Training Tomorrow's Cancer Leaders

By Nicole Fawcett  Photos by Erica Reist Bass and Leisa Thompson

Rogel’s summer training programs expose students early on to cancer career options, hoping to foster a passion for the field and lifelong connections.

Navya Valavala and her mentor, Dipankar Ray, Ph.D.

Navya Valavala shows her mentor, Dipankar Ray, Ph.D., a Western blot from her latest experiment.

“A lot of cell death is happening here,” Ray points out. “The question is why?”

He offers some ideas of what Valavala can do next. “Watching him troubleshoot the experiment, you see the gears shifting in his head as it happens,” she says. “Dr. Ray makes connections very fast. Just being around him is so inspiring.”

Valavala, a junior biology major at Emory University, spent the summer working with Ray as part of the Rogel Cancer Center’s Cancer Research Summer Internship Program, known as CaRSIP. It’s a longstanding program that Ray took over in 2018. And it’s one of a half dozen summer training programs Rogel offers to encourage and promote students to take an interest in cancer careers.

Over the summer, these programs bring students in high school, college and medical school to the University of Michigan to get a glimpse of life as a cancer re-searcher or provider. While each program has a slightly different focus, the underlying goals overlap: expose students to cancer careers to learn the many ways they can get involved.

“Over the last decade, we’ve seen so many advances in cancer treatments that are extending lives,” says Sarah T. Hawley, Ph.D., M.P.H., Rogel’s associate director for training, education and career development, or TrEC.

“But we need people to keep going into the cancer field to continue that mission of reducing the burden of cancer.”

Broadening Awareness Of Cancer Careers

Pathways students came to Ann Arbor for the final day and toured research labs.

Organized under the TrEC umbrella, the programs start with high school students to introduce them early on to career options they may not know about.

“Most students only know about medical school or a professional school like physical therapy. Or maybe forensic science because it’s so common on television. If you like science those are the defaults. They don’t know research is an option,” says Megan Radyk, Ph.D., a post-doctoral fellow at Rogel.

In 2022, Radyk started BioMed Focus, an eight-week summer research program for high school students. In its first year, the program had three students from Lincoln High School in Ypsilanti. The next year, they increased to nine students, adding Belleville High School.

The program packs a heavy load. Students start off learning research basics, such as how to use a pipette and techniques like gel electrophoresis. Then they spend 40 hours a week in a lab, working with a mentor to pursue their own research project. Some topics were neural function under stress, iron levels in pancreatic cancer and RNA binding proteins in breast cancer.

“You can get interested and energized by taking science classes,” says Yatrik Shah, Ph.D., Horace W. Davenport Collegiate Professor of Physiology, who helps oversee BioMed Focus. “But there’s something different when you come into the lab, extract DNA and then see it in the tube. It has a different spark. Students who are exposed to that early can see exactly how science is done in the laboratory. That has a different impact than just didactic classes.”

Even as students progress through their education, cancer careers aren’t always a clear option. Lori Pierce, M.D., says she “just happened to find” radiation oncology as a career when she was in medical school. Now, she wants to give medical students more exposure to all cancer disciplines.

“There are no planned rotations in many areas of oncology. We want them to see the richness of the profession early in their medical careers,” says Pierce, professor of radiation oncology.

When Pierce was president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, she partnered with Jamie Von Roenn, M.D., ASCO’s vice president of education, science and professional development, to create the four-week Oncology Summer Internship program. Run through ASCO, medical schools like the University of Michigan apply to participate.

Through the Oncology Summer Internship, second-year medical students spend four days a week shadowing physicians in different settings—medical oncology, radiation oncology, surgical oncology, pathology, radiology, physical medicine, gynecological oncology, otolaryngology, among others.

“We need to increase the number of people who are going into cancer-related fields across the board,” says N. Lynn Henry, M.D., professor and interim division chief of hematology/oncology, who, along with Pierce, helped bring the program to U-M. “With physician shortages anticipated in the coming years, we need to give early career medical students broad exposure to all cancer-related fields.”

Across all the summer programs, students at every level repeatedly comment on how it’s exposed them to new ideas and opportunities.

“After about the fifth day, I saw there was honor in many different careers in oncology,” says Antasia Copeland, who participated in the Pathways Undergraduate Fellowship, a program for college students in Michigan. Copeland is finishing a bachelor’s degree in biology at the University of Michigan-Flint, with plans to apply to medical school.

“I know I want to be around patients all day and be hands-on with treatment. But I realize I don’t necessarily have to be an oncologist. I could be a geneticist or a genetic counselor,” she says. “It was awesome to hear the different trajectories everyone took.”

