October 2, 2026
Another way HJF advances military medicine is through our fellowship awards. These fellowships have been given to outstanding graduate students attending our partner Uniformed Services University’s (USU) School of Medicine nearing completion of their doctoral dissertation work since 1988 and continue to provide needed support.
This year’s first place winner of the 2026 HJF Fellowship Award went to Bridget Finniff, a fifth-year student in the Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB) program, mentored by Dr. Robert Kortum in the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics. Ms. Finniff’s thesis involves investigating synergistic combination therapies for the treatment of rat sarcoma (RAS)-mutated cancers. RAS is the most commonly cancer-causing gene. Drugs targeting the RAS pathway have limited efficacy in treating these cancers due to bypass cell signaling and cell-cycle-dependent drug antagonism in tumors. Ms. Finniff’s research focuses on the RAS guanine exchange factors SOS1 and SOS2 as rate-limiting bottlenecks in tumorigenesis.
HJF also awarded Isabella Swafford, a fourth-year student in the Neuroscience Program, and Megan Rasmussen, a fifth-year student in the MCB program, with Honorable Mention recognition. Swafford is conducting her research under the mentorship of Dr. Jeremy Rotty in the Department of Biochemistry. Rasmussen is conducting her research under the mentorship of Dr. Sara Young-Baird in the Department of Biochemistry.