Graduate School of Medical Sciences
A partnership with the Sloan Kettering Institute

Julian R. Rachele Prize

                                           Julian Rachele, PhD

Named for a former Dean of the Graduate School, the Rachele Prize is the highest student award presented by the school. It is awarded to students who have published significant research in a scientific journal.

2023

Nakul Yadav (Conor Liston, MD, PhD, mentor): "Prefrontal feature representations drive memory recall." Nature 608.7921 (2022): 153-160.

Jiang Yining (Simon Scheuring, PhD, mentor): "Membrane-mediated protein interactions drive membrane protein organization." Nature Communications 13.1 (2022): 7373.

2022

Bianca Diaz (Lukas Dow,  PhD, mentor): "Base Editing Sensor Libraries for High-Throughput Engineering and Functional Analysis of Cancer-Associated Single Nucleotide Variants." Nature Biotechnology (2022).

Joshua Weiss (Richard White, MD, PhD, mentor)  “Anatomic Position Determines Oncogenic Specificity in Melanoma." Nature, Vol 604 (2022).

2021

Gary Dixon, (Danwei Huangfu, PhD, mentor): “QSER1 protects DNA methylation valleys from de novo methylation.” Science 372 (2021).

Ke Xu, (Ming Li, PhD, mentor): “Glycolysis fuels phosphoinositide 3-kinase signaling to bolster T cell immunity.” Science 371 (2021).

2020

Jenny Yaohua Xue, (Piro Lito, MD, PhD, mentor): “Rapid non-uniform adaptation to conformation-specific KRAS (G12C) inhibition.” Nature 577, 421–425 (2020).

Ryan Ries, (Samie Jaffrey, MD PhD, mentor): m6A enhances the phase separation potential of mRNA.” Nature 571, 424–428 (2019).

2019

Jacob Litke, (Samie Jaffrey, MD, PhD, mentor): "Highly efficient expression of circular RNA aptamers in cells using autocatalytic transcripts." Nature Biotechnology, 2019 Jun;37(6):667-675.

Ashley Chui and Sahana Rao, (Daniel Bachovchin, PhD, mentor): "N-terminal degradation activates the NLRP1B inflammasome."
Science. 2019 Apr 5;364(6435):82-85.

2018

Asaf Poran and Christopher Nötzel, (Olivier Elemento, PhD & Björn F.C. Kafsack, PhD, mentors): “Single-cell RNA sequencing reveals a signature of sexual commitment in malaria parasites.” Nature, Nov 2;551(7678):95-99 (2017).

Theodoros Giavridis, (Michel Sadelain, MD, PhD, mentor): “CAR T cell-induced cytokine release syndrome is mediated by macrophages and abated by IL-1 blockade.” Nature Medicine, Jun;24(6):731-738 (2018).

2017

Daniel Thengone, (Nicholas Schiff, MD & Jonathan D. Victor, MD, PhD, mentors): Thengone DJ, Voss HU, Fridman EA, Schiff ND “Local changes in network structure contribute to late communication recovery after severe brain injury.” Science Translational Medicine, 8:368re5 (2016) 

Guanshi Wang, (Alexandros Pertsinidis, PhD, mentor): Wang G, Hauver J, Thomas Z, Darst SA, Pertsinidis A, “Single-molecule real-time 3D imaging of the transcription cycle by modulation interferometry.” Cell, 167(7):1839-1852 (2016)

2016

Kari Fischer, PhD (Vivek Mittal, PhD, mentor) for "Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition is not required for lung metastasis but contributes to chemoresistance”, Nature.

Faranak Fattahi, PhD (Lorenz Studer, MD, mentor) for "Deriving human ENS lineages for cell therapy and drug discovery in Hirschsprung disease”, Nature.

2015

Andrew Tokay Drysdale, PhD (B.J. Casey, PhD, mentor) for "FAAH genetic variation enhances fronto-amygdala function in mouse and human." Nat Commun. 2015 Mar 3;6:6395.   

Peng Kate Gao, PhD (Songhai Shi, PhD, mentor) for "Deterministic Progenitor Behavior and Unitary Production of Neurons in the Neocortex." Cell. 2014 Nov 6;159(4): 775-88.

Honorable Mention: Adam M. Levinson, PhD (Samuel Danishefsky, PhD) for "Total Synthesis of Asperverin via an Iodine(III)-Mediated Oxidative Cyclization." Org. Lett. 16, 4904-4907 (2014).

2014

Joseph Justin Mulvey, PhD (David Scheinberg, MD/PhD, mentor) for "Self-assembly of carbon nanotubes and antibodies on tumours for targeted amplified delivery." Nature Nanotechnology 8, 763–771 (2013).

Nurunisa Akyuz, PhD (Olga Boudker, PhD, mentor) for "Transport dynamics in a glutamate transporter homologue." Nature 502, 114-118 (2013). 

2013

Elissaveta Petrova, PhD (Marilyn Resh, PhD, mentor) for “Inhibitors of Hedgehog Acyltransferase Block Sonic Hedgehog Signaling.” Nature Chem.Biol. 9: 247-249. 

Christopher Kloss, PhD (Michel Sadelain, PhD, mentor) for “Combinatorial Antigen Recognition with Balanced Signaling Promotes Selective Tumor Eradication by Engineered T cells.” Nature Biotechnology. 31: 71-75. 

2011

Eduardo F. Gallo, PhD (Constantino Iadecola, MD, mentor) for "Neuronal Nitric Oxide Contributes to Neuroplasticity-Associated Protein Expression through cGMP, Protein Kinase G, and Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase." Journal of Neuroscience 31(19):6947-6955, May 11, 2011.

Polloneal Ocbin, PhD (Kathryn V. Anderson, PhD, mentor) for "Complex interactions between genes controlling trafficking in primary cilia." Nature Genetics, published online May 8, 2011 .

2010

Asif Maroof, PhD (Stewart Anderson, MD, mentor) for "Prospective Isolation of Cortical Interneuron Precursors from Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells." Journal of Neuroscience 30(13):4667-4675, March 31, 2010 .

Anton Rosenbaum, PhD (Frederick Maxfield, PhD, mentor) for "Endocytosis of P-Cyclodextrins is Responsible for Cholesterol Reduction in Niemann-Pick Type C Mutant Cells." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 107:5477-5482, March 23, 2010.

2009

Andrea T. Hooper, PhD (Shahin Rafii, MD, mentor) for "Engraftment and Reconstitution of Hematopoiesis is Dependent on VEGFR2-Mediated Regeneration of Sinusoidal Endothelial Cells." Cell Stem Cell 4, 263-274, March 6, 2009.

Gloria Kwon, PhD (Anna-Katerina Hadjantonakis, PhD, mentor) for "The Endoderm of the Mouse Embryo Arises by Dynamic Widespread Intercalation of Embryonic and Extraembryonic Lineages." Developmental Cel/15, 509-520, October 14, 2008.

2008

Meera Mani, PhD (Timothy Ryan, PhD, mentor) for "The Dual Phosphatase Activity of Synaptojanin l Is Required for Both Efficient Synaptic Vesicle Endocytosis and Reavailability at Nerve Terminals." Neuron , 56: 1004-I 018, 2007.

Matthias T. Stephan, PhD (Michel Sadelain, PhD, mentor) for "T cell-encoded COSO and 4-lBBL Induce Auto- and Transcostimulation , Resulting in Potent Tumor Rejection ." Nature Medicine, 13: 1440-1449, 2007.

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