Dr. Anahid Jewett

Anahid Jewett 

Anahid Ghahramanians (maiden name)

DOB June 26,1958

Tabriz, Iran

DOD June 15, 2025

Ojai, CA

Circumstances of Her Passing

My beloved wife, Ana, passed away after having a series of strokes on Sunday evening June 15, 2025 at approximately 7:45 pm during a family gathering to celebrate her birthday and that of her brother, Vahan. She was surrounded by her family that she so dearly loves and that so dearly loves her, but it was very traumatic at the time. None of those present wish to explain or recount any details of her passing that day because it is too painful for all of us. Please respect the family's wishes. We would like to remember her as she was: beautiful, kind, sweet, gentle, wise, and loving.

Ana is survived by the following family:

Keith Jewett (husband), Arevhat Mikailian (mother), Vahan Ghahremanians (brother), Knarik Aghasian (sister-in-law), Cynthia Ghahremanians (niece), Narvik Ghahremanians (nephew), Valik Ghahremanians (sister), Ejmin Ebrahemian (nephew), Jilbert Ghahramanians (brother), Rita Evazyan ( Sister-In-Law) , Naira Ghahramanians, (niece), Nevrik Ghahramanians (niece), Liya Ghahramanians (niece), Knarik Ghahramanian (aunt, father's sister), Betty Miller (Father-in-law's sister).

Ana will be joining her father, Artem Ghahremanians, and my mother, Daria Jewett, in Heaven.

Childhood and Early Education

Born into an Armenian family in Tabriz, Iran, in 1958, Anahid Ghahramanians was baptized in the Christian faith in an Armenian church. Not long after her birth, the family moved to the capital, Tehran, where her father, Artem, had his own business as a mechanic for large commercial trucks, and her mother was a housewife. She was the oldest of four siblings-two brothers, Vahan and Jilbert, and their sister Valik. The Armenian community in Tehran at the time was quite significant, including their large extended family. She grew up in a house filled with a constant stream of aunts, uncles and cousins. Since she was the oldest, she was given the most responsibilities, including the care of her youngest sibling Jilbert whom she treated as if she were his mother. In their household, they spoke Armenian, unless the parents did not want the children to understand, in which case they spoke Turkish which was one of the principle languages in the parents' home village. This was not effective, however, because their wise little girl learned to interpret what they were saying. Outside the home, the universal language was Farsi. The children went to private Armenian schools, as was customary for most Armenian families. Their mother insisted on having her oldest child start school sooner than normal, at age four. She was always the top student in all of her classes, finished her education early, and was accepted to the University of Tehran with a scholarship from the government of Shah Reza Phalavi at age sixteen. While still a teenager, she worked in a hospital and helped her parents buy their first house. In fact, she negotiated the contract and saved them a considerable amount of money. She completed her Bachelor's degree in Medical Technology by the age of nineteen. She was the last graduating class in 1978 because the new government of the Islamic Republic of Iran closed all the universities for several years after the collapse and fall of the Shah's regime.

Formal Education and Training

She soon left the country to pursue her education. While working toward another degree in Biology at the University of Barcelona, Spain, in the Fall of 1981, she met her future husband, me, Keith Jewett, who was also studying at the University while on the University of California Education Abroad Program through UCLA. She and I met speaking Spanish, which we continued to do for the next several years. After a civil ceremony in Denmark about a year later, we returned to the United States as a married couple.

While earning a second Bachelor's degree in Microbiology at Cal State Los Angeles, Ana consistently made the Honor Roll, and graduated in 1985.

After being accepted to the School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles, Ana began doing medical research as a trainee in the laboratory of Dr. Benjamin Bonavida, who became her mentor. During this time, she began publishing her findings in medical journals. Ana completed a Master's degree in Public Health in Infectious Disease in Epidemiology in 1987. In the Fall of that year, she and I purchased our first home, a dilapidated 1895 Victorian near the University of Southern California, where I was employed full time and completing my Master's degree. We worked on restoring the house to its original glory between work and study and on weekends for about two months, doing most of the work ourselves.

