Brianna Naizir, a magna cum laude graduate of the Macaulay Honors Program at CCNY is a 2019 Jonas E. Salk Scholar.
Brianna Naizir, a magna cum laude graduate of the Macaulay Honors Program at The City College of New York, is the recipient of a 2019 Jonas E. Salk Scholarship. Awarded by The City University of New York, the scholarships recognize exceptional students who plan careers in medicine and the biological sciences.
As a Salk Scholar, Naizir, who earned a B.S. degree in biology in 2018, will receive a stipend of $8,000 to be allocated over three or four years of medical studies. She plans on pursuing a PhD in cancer biology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center this fall.
“Ultimately, I hope to conduct research that provides insight into the optimization of current and development of novel immunotherapies to treat a myriad of cancer types, she said.
Naizir is currently a research associate at NYU Langone Health’s Institute for Systems Genetics in the cancer genetics laboratory of Teresa Davoli. There she investigates the relationship between aneuploidy and immune evasion in cancer.
At City College, Naizir began her research under the mentorship of biology professor Bao Q. Vuong in the Division of Science. She attended marine biology and primatology study abroad programs in San Jose, Costa Rica; and Kibale, Uganda, respectively.
Her coursework was focused on general biology, chemistry and physics, in addition to high-level biology courses such as epigenetics, biochemistry, and microbiology.
The Harlem resident’s student honors included the Meyer Scholarship from the Macaulay Honors College.
About the Salk Scholarship Program
The Salk Scholarship is named for Dr. Jonas Salk, a 1934 graduate of City College, who developed the first polio vaccine in 1955. Dr. Salk turned down a tickertape parade in honor of his discovery, and asked that the money be used for scholarships instead. New York City provided initial funding for the scholarships that year.
About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its role at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.2% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. More than 16,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight professional schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.