UofL's education program guides the next generation of cancer researchers

Over 300 undergraduate students from across the country applied, but only 41 were chosen to learn from some of the best professionals in cancer research.

The Cancer Education Program is an annual summer training program held at UofL’s Clinical Translational Research Building. For 10 weeks, students collaborate with faculty from the James Graham Brown Cancer Center to conduct their own research relating to the study of cancer.

“The opportunity to have some independent research through the Cancer Education Program is what drove me to research as a career,” said Douglas Saforo, a student at UofL’s School of Medicine.

According to Dr. David Hein, Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, the National Cancer Institute funds the program. The goal is “to help motivate and recruit the next generation of cancer researchers,” Hein said. 

Another focus of the program is to find interested African American students, such as Delana Gilkey; one of this year’s participants. With a long history of cancer in her family, Gilkey is determined to learn more for the sake of her family’s future.

“All the women on my mother’s side have developed cancer. So I am trying to figure out why,” said Gilkey.

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