Ana continued her studies and research, and publish her findings with Dr. Bonavida, with whom she completed her Ph.D. in 1993. Her Dissertation Defense, entitled Regulation of the Maturation and Differentiation of Immature Human Natural Killer Cells, was presented to the Departments of Microbiology and Immunology and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in the UCLA School of Medicine. She continued doing ground-breaking work with her mentor, Dr. Bonavida, as a post-doctoral fellow for the next six years following her graduation. He made the following statement about her time in his laboratory:

Here is a very brief summary of Ana’s research in my lab

1. Ana’s PhD thesis was on Natural Killer cells and her introduction to this exciting field.

2. For her postdoctoral research from 1993-1999, Ana has made several original findings of extreme significance in the fields of viral infections and cancer. Briefly, these new findings can be summarized as follows :

She has discovered how NK cells can be differentiated and activated by two molecules ( IL-2 and IL-12) which was not previously known

She has discovered that NK cells in the blood are not homogeneous but consist of three distinct subsets : free, conjugate and killer

She has discovered how these subsets differentiated and which molecules were responsible : Interferon gamma and tumor necrosis factor

She discovered that NK cells can be inhibited following binding to target cells . This phenomenon was termed “Anergy”

She discovered how NK cells can kill HIV infected cells at the time of the onset of HIV

I can add more but these above findings have been published in several journals and her research is internationally recognized

After her post doctoral training she embarked as a faculty at the Dental School a career on Natural Killer cells and trained many students and fellows

Professional Career

Upon learning of her passing, Dr. Paul Krebsbach, the Dean of the School of Dentistry, wrote the following:

Dear UCLA School of Dentistry Community,

I am saddened to share that Professor Anahid Jewett, M.P.H., Ph.D., a faculty member for the past 26 years and director of the Tumor Immunology Laboratory, passed away on Sunday, June 15, at the age of 66.

In Dr. Jewett’s honor, UCLA will lower the flag at Dickson Court to half-staff on Wednesday, August 7.

Dr. Jewett joined the School of Dentistry in 1999, where she embarked on an extraordinary career as a faculty member in the Division of Biosystems and Function, rising to the rank of professor in 2008. She was a member of the Jane and Jerry Weintraub Center for Reconstructive Biotechnology, the Dental and Craniofacial Research Institute, and the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. A native of Tehran, Iran, with Armenian ancestry, she also served as chair of the School's Faculty Executive Committee from 2022 to 2024.

Dr. Jewett’s scientific legacy is defined by her pioneering research in natural killer (NK) cells and their ability to uniquely target poorly differentiated tumor cells while sparing healthy, differentiated tissue, providing critical insight into the immune system’s selective capacity. The Tumor Immunology Lab became a recognized leader in advancing super-charged NK cells for cancer immunotherapy, including their use in combination treatments with chemotherapeutic drugs or immune checkpoint inhibitors. These innovations led to several patents licensed by biotech firms that are advancing toward clinical trials.

She also made impactful contributions to oral health research, studying the cytotoxic effects of common dental resin monomers and identifying immune interactions with oral pathogens. Her patented work on immune-modulating probiotics, diagnostic NK assays, and cannabinoid-mediated tumor suppression further underscored the breadth of her scientific creativity. Dr. Jewett’s peer-reviewed publications have been cited nearly 8,000 times.

Dr. Jewett’s commitment to mentorship was also remarkable. Over her quarter century at UCLA, she directly supervised more than 190 trainees, including Ph.D. candidates, postdoctoral fellows, dental and medical students, and undergraduate researchers. Many of her former mentees now serve as faculty or researchers at institutions across the globe.

She served on NIH study sections, editorial boards for high-impact journals, and advisory committees for multiple scientific organizations. She also chaired key faculty governance bodies at the School of Dentistry, including the Appointments, Promotions, and Appraisals Committee.

After obtaining a pair of bachelor’s degrees, Dr. Jewett arrived at UCLA in the mid-1980s and earned an M.P.H. in Infectious Disease Epidemiology in 1987, followed by her Ph.D. in Immunology in 1993.

Dr. Jewett is survived by her husband of 42 years, Keith, as well as her mother, three siblings, two sisters in law, four nieces, and two nephews.

Sincerely,

Paul H. Krebsbach, D.D.S., Ph.D.

Dean and Professor

As her proud husband, I would like to make the following observation about my wife and her chosen profession; she was not ambitious about her career, but rather she was ambitious and passionate about her work. She could have made much more money outside of UCLA. I know this because I saw the offers from other academic institutions, government agencies, and private companies, both from here and abroad. She did not actively seek out better opportunities or promotions. Because of her incredible work and reputation, people, opportunities, and offers came to her. Her extraordinary career was not by design, because she disdained workplace politics. She always said that she wanted the work to speak for itself and her work was extraordinary, as was she. She did not care about money, and was surprised at the greed of business people who only saw the profit potential from her work, while her motivation has always been to help people. Yet she knew the path from her laboratory to patient would have to be through those who only wanted to monetize her work. She often said that her life mission was to find a cure for cancer and she was phenomenally successful in her endeavors. Patients have already benefitted from her work and that made her extremely happy, but she always said that it was just a beginning and much more needed to be accomplished.

