Spotlights
Students, Faculty & Alumni
GMS Alumni Spotlight: Sophia Nosek ’25
Sophia Nosek is a 2025 graduate of the Master of Science in Clinical Research program at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. Sophia currently works as the Research Program Manager for the post-mortem UNITE Brain Bank Study at the BU Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) Center, where she also worked full-time as she pursued her degree at Graduate Medical Sciences. Her research interest lies in the different modifying factors that might play a role... More
GMS Alumni Spotlight: Ana Vitantonio, PhD, ‘25
Ana Vitantonio is a 2025 graduate of the PhD Program in Biomolecular Pharmacology at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. Her dissertation research in the lab of Professor of Anatomy & Neurobiology Douglas Rosene investigated how lifelong caloric restriction modulates brain aging. Ana has accepted a postdoctoral position at the University of Barcelona in Spain, where she will be taking on research investigating brain cancer. Read more about Ana below! Tell me a bit... More
GMS Faculty Spotlight: Sean Tallman, PhD, RPA
Sean Tallman is an associate professor in the Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology, with secondary affiliations with the Department of Anthropology and Program in Archaeology on the Charles River Campus. He is a biological anthropologist who specializes in forensic anthropology, human skeletal biology, and forensic archaeology. In the Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology, Dr. Tallman teaches, researches and advises students through his Forensic and Bioanthropology Laboratory (FAB-Lab) Group in the Program in Forensic Anthropology. His... More
Graduate Medical Sciences MS in Genetic Counseling Program Celebrates 20 Years at Boston University
BUGCP is New England’s only genetic counseling program located in an academic medical center with a safety net hospital on campus In 2007, the Boston University School of Medicine (now Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine) graduated its first cohort from the Master of Science in Genetic Counseling program. The five-person cohort began their academic journeys in 2005, two years after the completion of the historic Human Genome Project that revolutionized our knowledge of genetics and... More
GMS Spotlight: Chelsey Skeete, PhD ’25
Chelsey Skeete’s passion for science began long before she matriculated into Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine in 2020. Born and raised in Boston, Skeete fondly remembers attending and participating in science fairs throughout the city and gravitating toward science books, even as a young child. As she progressed through school, teachers and mentors encouraged her to pursue extracurricular outreach opportunities that would bolster her interest in scientific research. “I was always very passionate... More
Boston University and HENAR Kick off Medical Education Workshops
Boston University and HENAR Kick off Medical Education Workshops November 10, 2025 | Full article On October 7-10, more than 150 Armenian doctors participated in the first of 20 medical education workshops—conducted by six Masters’ degree candidates in Health Professions Education (MHPE), a hybrid program offered by Boston University in collaboration with the HENAR (Health Network for Armenia) Foundation. The program is designed to equip Armenian physicians, clinical educators, and healthcare professionals with contemporary competencies in leadership, More
GMS Students & Postdocs Attend 2025 STEMPeers Conference in Boston
Four PhD students and two postdoctoral candidates from Graduate Medical Sciences attended the 2025 STEMPeers Conference, hosted October 4 at the Boston University Metcalf Trustees Center. STEMPeers is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and mentoring STEM PhDs throughout their career exploration and transition efforts. The conference was sponsored in part by GMS and the Angle Professional and Career Development Program fund from GMS PhD alum Erika Ebbel Angle. The annual conference brought early- and mid-career STEM... More
Congratulations to Our GMS Distinguished Alumni Award Winner, Dr. Vladimir Kefalov (GMS ’99)!
Vladimir Kefalov, PhD (GMS ’99), currently serves as a professor of ophthalmology, and of physiology & biophysics, at the University of California Irvine, holding the Allergan Endowed Chair in Ophthalmology and serving as Vice Chair for Research in Ophthalmology. He is recognized worldwide as one of the top electrophysiologists in vision research and has received awards from Research to Prevent Blindness, the Alcon Research Institute. Most recently, he was selected as the recipient of the... More
BU’s Cryogenic Electron Microscopy (CryoEM) Core Facility: Understanding the structures of life at a near-atomic scale
Studying the biological structures of viruses, proteins and other tiny macromolecules is key to understanding how life systems function and what happens when disease or injury cause these systems to break down. These macromolecules are so small that traditional microscopes can’t see them very well. Instead, it takes a special kind of microscope to view these samples at the scale needed to fully understand them. The more powerful the microscope, the better researchers are able to... More
GMS MS in Oral Health Sciences (OHS) Welcomes 50 New Students – Its Largest Cohort in Program History
The Master of Science in Oral Health Sciences (OHS) program welcomed 50 students to its Class of 2026, comprising the program’s largest cohort since it was founded in 2005. This year’s new students attended an Orientation event on Thursday, July 31. The incoming Fall 2025 cohort is represented by students from 14 different states and four international countries. Forty-seven percent of students joining the class graduated with an undergraduate degree in biology or microbiology, with the... More