitin biology.

“She performed experiments every day and I was fortunate to work side by side with her and learn protein purification — a technique I have used to make several discoveries throughout my career,” Chen said.

“More importantly, Cecile had an infectious enthusiasm for science, especially for biochemistry, and I was clearly infected. I owe my career to Cecile’s mentorship.”

Chen also told the graduates to focus on the things important to them and to ignore those that can distract them.

“Our minds are our most important asset we have — it is not money or how long we live,” he said. “It is how we allocate the limited time in our lives and use it to pay attention to someone we care for or to some projects we are passionate about.”

“Now that you have graduated from this great university, you are on the path to a career of unlimited potential,” Chen added. “Congratulations, graduates. You are the future and the future is yours.”