Fostering Diversity

Pathways students heard from Rogel faculty and staff about multiple options to pursue careers in cancer research and care.

Running through each program is a focus on fostering diversity, equity and inclusion, including by recruiting students from backgrounds underrepresented in medicine to participate. Several programs require applicants to submit a statement highlighting anything in their background, interest or experience that shows their commitment to or awareness of issues of inequity in education and health care. Some programs specifically work with students from schools that do not have strong science curricula. Some programs focus on engaging students from Rogel’s catchment area, which is the state of Michigan, while others have a national focus. “If we want to make the research community more diverse, we have to act on it by bringing people up and showing them how they can get into the system. Some-times all someone needs is that push,” says Erez Cohen, Ph.D., a post-doctoral fellow in cell and development biology and an instructor for Developing Future Biologists.

Developing Future Biologists is entirely run by post-doctoral and graduate students at U-M. In 2023, they brought in 32 students from schools across North America. Students spend a very intense week on site at U-M labs conducting research. The program looks for undergraduate students at smaller schools who may not otherwise be able to connect with a world-class cancer center.

Similarly, the Pathways Fellowship boosts undergraduate students from any Michigan university, excluding U-M’s Ann Arbor campus, with an aim of promoting interest in cancer careers, both research and clinical, among students from Rogel’s catchment area.

“One goal is to get more students from across the state to have access to the breadth of research and care that happens at U-M and the Rogel Cancer Center. Some of the students who come to this program don’t know all the options available to them or how to hone their interests in science or medicine into a career, especially a cancer-related career,” Hawley says.

Recruitment outreach for Pathways focuses on students with backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in medicine and science, including students from schools across the state that don’t have strong research programs or access to a comprehensive cancer center. The goal is to benefit the students while also fostering more representation, broadly defined, in the cancer field. Students who have participated in the program have gone on to graduate programs in cancer biology and to medical school.

CaRSIP, on the other hand, looks to foster diversity among top-tier science students. Every year, more than 180 students from across the country apply for 10-12 spots. Requirements are very stringent: GPA above 3.0, prior research experience, two recommendations and a serious interest in cancer research. Weight is given to students’ diversity statements and up to a third of participants are from backgrounds underrepresented in medicine.

“This is a very research heavy program. We are looking for students who have the research focus and logical thinking ability. You need to think deep to be scientists of the future. That’s what we are trying to identify early and nurture,” says Ray, associate professor of radiation oncology.

Students spend 10 weeks working in the lab of a U-M faculty mentor and cancer center member. The days are long and intense, but the payoff is big. Students will often publish the work they complete during the program, and all present their work at the end of the summer.

Giving students exposure to research career options also can help develop more diverse thinking in the field. Sarah Steiner, who is pursuing a Ph.D. at U-M in cell and developmental biology, started off as an engineering major.

“I didn’t know research was available to me. If I had known in high school that I could use these logical thinking skills in a field with direct impact on human health, I would have pursued that earlier. I was an OK engineer. I’m a much better biologist,” says Steiner, who co-leads BioMed Focus.

Giving Back And Engaging Community

Many of the summer programs create a virtuous cycle, engaging graduate and post-doctoral students to serve as mentors, speakers and leaders.

“As a first-generation student, I was never made aware of opportunities as early as I wanted to be. I have always wanted to give back in that capacity. I feel like I have so many resources. I want students to come away thinking science is cool, but I also want to reassure them that STEM is a space where they can belong,” says Gabrielle Rozumek, a graduate student in molecular and cellular pathology and Developing Future Biologists instructor.

DFB rotates graduate and post-doctoral student leaders through a two-year commitment. Each new leader brings new ideas, which has morphed the program over the years. In CaRSIP, cancer biology students lead weekly grand rounds-style talks, which Ray says has been more success-ful at engaging summer students.

“When faculty are talking, the students don’t open up. When I bring in the cancer biology graduate students, it creates better energy and engagement,” he says.

Angela Tuckowski, a doctoral candidate in cellular and molecular biology, remembers hating science lab classes until she worked in a research lab her sophomore year in college. When she learned about BioMed Focus, she raised her hand to mentor a student. She sees how these high schoolers are ahead of the game. But the experience also energized her.

“Going into your fifth year of grad school, you start to zone out and just think about what needs to get done. You forget why you even chose to do this. My mentee was bright-eyed and thought everything in the lab was so cool and interesting. It was refreshing to see, and it helped restore my own excitement for research,” she says.

