UC Riverside School of Medicine Biomedical Sciences graduate student Rebecca Hernandez has received a 2023 predoctoral fellowship from the  American Heart Association.

"I am so honored to receive this fellowship from the American Heart Association," said Hernandez, who works in the lab of Changcheng Zhou. "I am extremely excited to continue my research and advance the cardiovascular field. Not only will this fellowship support me and help me to further my research during my time here at UCR, but it has also given me the practice and understanding of what it takes to apply for funding. I will take these skills with me after I graduate to apply for grants and fund my own research. "

The fellowship enhances the integrated research and clinical training of promising students who  intend to pursue careers as scientists, physician-scientists or other clinician-scientists, or related careers aimed at improving global cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and brain health.

"The American Heart Association is one of the biggest funding sources on cardiovascular disease research and many trainees/junior investigators, including myself, have been benefited from their support," Zhou said. "Hopefully we will have more and more funding coming from AHA in the near future. "