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<\/p>\nAriana Sabzevari, a graduate student in the Loughran lab, has won the Graduate Biosciences Society Student Leadership Award for 2026.\u00a0 This student-nominated award recognizes graduate students in the Biosciences who have made outstanding and notable academic, professional, social, and\/or service contributions for the University of Virginia and the local community.<\/p>\n
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Ariana earned her BA in Psychology with a Education Minor from Binghamton University.<\/p>\n
We asked Ariana to tell us about her research and hopes for the future.\u00a0 Here is what she said.<\/p>\n
Can you tell us about your research?<\/strong><\/p>\n Large granular lymphocyte leukemia (LGLL) is an understudied and incurable blood cancer with a standard of care that has minimally changed over the last four decades. This disease accounts for 2-5% of lymphoproliferative disorders in North America and is characterized by an increased number of highly cytotoxic T cells or natural killer cells. LGLs normally constitute 10-15% of lymphocytes in healthy individuals and function to fight off infections and other threats in the body. In LGLL, these cells don\u2019t undergo normal cell death processes, become dysregulated, and increase up to 90% in LGLL patients. This increase can cause LGLL patients to develop neutropenia, anemia,\u00a0and\u00a0autoimmune disorders that result in chronic infections and decreased quality of life. Frontline treatments are limited to repurposed, nonspecific immunosuppressive drugs, and there are currently no targeted therapies approved by the FDA for LGLL. My research aims to explore novel therapeutic approaches to benefit these patients.<\/p>\n DNA\u00a0hypermethylation is an emerging hallmark of LGLL. The addition of methyl groups to certain regions of DNA leads to gene silencing and chromatin compaction, which can shift a healthy cell towards a\u00a0more cancerous state. My dissertation\u00a0investigates epigenetic targeting of LGLL cells as a therapeutic strategy for safer and more robust clinical outcomes. I have developed data to determine the therapeutic efficacy and the mechanisms of action of two FDA-approved agents, azacitidine and cladribine, to alleviate LGLL disease burden.\u00a0We hypothesize that azacitidine and cladribine will effectively target LGLL cells, with strong preliminary studies attesting to the impact of this work. We have also developed a LGLL mouse model to allow us to investigate how these drugs work in a representative, biological system. Testing and defining the anti-leukemic efficacy of these agents will\u00a0pave the way for therapeutic advancements in the treatment of LGLL.<\/p>\n What drives or motivates your scientific pursuits?<\/strong><\/p>\n What drives my scientific pursuit is, at its core, a desire to help others by contributing to advances in medicine. The idea that the same systems that normally support and protect us can instead turn against us has made me want to find ways to help. I want to better understand and combat diseases, such as cancer, that can arise from within our own bodies.<\/p>\n Hearing the word cancer is frightening for patients and families, and the reality that some individuals still face diagnoses with few or no effective treatment options is something that deeply motivates me to help make a change. I am fascinated by the ability of researchers to uncover the mechanisms underlying disease and to use that knowledge to identify therapeutic vulnerabilities, whether by targeting the pathways that cancers depend on or by reprogramming the immune system to recognize and eliminate malignant cells. Ultimately, what motivates me most is the opportunity to help others by contributing to research that advances new treatments and offers hope to patients who currently have limited options.<\/p>\n What are your future goals?<\/strong><\/p>\n My future goal is to pursue research focused on developing novel therapeutic interventions for cancers with\u00a0limited\u00a0effective treatment options. I am particularly interested in translating\u00a0bench-to-bedside research\u00a0that can advance to\u00a0first-in-human clinical trials, with the aim of improving outcomes for patients with\u00a0either\u00a0solid or hematologic malignancies. Through this work, I hope to identify and characterize new treatment strategies that overcome resistance mechanisms, target disease-driving pathways, or restore immune function within the tumor microenvironment. I aim to contribute to translational research in a pharmaceutical or biotechnology organization, where collaborative efforts across discovery, preclinical development, and clinical research bring innovative therapies from the bench to patients with limited treatment options.<\/p>\n Congratulations on winning this award, Ariana!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ariana Sabzevari, a graduate student in the Loughran lab, has won the Graduate Biosciences Society Student Leadership Award for 2026.\u00a0 This student-nominated award recognizes graduate students in the Biosciences who have made outstanding and notable academic, professional, social, and\/or service contributions for the University of Virginia and the local community. Ariana earned her BA in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2214,"featured_media":5490,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gbs-awards","category-graduate-student-awards"],"acf":false,"yoast_head":"\n