Early-career scientists Catherine Jensen Peña, PhD, and Zoi Karoulia, PhD, innovative investigators in the fields of neuroscience and cancer, respectively, were named recipients of the 2017 Robin Chemers Neustein Postdoctoral Fellowship Award.
The fellowship, intended to encourage and support female research scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, was established in 2010 through a generous gift from Robin Chemers Neustein, JD, MBA, a former member of Mount Sinai’s Boards of Trustees. Recipients are senior postdoctoral scientists who have demonstrated high-impact accomplishments in the biomedical sciences and exhibit the potential for an independent scientific career. Each recipient is being awarded $25,000.
Dr. Peña works in the laboratory of Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD, Dean for Academic and Scientific Affairs, Director of The Friedman Brain Institute, and Nash Family Professor of Neuroscience, researching the molecular mechanisms mediating earlylife stress and its impact on psychiatric disease vulnerability. Earlier this year, she was the lead investigator, and Dr. Nestler was the senior author, of a novel study published in Science.
Dr. Karoulia, a researcher in the laboratory of Poulikos Poulikakos, PhD, Assistant Professor, Oncological Sciences, is investigating the mechanisms that regulate oncogenic signaling in BRAF mutant tumors. The focus of her research is to characterize mechanisms of drug resistance in various clinical contexts, including resistant BRAFV600E melanomas, and colorectal and thyroid tumors, to develop more effective therapeutic approaches.
Catherine Jensen Peña, PhD
Zoi Karoulia, PhD