From the lab to the runway to a Fulbright: UCLA senior is just getting started

In any given week, Amadu Tadesse might be pipetting samples in a Westwood stem cell research lab, walking the runway in a fashion show, or scoring goals on the intramural soccer field.

This June, though, he'll say goodbye to his time at UCLA as he graduates with a double major in microbiology, immunology & molecular genetics and African American Studies. Next up: a Fulbright year in Ethiopia - where his father is from and where most of his family still lives - to establish the country's first national pediatric cancer registry, then an M.D.-Ph.D. program.

"I'm excited for the opportunity to build a deeper connection with my family there while doing something that could have a positive impact on their lives," Tadesse said.

Learning the language of science

Tadesse joined the lab of physician-scientist Dr. Steven Jonas as a sophomore, driven by an interest in research.

"Amadu has this intrinsic curiosity that really stood out from the first day," said Jonas, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a member of the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center. "In pediatrics we love to talk about developmental milestones, and it has been such a delight to watch Amadu precociously sound out his first [technical] words, build his vocabulary and start to speak what I call the 'language of science.' He asked probing questions, brought new ideas to our meetings and proved that he was dedicated to the work."

Over the next three years, Tadesse went from never having held a pipette to advancing a gene-editing platform that aims to correct the root cause of cystic fibrosis through an inhalable mist. More recently, he's been driving forward two cancer research projects with a level of autonomy that's rare for an undergraduate.

One of those projects was inspired by a patient Jonas shared with UCLA's Director of the Pediatric Bone and Soft Tissue Sarcoma Program, Dr. Noah Federman: a teenage girl with a rare soft tissue cancer called alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma. After learning about CRISPR in school, she had asked her doctors whether the gene-editing technology could be used to transform her aggressive cancer into a more treatable form.

She has since passed away, but the work she set in motion continues in her honor. Tadesse has been developing CRISPR-loaded nanoparticles to knock out the fusion gene driving that soft tissue cancer, while separately using the technology to disrupt a mutated oncogene behind a deadly form of prostate cancer.

While Tadesse never had the chance to meet the teenage girl who inspired his cancer research, he has gotten to know many of Jonas' other patients by shadowing him on the pediatric oncology ward at UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital, where Tadesse is affectionately known by several children for his abundant curls as "broccoli hair."

It's these face-to-face interactions that inspired him to follow in his mentor's footsteps and become a physician-scientist.

Witnessing remarkable medicine and young patients for whom, still, none of it is enough, clarified something for Tadesse. Working in the clinic, he said, brings two gifts to your scientific research: it sharpens the questions you ask, and it gives you a belief and motivation that nothing else can match.

"The treatments we have right now just aren't good enough, and science is one of the only ways to change that," he said. "I want to be in a position where I can see that gap up close and work to close it in the lab."

It's not just a gap in scientific progress that drives him. While developing gene therapies in the lab, he was also grappling with a different question: who actually gets access to them?

Through his African American Studies major and Melanin & Medicine, a student organization supporting Black students pursuing healthcare careers, he learned to ask not just how to cure disease, but who gets cured.

"Gene therapies might not seem related to racial health disparities - until you learn that a single therapy can cost $3 million," Tadesse said. "That context will shape everything I do: the science I choose, how I mentor people and how I bring therapies to the clinic."

Closing the distance with a Fulbright fellowship

It's a disparity that looks even starker on a global scale.

Survival rates for childhood cancers in developed nations hover around 80%. In Ethiopia and across sub-Saharan Africa, they fall below 20%. This gap is driven by a lack of specialized pediatric oncologists, delayed diagnoses, prohibitive treatment costs and systemic shortages of safe, effective medicines. Another critical factor, as Tadesse discovered, is the absence of a comprehensive national database to track outcomes and guide care.

His Fulbright-supported project aims to change that. Piloting the effort at two of Addis Ababa's leading hospitals, St. Paul's Hospital Millennium Medical College and Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, he'll build Ethiopia's first national pediatric cancer registry, using a World Health Organization platform to track patient age, diagnosis, treatment and outcome, all in one place, for the first time.

"We can't address disparities until we understand how we got here," he said. "The registry won't close the gap by itself. But it'll show us exactly where we're falling short."

Amidst it all, he's also been studying Amharic, Ethiopia's most widely spoken language, so he can better communicate with hospital staff, patients and his own family once he arrives.

'There's nowhere else like UCLA'

Step outside the lab and a different side of Tadesse comes into focus.

As a member of Fashion and Student Trends, or FAST, UCLA's first fashion club, he has walked the runway, modeled in photo shoots and even started designing and sewing his own clothes.

Through Hip Hop Congress at UCLA, he serves as a director of one of campus's most vibrant celebrations of Black creative culture, producing fashion shows, booking artists and organizing performances in Ackerman Union.

"It's important to work toward your career ambitions," he said. "But it's also important to be well-rounded and open yourself up to new experiences, so you can speak to the full spectrum of life."

A few weeks ago, he drove out to a junkyard for a photo shoot with FAST, rushed back in time for a science experiment and played in an intramural soccer game, all in the same day.

"He really exemplifies the best of what this university has to offer - someone who has harnessed the diversity of this campus, both in its people and its academic breadth, to forge his own path," Jonas said. "His story isn't finished yet, but the teaser trailer looks amazing."