
Established in 2004 with a landmark gift from Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., Vice Chair of the MSK Boards of Overseers and Managers, the Gerstner Sloan Kettering Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSK) admitted its first class in the summer of 2006. The school offers the next generation of biomedical scientists an intensive PhD program that trains them to investigate and attack cancer through the twin lenses of basic research and real-life clinical challenges.
GSK faculty are nationally recognized scientists working at the forefront of biomedical research, and the curriculum takes advantage of the unique integration of the basic science and clinical arms of Memorial Sloan Kettering. An intensive lab-work model, along with the opportunity to observe firsthand how research findings are applied, ensures that GSK graduates are well positioned to close the gap between basic and clinical research.
In 2020, GSK launched a new Master of Science in Clinical and Translational Cancer Research (CTCR), which trains physician scholars at MSK to become independent clinical investigators who bridge the gap between basic and clinical cancer research. Through a mix of coursework and mentored research, the CTCR program offers MSK clinicians a mechanism to keep pace with the rapid rate of technological and conceptual advances in cancer biology.
The 2025 MSK Academic Convocation and GSK Commencement will take place on Wednesday, May 14, 2025, at ET
2025 Honorary Degree and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Biomedical Research

Professor Carolyn Bertozzi
Read more
Carolyn Bertozzi is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Chemical & Systems Biology and Radiology (by courtesy) at Stanford University, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She completed her undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Harvard University in 1988 and her Ph.D. in Chemistry from UC Berkeley in 1993. After completing postdoctoral work at UCSF in the field of cellular immunology, she joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1996. In June 2015, she joined the faculty at Stanford University coincident with the launch of Stanford’s Sarafan ChEM-H Institute.
Prof. Bertozzi’s research interests span the disciplines of chemistry and biology with an emphasis on developing new therapeutic modalities that target disease-related glycobiology. She founded the field of bioorthogonal chemistry, for which she shared the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Her group has invented targeted enzyme therapeutics for immune oncology, Lysosome Targeting Chimeras (LYTACs) for extracellular targeted protein degradation, antibody-lectin chimeras (AbLecs) for therapeutic applications, and site-specific bioconjugation methods for synthesis of next-gen antibody-drug conjugates. Her lab has also developed glycoproteomics technologies for disease biomarker discovery, point-of-care diagnostics for tuberculosis, and ultrasensitive antibody detection methods that are being used to diagnose early onset diabetes and viral infections. Her academic work has launched 12 co-founded biotechnology companies.
Prof. Bertozzi has been recognized with many honors and awards. She is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Inventors and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In addition to the Nobel Prize, she received the Welch Award in Chemistry, Heineken Prize for Biochemistry and Biophysics, Lemelson-MIT Prize, and a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. She received the 2024 Priestley Medal from the American Chemical Society.
Past GSK Honorary Doctorate of Science Recipients
- 2024: Elaine Fuchs, PhD
- 2023: Craig B. Thompson, MD
- 2022: Dr. Levi Garraway
- 2021: Dr. Joan Steitz
- 2020: Dr. James P. Allison
- 2019: Dr. Kenneth J. Marians
- 2018: Dr. Cori Bargmann
- 2017: Dr. Robert Langer
- 2016: Dr. Joan S. Brugge
- 2015: Dr. Robert A. Weinberg
- 2014: Dr. Thomas J. Kelly
- 2013: Dr. Paul A. Marks
- 2012: Mr. Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., and Dr. Harold E. Varmus

Yanyang Chen
Mechanisms of DNA damage and Innate Immune Activation at Ruptured Micronuclei
Mentor: John Maciejowski, PhD

Miguel Francisco Martinez de Jesus
Force and Signification in the Immune System: Footprinting Immune Synapsis
Mentor: Morgan Huse, PhD

Inés Fernández Maestre
Elucidating the Effects of Inflammation and Aging in Clonal Hematopoiesis
Mentor: Ross L. Levine, MD

Shengyu Gao
Cooperative Control of Peripheral T helper Cell Tolerance by TGF-ß and PD-L1 Signaling in Homeostasis and Cancer
Mentor: Ming Li, PhD

