UB Grad Wins Inaugural SUNY Doctoral Fellowship, Closing Adventurous Circle

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A University at Buffalo student who took a circuitous route from undergraduate psychology major to cancer-researcher-in-training received one of four inaugural Doctoral Diversity Fellowships in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) awarded by State University of New York's Office of Diversity and Educational Equity.

Carlos D. Cedeno, a Buffalo resident, will receive an annual $20,000 stipend for three years, plus $2,000 annually, to support research and professional development. He will use the fellowship to enter UB's Molecular Pharmacology and Cancer Therapeutics Doctoral Program at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in fall 2009.

Cedeno showed promise early as a UB undergraduate. He won a Ronald E. McNair Research Scholarship from the U.S. Department of Education as a junior psychology major, followed by a National Science Foundation Undergraduate Research Fellowship in his senior year.

The NSF fellowship gave him the opportunity to study molecular cell biology and biochemistry under Michal K. Stachowiak, Ph.D., associate professor of pathology and anatomical sciences in UB's School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and director of its Molecular and Structural Neurobiology and Gene Therapy Program.

With impressive research experience and a fresh bachelor's degree in psychology, Cedeno was accepted in 1999 into UB's Medical Scientist Training Program, a seven-year M.D./Ph.D. curriculum that prepares graduates for a career in translational medicine, with the goal of advancing new therapies from bench to bedside. He earned the Donald W. Rennie Prize for highest overall average in medical physiology during his first year.

But half-way through the program, Cedeno's life took a different turn. "I decided I needed other life experiences that would help me develop a better perspective on my long-term career goals," he explained. He withdrew from coveted medical science training to teach in Buffalo's inner-city schools.

For the next three years Cedeno worked as a substitute teacher and studied part-time at D'Youville College and Canisius College for a teaching certificate. By 2006 he had New York State certification and immersed himself into teaching science to the city's intermediate and high school students.

By 2008, nurturing a growing interest in cancer biology, he had enrolled in UB's Interdisciplinary Master's Program in Roswell Park Cancer Institute.

"The UB program introduced me to the biological foundation of cancer, a large group of diseases that often present as formidable targets for treatment," said Cedeno. "However, research studies have uncovered biological causes that make many cancers amenable to a variety of therapeutic approaches, some of which have been pioneered at RPCI."

Cedeno will join that effort in September, hoping to contribute in the future to identifying novel biological approaches to cancer treatment that show promise for translation into clinical practice.

"As I transition from my first year in the interdisciplinary master's program into the Ph.D. program in Molecular Pharmacology and Cancer Therapeutics," said Cedeno, "I'm grateful to the RCPI faculty for granting me this opportunity of a lifetime."

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB's more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.