Programs & Awards

UFHCC PREDOCTORAL AWARDS

The UF Health Cancer Center Predoctoral Awards are given annually to up to five graduate students who are within 15 months of having passed their Ph.D. qualifying exams. These awards recognize and support outstanding predoctoral candidates conducting innovative research focused on cancer. Since 2016, 25 predoctoral awardees have received these awards, which have yielded a promising return on investment with one F30, two F31s and 77 publications.

The 2020 Predoctoral Awardees are:

Chandler Callaway
Biomedical Sciences Program – Cancer Biology
Mentor: Andrew Judge, Ph.D.

Yang Feng
Biomedical Sciences Program – Pharmacology & Therapeutics
Mentor: Olga Guryanova, M.D., Ph.D.

Amanda Kastrinos
Mass Communication Program
Mentors: Carma Bylund, Ph.D., and Carla Fisher, Ph.D.

Kelton Schleyer
Clinical Pharmaceutical Sciences Program – Medicinal Chemistry
Mentor: Lina Cui, Ph.D.

Vrunda Trivedi
Biomedical Sciences Program – Cancer Biology
Mentor: Duane Mitchell, M.D., Ph.D.

Zachary Wakefield
Biomedical Sciences Program – Cancer Biology
Mentor: Dietmar Siemann, Ph.D.

UFHCC UNIVERSITY SCHOLARS PROGRAM

The University Scholars Program, a competitive two-semester program for UF undergraduates, provides students with cancer research experience in basic, clinical or population sciences. Scholars complete research projects, present their findings at a research symposium, and publish in a peer-reviewed journal. Graduate students serve as mentors and give seminars, laboratory demonstrations and career development lectures.

As the current cohort of scholars were unable to participate in hands-on research due to the pandemic, CaRTECC created a virtual Core Concepts of Cancer Research course covering basic cancer biology, therapy, and leading-edge cancer research. Scholars were trained in literature searching, paper reading and proposal writing skills, and were guided to initiate a research proposal prior to transitioning to labs in their second semester.

ADVANCED CONCENTRATION IN CANCER BIOLOGY

The Cancer Biology Concentration in the UF College of Medicine’s Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences, established by Dietmar Siemann, Ph.D., in 2015 and now co-directed with Maria Zajac-Kaye, Ph.D., provides multidisciplinary doctoral training in cancer research, including molecular and cell biology, genetics and epigenetics, biochemistry, microbiology, pharmacology, anatomy, pathology, epidemiology, bioinformatics and immunology. It is the only concentration not directly associated with a single basic science department, and it currently boasts 35 UFHCC faculty mentors and 24 students. The first cohort of nine students have now earned their Ph.D.s: one is an assistant professor, five are completing postdoctoral training, one is earning her M.D., and two are scientists in research laboratories. Together, these postgraduates have 38 publications.

Mam Mboge, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Scholar
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Varsha Sundaresan, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
University of Southern California

Amani Harrandah, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Umm Al-Qura University

Yue Jiang, Ph.D.
Scientist
BeiGene Pharmaceuticals

Vindhya Vijay, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Harvard University

Julia Bray, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
MD Anderson Cancer Center

Rachel Nosacka, Ph.D.
Scientist
University of Florida

Henrietta Fasanya, Ph.D.
Completing M.D.
University of Florida

Kartika Venugopal, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Dana-Farber Cancer Center

Cancer policy internship program

Initiated in 2019, the Cancer Policy Internship Program is a 10-week internship at the UF Office of Federal Relations in Washington, D.C., provides an immersive experience for UF graduate students to better understand processes associated with health care policy and implementation science. Interns develop a cancer-related project aligned with legislative policies and UF policies.