Eleanor M. Johns
Regulation and Function of Lipid Droplets in Melanoma
Mentor: Richard M. White, MD, PhD

Sarah Catherine Perlee
Identifying In Vivo Genetic Dependencies of Melanocyte and Melanoma Development
Mentor: Richard M. White, MD, PhD

Troy Michael Robinson
Interrogating Mutation Clonality and Cooperativity in Preleukemia and Measurable Residual Disease
Mentor: Ross L. Levine, MD

Alexander Howard Settle
Mechanical Regulation of Immune Cell Interfaces: Studies at the Phagocytic Cup and Immunological Synapse
Mentor: Morgan Huse, PhD

Zhouyang Shen
Mechanism and Importance of Nuclear Membrane Mechanotransduction Under Physical and Pathological Stress
Mentor: Philipp Niethammer, PhD

Ryan Smolkin
Plastic Transformation of Developing B Lymphocytes
Mentor: Jayanta Chaudhuri, PhD

Michael Waarts
Identification of Therapeutic Targets in Clonal Hematopoiesis
Mentor: Ross L. Levine, MD

Nan Xu
Epigenetic Regulation of Human Developmental Timing
Mentor: Lorenz Studer, MD

Jielin Yan
Enhancer Perturbations Reveal Dosage-Dependent Response Underlying the Control of Pluripotency
Mentor: Danwei Huangfu, PhD

Haochen Zhang (张皓辰)
Genomic Evolution of Pancreatic Cancer at Single-Cell Resolution
Mentor: Christine A. Iacobuzio-Donahue, MD, PhD

Yonina Robbie Murciano-Goroff, MD, PhD
Early Circulating Tumor DNA Shedding Kinetics for Prediction of Platinum Sensitivity in Patients With Small Cell Lung Cancer
Mentors: Alexander Drilon, MD; Piro Lito, MD, PhD

