WVU Cancer Institute summer undergraduate research program welcomes 4 interns to Morgantown campus

Four interns from colleges and universities across the country are on West Virginia University’s Health Sciences Campus this summer to explore causes and potential treatments of cancer through the WVU Cancer Institute Summer Undergraduate Research Program.

The West Virginia University Cancer Institute offers an undergraduate research opportunity every summer in clinical and basic cancer research. The highly competitive program provides funding and opportunities for students who want to pursue careers in cancer research.

“It’s an exciting time of year for us to welcome a group of summer interns who will spend nine weeks in the research labs here at WVU Cancer Institute. This year we are hosting four dedicated interns with backgrounds in biology, chemistry and engineering, who consider their future career in biomedical research“, program coordinator Alexey Ivanov, Ph.D. said. “We try to give experiences that will intrigue and challenge the students as they conduct the experiments in the laboratories and develop their research projects. This gives them first-hand research experience and builds their confidence. I really hope some of them will choose to join our PhD program in the future.”

The program emphasizes a variety of projects that provide research experiences focused upon molecular, biochemical and/or cellular approaches toward understanding the mechanism of cancer, the development of anticancer drugs and applications of nanotechnology to cancer research. The participating labs focus on breast, lung, pancreatic and head and neck cancers, as well as hematological malignancies such as leukemia or lymphoma.

This year’s undergraduates are:

Kylee Gao, Junior in Chemical Biology, UC Berkeley, mentored by Dr. Lori Hazelhurst

Joseph McBee, Sophomore in Biomedical Engineering, WVU, mentored by Dr. Michael Hu

Adam Wetherhold, Sophomore in Immunology/Med Microbiology, WVU, mentored by Dr. Elena Pugacheva

Justine Shamber, Sophomore in Biology/Chemistry, Seton Hill University, mentored by Dr. Alexey Ivanov