Qingchen Yuan, MBBS, M.Sc., a third-year UF Ph.D. student in pharmacology and therapeutics, has been selected by the American Society of Hematology (ASH) to participate in the 2025 ASH Graduate Hematology Award. The award aims to encourage graduate students in the United States and Canada to pursue a career in academic hematology.
Yuan will receive a $40,000 stipend over two years to fund his research looking at how early genetic mutations in blood-forming stem cells influence the immune system and increase the risk of disease, including cancer.
Yuan focuses on a gene called DNMT3A, frequently mutated in so-called clonal hematopoiesis, a silent, age-related condition linked to leukemia and increasingly associated with aggressive cancers or chronic diseases such as heart disease and atherosclerosis, obesity and diabetes, and neurological disorders.
Working in the lab of UF Health Cancer Center member Olga Guryanova, M.D., Ph.D., Yuan studies how mutations in the DNMT3A gene reprogram immune cells like macrophages, shifting them from a protective role to one that may promote disease.
In the short term, the goal of his research is to understand how DNMT3A mutations disrupt immune responses that are meant to shield people from diseases, specifically by driving a shift from a healthy, protective state to an immunosuppressive, tumor-promoting state during cancer development.
“In the long term, I aim to use this knowledge to develop new treatments that restore the ability of the immune system to fight tumors,” Yuan said. “My goal is to improve anti-cancer therapy so that cancer patients can live better, longer.”
The ASH award will provide critical funding for Yuan’s doctoral research and connect him with mentors in the field, fostering collaborations to advance research.
“Receiving this award is a tremendous honor and a strong affirmation of my path toward becoming a physician-scientist,” Yuan said. “It reinforces my commitment to bridging basic science and clinical care through a feedback loop of ‘bench to bedside to bench.’ With ASH’s support, I’m driven to translate fundamental discoveries into safer, more effective, and personalized treatments for patients.”
Earlier this year, Yuan also received one of the UF Health Cancer Center’s Predoctoral Awards, which recognize and support standout UF predoctoral candidates who are conducting innovative cancer research. Yuan is enrolled in the UF College of Medicine Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences in the Pharmacology and Therapeutics concentration.
ASH is the world’s largest professional society of hematologists dedicated to furthering the understanding, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disorders affecting the blood.
“ASH is dedicated to supporting the next generation of hematology physicians and scientists, especially in this time of funding uncertainty,” said Belinda R. Avalos, M.D., ASH president. “It is crucial that we invest in emerging hematologists whose cutting-edge research will improve the diagnosis and treatment of patients with complex, life-threatening blood disorders.”