The Two Sides of Ana

While many people here know Dr. Anahid Jewett as a celebrated scholar, professor, mentor, world renowned researcher, consultant, and published author, there are many aspects of my wife unknown to those who have interacted with her as a student, trainee, colleague, investor, or even as a friend or family member. Ana fiercely guarded and valued her privacy. She did not seek the spotlight and never wanted to be the center of attention. Yet she did enjoy it when it happened either through the necessity of promoting her work or having a small family gathering. She never wanted to have a big birthday party for herself as many of our family members do; instead she would tell me that she just wanted to go out with me alone to one of our favorite restaurants for a quiet dinner, sometimes joined by a friend or family member. The reality, though, is that she shined when in the public eye, obvious to anyone who saw interviews with her for television in Slovenia, South Korea, and this country. She could hold her own and impressed skilled interviewers like Montel Williams and Maria Menounos on their podcasts. She was perfectly at ease with them because the focus was on her work, not her personal life. She did not ever want anyone to worry about or have to help her, including her closest family members, except me. I threw her a surprise party a couple of years ago and she was delighted, more about unexpectedly seeing the family members she so dearly loves than the fact we were celebrating her.

Growing up in an extremely close, tight-knit Armenian family, and surrounded by an almost-as-close extended family who were constantly in and out of each others' homes, Ana knew real, deep, and unconditional love from her family and relatives. This was something that was accepted as the norm, quite different from the dysfunction in many families in this country, including my own. With this kind of love being expressed, and the support of parents who valued an education, Ana did extremely well in school, but also in the things her mother knew how to do and taught her including meal preparation (I always told her that I would have married her for her cooking alone!), tailoring, house-keeping, and child care (her youngest brother, Jilbert, can attest to that because instead or discipling or scolding him like their mother, she spoiled and indulged him). She also studied and received a certificate for barbering. This was in addition to being a high achieving academic student and earning wages outside the home. Her family has always been her foundation, but as a Christian living in a Muslim country, she never felt an allegiance to the country in which she was born. Her ties were to her parents, siblings, and large extended family, as well as the Armenian culture and community, and the church.

When she left the country for Denmark on a tourist visa in 1980, she vowed to use her own money and not accept financial help from the family. She applied and was accepted to the university there, but was denied a student visa by the Danish government. Her tourist visa expired, but she knew she could not return to Iran. Her mother later confirmed this by telling her daughter that under no circumstances should she return to her native country. Her mother feared for her outspoken daughter's safety, perhaps recalling that Ana had risked her life protesting the Shah's government while a university student and she would not hesitate to do the same with the current. She entered Spain without a visa, but later obtained a student visa after being accepted to the University of Barcelona in 1981. By the time I met her, she had already been an "illegal alien" in two countries. She did not want to make it three, because at the beginning of our relationship, but before I fell completely and madly in love with my future wife, I proposed marrying her so she could come study in the U.S. which was her dream. She turned me down. She only accepted my proposal after knowing that we both loved each other and were sincerely committed to having a life together.

This is only a glimpse into Ana and who she is, yet it reveals much about her. She is the strongest, most beautiful, intelligent, kind, and loving person I have ever met. I have been to over thirty countries with her for work or pleasure or both, to be with friends and family across the globe and I have witnessed her interact with celebrities and Nobel laureates, scientists and students, politicians and public figures, barefoot African orphaned children and billionaires, patients and their doctors, yet she always treated everyone with dignity and respect, from the humblest individual to the most celebrated. She always tried to make people feel at ease, and preferred to ask them about themselves, rather than talk about herself. When it came to her work though, she thought it too important to be anything but serious about it and she could be strict, demanding, challenging, and tough. It was always an honor for me to be by her side for forty-four years, this angel from Heaven, this most cherished gift from God.

It might seem surprising to those who know Ana mostly through her incredible work and career, but her proudest accomplishment and mine, too, is that we were able to bring her whole family to this country from Iran and help them establish a life here. First we brought my parents-in-law in 1993, then my brother-in-law in 2000, Jilbert, the baby of the family who met his lovely wife, Rita, here. Their three baby girls, Naira, Nevrik, and Liya were all born here. Next came Ana's younger brother by a year, Vahan, wife Knarik, and their young children at the time, Cynthia, the first-born grandchild for my parents-in-law, and her younger brother Narvik in early 2008. Finally, but not long afterwards that same year, my sister-in-law, Valik came with her young son, Ejmin. We are so proud of them all. We refurbished a home for them in Glendale, which we later expanded and to which we added space as more arrivals came. Ana and I never had biological children of our own, but we love and treat our nieces and nephews as ours, too. We share them with their parents, give them advice, celebrate with them their achievements and milestones, and comfort them when they need it. Our entire family knows that I will always be there for them and I know they will always be there for me. They are and always will be my pride and joy.

