The CasePREP Excellence in Mentoring Award was started in 2014. This award is given to an outstanding PREP mentor who has opened their laboratory to host PREP Scholars and has provided outstanding mentorship and service to the PREP experience.
2022
Derek Taylor, PhD
Derek Taylor was the recipient of the 2022 CasePREP Excellence in Mentoring Award. He has mentored PREP Scholars Nelson Garcia (2017-19) and Jasmine Encarnacion (2020). Dr. Taylor is a Professor of Pharmacology and Biochemistry. His laboratory research focuses on understanding the molecular architecture and functional interactions that regulate human telomeres and telomerase.
2021
Jason Mears, PhD
Jason Mears was the recipient of the 2021 CasePREP Excellence in Mentoring Award. He has mentored PREP Scholars Cheyanne Shinn (2018), Anibal Tornes-Blanco (2019), and Jasmine Liu (2020-22). Dr. Mears is an Associate Professor of Pharmacology and the Graduate Program Director in the Department of Pharmacology. His laboratory research focuses on investigating proteins that regulate mitochondrial dynamics.
2019
Mark Jackson, PhD
Mark Jackson was the recipient of the 2019 CasePREP Excellence in Mentoring Award. He has mentored PREP Scholars Wilnelly Hernandez-Sanchez (2012), Jorge Toro-Zapata (2014), Joel Encarnacion Rosado (2016), and Brenda Rios (2018). Dr. Jackson is an Associate Professor of Pathology, Director of the Cancer Biology Training Program, and the Associate Director of Training and Education for the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. His laboratory research focuses on genetic events that contribute to epithelial cell transformation.
2018
Alex Huang, MD, PhD
Alex Huang was the recipient of the 2018 CasePREP Excellence in Mentoring Award. He has mentored PREP Scholars Laura Menocal (2015), Candilianne Serrano Zayas (2016), and Alicia Aguilar (2018). Dr. Huang is a Professor of Pediatrics and the Director of the Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Fellowship Program. His laboratory research focuses on adapting intravital 2-photon laser scanning microscopy to study various aspects of in vivo immunity and pathogenesis.
2017
George Dubyak, PhD
George Dubyak was the recipient of the 2017 CasePREP Excellence in Mentoring Award. He has mentored PREP Scholars: Jason Robinson (2008), Gwendolyn Quintana (2013), and Kristen Lozada-Soto (2015-16). Dr. Dubyak is a Professor of Physiology and Biophysics, Oncology, Pharmacology, and Pathology at Case Western Reserve University. His laboratory studies proinflammatory signaling responses triggered by extracellular ATP and other DAMPs, predominantly in murine models including mice with genetic deletion of various P2 receptors and inflammasome proteins.
2016
Richard Zigmond, PhD
Richard Zigmond was the recipient of the 2016 CasePREP Excellence in Mentoring Award. He has mentored PREP Scholars: Lilinete Roldan-Hernandez (2011-12) and Owen Shelton (2015). Dr. Zigmond is a Professor of Neurosciences, Neurosurgery, Pathology, and National Center for Regenerative Medicine at Case Western Reserve University. His laboratory studies plasticity in the adult nervous system. The focus on alterations that occur in response to neural damage and changes in the neural activity.
2015
Carlos Subauste, MD
Carlos Subauste was the recipient of the 2015 CasePREP Excellence in Mentoring Award. He has mentored PREP Scholars: Yalitza Corcino (2014) and Shekina Gonzalez-Ferrer (2018). Dr. Subauste is a Professor of Medicine, Ophthalmology, and Pathology at Case Western Reserve University. Subauste's laboratory studies how CD40 confers protection against pathogens. The main focus is to determine how CD40 stimulates autophagy to kill T. gondii and the strategies used by the parasite to avoid autophagic killing.
2014
Agata Exner, PhD
Agata Exner was one of the recipients of the 2014 CasePREP Excellence in Mentoring Awards. She has mentored PREP Scholars: Christopher Hernandez (2012), Sandra Mantilla (2013), Lenitza Nieves (2016), and Darwin Carbajal (2017). Dr. Exner is a Professor of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University. Her laboratory for Image Guided Therapeutics has been working in the area of image-guided drug delivery since its inception in 2003.
Ruth Keri, PhD
Ruth Keri was one of the recipients of the 2014 CasePREP Excellence in Mentoring Awards. She has mentored PREP Scholars: Carlos deLeon (2007), Valery Adorno-Cruz (2012), Leslie Cuellar-Vite (2013), Erika Ramos (2014), Myrielis Rivera (2015), Victoria Osorio (2016), and Natasha Ingles Martinez (2017). Dr. Keri is the Arline H. and Curtis F. Garvin, MD., and Constance C. Frackleton Professor in Cancer Research, and Professor & Vice Chair of the Department of Pharmacology at Case Western Reserve University. She is also the Associate Director for Basic Research of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. For more than 17 years, her research has focused on the genomic and signaling mechanisms that control mammary gland development and cancer.