The TrEC team also collaborates closely with Rogel’s Community Outreach and Engagement mission, connecting with the catchment area the center serves. In Pathways, for example, students were asked to help large statewide research programs better recruit participants in their communities. Several of the suggestions, from Instagram accounts to radio stations to local bulletin boards, have been taken up by the research teams.

“These students are in our catchment area, whether they were born there or just going to school there. They are part of their school’s larger community and can spread the mission of Rogel and help us with our research,” Hawley says.

Creating A Network Of Long-Term Connections

Medical student Michael Allevato, Ph.D., shadowed Lori Pierce, M.D., as she met with patients as part of the Oncology Summer Internship.

The programs give students an intense experience during the summer, followed by a lifetime of connections.

“Networking is a key part of this,” Henry says about the Oncology Summer Internship. “Students get the opportunity to meet faculty they wouldn’t have otherwise met and get exposure to fields they hadn’t thought about.”

The medical student participants attend ASCO’s annual conference in June, where they go to sessions and meet other participants and clinician-researchers.

“It was a bit overwhelming at first, given the vastness f the event and the variety of presentations,” OSI participant Michael Allevato, Ph.D., says about about the ASCO meeting. “However, it proved to be an exceptional learning opportunity. The discussions I engaged in and the knowledge I gained have been instrumental in shaping my understanding of the field.”

Developing Future Biologists places heavy emphasis on building relationships and continuing to engage with previous participants. Many come back in later years to teach or present. Organizers keep close track of participants as they progress through graduate studies.

“We spend a lot of time selecting the people we think we can help the most. Developing Future Biologists is not only a one-week course but a commitment for after. We keep in touch with students, we network for them, we are a resource for them,” says DFB instructor Ligia B. Schmitd, Ph.D., a post-doctoral fellow in cell and development biology. In all programs, faculty and trainees end discussions by providing their contact information and inviting students to reach out.

“It’s been awesome that after every conversation with every person, they’ve said ‘You can email me, you can ask questions,’” says Copeland, from the Pathways Fellowship. “I never felt like I had those connections until now.”

What the Students Say

CaRSIP students, (left to right) Navya Valvala, Abhishek Mahesh and Leah Arbitman

Michael Allevato, Ph.D., Oncology Summer Internship

“I've had the chance to learn, grow and understand the complexities of cancer biology and patient care. My interactions with patients have reminded me of the very real, human side of this scientific pursuit. I look forward to continuing on this path and working towards my goal of becoming a physician-scientist in oncology.”

Leah Arbitman, CaRSIP

“Coming into this program, I was unsure of my future plans. Now I know I’m definitely interested in research. I love how it’s never the same. It’s a very dynamic type of career and you get to study what you are passionate about every day.”

Kelly Chambers, BioMed Focus

“The BioMed Focus program has equipped me with a number of lifelong skills that are going to be applicable to my future career in science. The college prep classes and science communication lectures have allowed me to scope out a clear plan for college and have shown me all that the University of Michigan provides. This program has been an incredible experience for me.”

Jack Dawson, Pathways

“I liked hearing from the M.D.’s who do 80% research, 20% clinical. I thought that was only possible for someone with a Ph.D. I want to go to medical school but I’m interested in research. It’s cool to realize there are ways to get involved without getting a Ph.D.”

Ellee Kloian, BioMed Focus

“At the beginning of the program, I was a bit overwhelmed by hearing new terminology, meeting lots of academically impressive people, and being in a foreign place in general. However, everyone I met was not only excited to welcome me into the science world, but willing to take the time to explain complex topics to me even though it may be second nature to them. The people I met through the lab were very excited to teach me about what they were researching.”

Abhishek Mahesh, CaRSIP

“Going into the program, I was already starting to apply to medical school. I always wanted to pursue research as well but was going down the path of being a clinician first and foremost. This program has focused my interest in research and pursuing an academic setting that will allow me to do clinical care and research at the same time.”

Faith Prentiss, Pathways

“I liked hearing everyone’s stories about how you don’t always end up where you thought you would be. I love lab work, but I don’t love all the lab work I’m doing. I like hearing about other options. You don’t have to take the traditional route to get where you’re going.”

Sherlyn Sanchez, Developing Future Biologists

“Following what I learned in this program, I've been able to attend scientific conferences, understand scientific articles and even land a lab internship in a different country. It helped me discover my identity in a science environment and feel proud of my non-traditional student background to continue inspiring others.”

Navya Valavala, CaRSIP

“The research experience has definitely given me more perspective of what a Ph.D. student and a research scientist’s life would look like. This program showed me how much failure is involved in research, and how it makes the high points even higher.”

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