As a National Cancer Institute designated comprehensive cancer center, City of Hope is proud to be part of the Continuing Umbrella of Research Experience (CURE) Program, which is designed to engage the scientific curiosity of promising young high school and undergraduate students from underrepresented populations who are interested in cancer research as a career. Students participating in the CURE Program receive a $4,800 stipend.

Underrepresented populations include African-American, Hispanic, American Indian and Pacific Islander. CURE students work side by side with City of Hope scientists on current, challenging research projects. The CURE Program lasts 12 weeks.

Apply for the 2013 CURE Program
To apply for the CURE Program, fill out the online summer student application and check “CURE Program applicant” to indicate your desire to be considered for the CURE Program.

Adrian Delgado, a freshman at the University of California, Los Angeles, majoring in physiological science was mentored by Jae Kim, M.D., in the Division of Thoracic Surgery.  His research project was working with cisplatin and studying its affect on lung cancer cells with varying FEN1 Levels.

Lai Fung, a junior at the University of California, Davis, majoring in biochemistry and molecular biology was mentored by Michael Barish, M.D., in the Department of Neurosciences. Her research involved investigating the effects of TNFα and THP-1 macrophages on patient-derived brain tumor cell line (PBTs).

Mireya Hernandez, a junior at Mayfield Senior School in Pasadena, Calif., was mentored by Ravi Bhatia, M.D., in the Division of Hematopoietic Stem Cell and Leukemia Research. Her project focused on the correlation between the BCR-ABL gene presence in cells treated with imatinib, bone marrow cytokines and chemokine expression.

Lauren Joseph, a junior at Mayfield Senior School in Pasadena, Calif., was mentored by Karen Aboody, M.D., in the Department of Neurosciences. Her project was to use hydrogen peroxide to induce cellular senescence in human dermal fibroblasts through a DNA damage response in order to test how efficiently stem cells migrate toward inflammation alone, rather than cancerous cells.

Lillian Mecum, a junior at Polytechnic School in Pasadena, Calif., was mentored by Mike Chen, M.D., Ph.D., in the Division of Neurosurgery. Her project studied whether astrocytes are related to the presence of invasive tumors.

Daniel Mota, a freshman at Cerritos College in California majoring in biology, was mentored by Karen Aboody, M.D., in the Department of Neurosciences. His research involved studying if UTX histone demethylase is required for cancer cell survival. Mota won a travel award to attend the 2012 Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students to present his summer project.

Sophia Nguyen, a sophomore at Castilleja School in Palo Alto, Calif., was mentored by John Yim, M.D., in the Division of Surgical Oncology. Her project involved studying if salmonella carrying shRNA against Indoleamine 2,3-Dioxygenase recruits activated neutrophils during control of murine pancreatic cancer.

Edward Nguyen, a senior at Mission San Jose School in California, was mentored by Suzette Blanchard, Ph.D., in the Department of Research Information Sciences. His research goal was to build a pancreatic database containing pancreatic cancer patient data that can be used to study predicted OS as a composite phase II endpoint.

Alyssa Scheidemantle, a junior at Northern Arizona University majoring in biology, was mentored by Mei Kong, Ph.D., in the Department of Cancer Biology. Her research investigated whether knockdown of TIP41 promotes cell survival in response to DNA damage.

Adam Sumait, a junior at the California Academy of Math and Science in Los Angeles, was mentored by Melanie Palomares, M.D., M.S., in the Department of Population Sciences.  His project was the analysis of reproductive factors affecting estrogen levels in women in relation to hormone receptor expression in breast cancers.