Varun Narendra, MD, PhD
Interrogating and Exploiting TP53 alterations in CK-AML
Mentors: Scott W. Lowe, PhD; Eytan M. Stein, MD
Recognition of the Doctoral Dissertation Research
Sloan Kettering Division/Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences
-
Albert Steven Agustinus
Epigenetic Consequences of Chromosomal Instability in Cancer
Mentors: Samuel Bakhoum, MD, PhD; Yael David, PhD -
Ifé A. Akano
Chromatin Regulation Beyond DNA Repair: Epigenetic Functions of SMARCA3, SHPRH, and EV-DNA in Cancer
Mentor: Yael David, PhD -
Benjamin Allwein
Structural Basis of Eukaryotic Replisome Stalling and Translocation
Mentor: Richard Hite, PhD -
Caroline M. Broderick
Harnessing the Immune Modulatory Properties of the Senescence Program to Treat Cancer
Mentor: Scott W. Lowe, PhD -
Juan Camilo Castaneda
Biochemical and Structural Characterization of the Eukaryotic Clamp Loaders
Mentor: Dirk Remus, PhD -
Alexandra Dananberg
APOBEC3 Cytidine Deaminases in Cancer: Mechanisms of Mutagenesis and Regulation
Mentor: John Maciejowski, PhD -
Madison Darmofal
Enhancing the Clinical Utility of Genomic Profiling For Cancer Diagnosis
Mentors: Michael F. Berger, PhD; Quaid Morris, PhD -
Avelyn Mae Delos Reyes
Development of Carboxylic Acid Replacements as Chemical Probes and Bioisosteres
Mentor: Derek S. Tan, PhD -
Chiara Maria Evans
Arginine Methylation of the RNA-binding Protein MUSASHI2 Regulates Normal and Malignant Blood Fate
Mentor: Michael G. Kharas, PhD -
Keith Conrad Fernandez
Exploring the Cellular and Molecular Impacts of Genomic Instability in B Lymphocytes
Mentor: Jayanta Chaudhuri, PhD -
Michael Alan Fishman
SUMO Modification of Human DNA Topoisomerase I by PIAS E3 Ligases
Mentor: Christopher D. Lima, PhD -
Rachel A. Glenn
A Pluripotent Stem Cell Platform for Systems Genetics Studies of Embryonic Development
Mentor: Thomas S. Vierbuchen, PhD -
Justin S. Hachey
A Theranostic Approach Against Triple Negative Breast Cancer: Targeting the Extracellular Matrix for ImmunoPET and Radioimmunotherapy
Mentor: Jason S. Lewis, PhD -
Hsin-Che Huang
Protein Folding Governs Card8 and Nlrp1 Inflammasome Activation
Mentor: Daniel Bachovchin, PhD -
Elizabeth S. Isaac
Harnessing the Therapeutic Potential of Iron and Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) in the Treatment of Solid Tumors
Mentor: Jan Grimm, MD, PhD -
Samuel Joseph Kaplan
CRISPR Screening Uncovers Long-Range Enhancers in Pancreatic Differentiation and Links a Diabetes Risk Variant
Mentor: Danwei Huangfu, PhD -
Dasom Kim
E. Coli Activated Circuit Shapes T Cell Responses to the Microbiota and Protects Against Colitis
Mentor: Gretchen Diehl, PhD -
Adam S. Krebs
Unraveling the Interaction between Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Alveolar Macrophages with a Human iPSC Derived Macrophage Model
Mentor: Michael S. Glickman, MD -
Zhuxuan Li
Alveolar Differentiation Drives Resistance to Kras Inhibition in Lung Adenocarcinoma
Mentor: Tuomas Tammela, MD, PhD -
Wendy Lin
Fusobacterium nucleatum Reprograms Colorectal Cancer Cells to Evade NK Cell Killing
Mentor: Joao D. Xavier, PhD -
Yilun Ma
In Vivo Characterization of Keratinocytes in the Melanoma Microenvironment
Mentor: Richard M. White, MD, PhD -
Ahmed Mahmoud
Patient-Derived Models Identify Mechanisms and Druggable Vulnerabilities of Peritoneal Carcinomatosis
Mentor: Karuna Ganesh, MD, PhD -
Anthony Michaels
Molecular Determinants of Foxp3 Function in Regulatory T Cells
Mentor: Alexander Rudensky, PhD -
Katrina Isabel Paras
Identifying Metabolic Vulnerabilities of PAX3-FOXO1+ Rhabdomyosarcoma
Mentor: Lydia Finley, PhD -
Preethi Periyakoil
Deep Topic Modeling Deconvolves Cell States From Spatial Transcriptomics Profiles of the Rheumatoid Arthritis Synovium
Mentor: Christina Leslie, PhD -
Thomas Lipa Ruan
Quantifying Metabolic Efficiency in Tumors with Hyperpolarized Pyruvate
Mentor: Kayvan R. Keshari, PhD -
Dominic Antonio Rufa
Improving Prediction Accuracy of Small Molecule Binding and Hydration Free Energies
Mentor: John D. Chodera, PhD -
Endi Santosa
Decoding Immune Memory Through the Lens of Cytotoxic Lymphocytes
Mentor: Joseph C. Sun, PhD -
Vinay Kumar Sapuru
Ca2+ Dependent Conformational Landscape of the Human IP3R3 Underlying Ca2+ Oscillations
Mentor: Richard Hite, PhD -
Ruth L. Silimon
Age and Tumor Related Disease Results in Loss of Muscle Maintenance and Reduces Neuromuscular Junction Stability in Drosophila
Mentor: Mary K. Baylies, PhD -
Berkiye Sonoustoun