Ana loved to dance! As a teenager, Ana went to the discos in Tehran with friends in the 1970s during the time of the Shah, without telling her parents. Her mother once embarrassed her in front of her friends when she came to a club looking for her! Ana did the same in Europe before I met her, then after meeting we hit the clubs in Barcelona with our friends or just the two of us, sometimes staying up until dawn. We did the same once we came to Los Angeles, going to clubs from downtown L.A. to Santa Monica with groups of friends, just as we had in Europe. We often went to dance clubs when we traveled as well. As we became professionals, we did this much less frequently but we always enjoyed dancing at weddings and family events and other celebrations. Of course, Ana loved to dance with me at home while listening to American pop, but our preference in music for dance shifted to Latin pop, which we danced to frequently. She loved to garden, to hike, to be in nature, to cook and entertain, to dress up and go out to dinner or the movies or the opera or concerts. We loved to watch movies with the family especially when anyone came to spend the night with us or when we traveled together. We enjoyed traveling together, especially trying different foods, but she and I especially cherished our family trips to the Newport Coast, Palm Springs, San Diego, Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, the Redwood Forrest, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, Hawaii, and Mexico. We enjoyed watching different genres of movies, especially at home, from Austin Powers to racy urban comedies like Booty Call, to the screwball comedies of the 1930s and '40s, from foreign films to documentaries. After the Covid pandemic we saw only one film in the theaters, Oppenheimer, which she and I both loved, but her favorite film up to that point was Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca. When they reopened the Ojai Playhouse this past year, we started to go out to see films more frequently again. My girl loved to shop! She loved to look at and to wear beautiful things. A surprisingly high number of our pictures include her personal jeweler, who became a beloved friend. She filled all the closets of our homes with clothes, shoes, bags, and jewelry, always leaving me just a small amount of space for any of my things. I did not mind, because I loved to look at my beautiful wife any time, but especially after she dressed up to go out somewhere.

I have so many cherished memories of her, but I will only share one here. In these awful, beautiful, painful, and healing days leading up to my wife's passing and since then, time has fractured for me and yesterday seems so distant while a memory from decades ago with my wife is as vivid in my mind as when it occurred. Perhaps six weeks or so ago, long after our daily hikes on trails in and around the Ojai Valley became impossible for her, following her diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis (DVT), we drove to Libbey Park just a few miles from our home in Ojai. The DVT had made it increasingly difficult and painful for Ana to walk, so that afternoon we just walked a short distance to one of the park benches in a wide plaza with a fountain in the center. We were surrounded by garden beds filled with flowers and shrubs, with views of the many oak trees in the park and the blue sky in front of us, with our backs to the arcade across the street behind which rise the Topa Topa Mountains. It was a warm and sunny day. As we sat next to each other on the bench, I ran my fingers through her hair which was soft, smooth, clean, and shiny. She loved for me to do that because it helped her to relax, and I loved to do because it made her so happy. I did this almost daily with her, especially when we were alone, usually at the end of the day when our work was done while watching a movie or sometimes in bed in the middle of the night when she was having difficulty sleeping. That day while I did this, she turned her head up to let the warm sun hit her face, closed her eyes, and had a contented smile of pure bliss. We were so happy in that moment. The park was quiet and peaceful with very few people, but I noticed a pair of women on another bench across the plaza on the other side of the fountain. They were watching us and were talking for a few minutes. Without saying anything to Ana, I watched them get up and walk up to us. By then Ana had opened her eyes. One of the women said, "We were watching you and enjoyed seeing the love you two have for each other, but it is not a love for just you to enjoy: it is a love for the whole world to enjoy." It was both a shocking and beautiful thing to say so spontaneously. We chatted for a few more minutes before the two women turned to go, but the interaction with them delighted us. I hope that as I age my brain remains as sharp and focused as ever so that I can remember and relive that moment until my last day on Earth.

Please Note:

Donations may be made, in Ana's name, to the Cure Cancer Now Foundation, which Keith and Anahid Jewett founded after the respective passing of their fathers due to cancer, Frank Josheph Jewett 1928-2007 and Artem Ghahremanians 1933-2008. The donations are used to promote education and research leading to a cure for cancer.

Bank: Citibank N.A., New York

Routing number: 021000089

FBO: Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.

Acount number: 4055-3953

Bank address: 399 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10022

For further credit to: Cure Cancer Now Foundation

Account Number: 621-4702

If you would like to make a donation and you have any questions, 

please contact Thomas Calcagnini via email:

Thomas J. Calcagnini

Managing Member

Calcagnini Wealth Management, LLC

T: (310) 622-1287 C: (714) 269-8356 F: (323) 329-5059

Email: tom@cwmfp.com