Giannini Foundation competition winners announced

For the last 62 years the Giannini Foundation (A.P. Giannini was the founder of Bank of America) has sponsored a three-year postdoctoral fellowship competition among the eight accredited medical schools in California. Coordination of the Giannini competition at UCLA is a collaboration between the David Geffen School of Medicine Dean's Office and the UCLA Clinical and Translational Science Institute.  This year there were 139 applicants for seven fellowships. 

UCLA applicants (pictured) were winners of three of the seven awards:

Awardee: Olujimi Ajijola, M.D.
Mentor: Kalyanam Shivkumar, M.D., Ph.D.
Title: Characterization and attenuation of extra-cardiac neural remodeling in a porcine model of myocardial infarction and arrhythmia

Awardee: Jose Rodriguez, Ph.D.
Mentor: David Eisenberg, Ph.D.
Title: Structural features of the human prion protein that define toxicity and infectivity of human prion diseases

Awardee: Florence Rousette, Ph.D.
Mentor: Paul Thompson, Ph.D.
Title: Brain aging, alcohol intake and the genetic modulators

Image caption: Judith Gasson, Ph.D, Senior Associate Dean for Research; John Adams, M.D., Coordinator of the Giannini Fellowship Program at UCLA; David Eisenberg, Ph.D, Mentor to Dr. Rodriguez; Paul Thompson, Ph.D., Mentor to Dr. Roussotte; Florence Roussotte, Ph.D.; 2013 Giannini Fellow Jose Rodriguez , Ph.D.; 2013 Giannini Fellow Olujimi Ajijola, M.D.; 2013 Giannini Fellow Kalyanam Shivkumar, M.D. Ph.D, Mentor to Dr. Ajijola, not pictured

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