A Multicellular, Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Derived Platform to Study Neuroinflammation in C9ORF72 Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Mentor: Lorenz Studer, MD -
Gina Tomarchio
Investigating the Susbtrates and Mechanisms of Aurora Kinase A in Mitosis
Mentor: Prasad V. Jallepalli, MD, PhD -
Diana C. Tran
The Tumor Microenvironment in Early Melanoma: Insights into the Protective Role of Regulatory T Cells
Mentor: Morgan Huse, PhD -
Kristen C. Vogt
Engineering Nanoparticle and Cellular Modalities for Tumor Microenvironment-Specific Drug Delivery
Mentors: Daniel A. Heller, PhD; David Scheinberg, MD, PhD -
Victoria E. von Saucken
Postsynaptic BMP Signaling Instructs Myonuclear Properties to Support Neuromuscular Junction Activity
Mentor: Mary K. Baylies, PhD -
Zhaoquan Wang
Early Life High Fructose Exposure Disrupts Microglia Phagocytosis and Impedes Neurodevelopment
Mentor: Justin Perry, PhD -
Daniel W. Worroll III
4-Aminoquinoline Inhibitors of the Autophagy-Lysosomal Pathway (ALP) as a Therapeutic Approach For Pancreatic Cancer
Mentor: Yueming Li, PhD -
Xiaohe Xie
Machine Learning and Statistical Methods for Biomarker Discovery in Cancer Metabolism and Genetics
Mentor: Ed Reznik, PhD -
Zechuan Zhao
Intracellular Trafficking of Transferrin Dictates Ferroptosis Execution
Mentor: Xuejun Jiang, PhD -
Sylvia Zohrabian
The Role of L-2-Hydroxyglutarate (L-2-HG) in Normal and Malignant Hematopoiesis
Mentor: Andrew Intlekofer, MD, PhD
2025 Award Winners
Research Awards
-
Dorris J. Hutchison Graduate
- Recognizes outstanding research under the mentorship of an MSK faculty member
- Awarded to Beatrice Zhang
-
Barbara and Stephen Friedman Graduate Fellowship
- Awarded to Young Sun Lee
-
Bruce Charles Forbes Fellowship
- Awarded to Manisha Srinivas Raghavan
-
Henry and Alexia Fernandez Computational Fellowship
- Awarded to Areej Alsaafin, PhD
-
Andrew S. Gordon MERIT Postdoctoral Fellowship
- Awarded to Maria Castellanos Morales, PhD
-
Marie-Josée Kravis Women in Science Endeavor Graduate Fellowship
- Awarded to Hina Shah and Lydia Tsamouri
-
Marie-Josée Kravis Women in Science Endeavor Postdoctoral Fellowship
- Awarded to Almudena Chaves Perez, PhD and Adriana Mujal, PhD
-
Postdoctoral Research Awards
- Recognizes outstanding accomplishments and promise by research fellows or research associates who have been at MSK for at least one year and have published a significant research paper as first author
- Awarded to Tomasz Kochańczyk, PhD and Xueqian Zhuang, PhD
-
Tri-Institutional Breakout Prize for Junior Investigators
- Established by leaders from The Rockefeller University, Weill Cornell Medical College, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to recognize exceptional current postdoctoral trainees at each of the three institutions who have made significant research contributions
- Awarded to Keunwoo Ryu, PhD
-
Louise and Allston Boyer Young Investigator Award for Basic
- Honors researchers at the Associate level or below who have demonstrated great promise and accomplishment in laboratory investigations
- Awarded to John Maciejowski, PhD
-
Katharine Berkan Judd Award
- Recognizes an individual who has made great advancements in the understanding of cancer through basic discovery
- Awarded to Eva Nogales, PhD
- The Judd Lecture will occur on Tuesday, May 13, at 4:30 p.m. in the RRL Auditorium. Please join us!
Clinical Awards
-
Louise and Allston Boyer Young Investigator Award for Clinical Research
- Honors physicians at the Associate level or below who have demonstrated great promise and accomplishment in clinical investigations
- Awarded to Eytan Stein, MD
-
Willet F. Whitmore Award for Clinical
- Honors a clinician whose talent, dedication, and compassion reflect the standards set by Willet F. Whitmore during his more than 46 years of service at Memorial Sloan Kettering
- Awarded to Eileen O’Reilly, MD
-
C. Chester Stock Award
- Given annually to an individual who has made significant contributions to the advancement of cancer therapy
- Awarded to Charles Sawyers, MD
- The Stock Award Lecture will occur on Wednesday, May 14, at 8:30 a.m. in RRL-116. Please join us!
-
The Society of Memorial Sloan Kettering Prize
- Recognizes individuals who have made significant or groundbreaking contributions to pediatric oncology, highlighting the long-standing and future-facing partnerships between The Society and MSK and affirming the global leadership of MSK in the field of pediatric oncology
- Awarded to Todd Golub, MD
- Please join us for Pediatric Grand Rounds on TBC.