Diversity in Cancer Research (DICR)

Hello, welcome. We're very excited to have you here for our info-session for our diversity cancer research program at the University of Chicago. My name is Megan McKenna and I'm the director for education, training, and evaluation for UChicago's Cancer Center. I'm joined tonight by our assistant director for cancer education, Dr. Rosie Huggins, and our program manager extraordinaire, Michelle feel like you've had many titles, Michelle Dumke who's been part of our team since the very beginning. We wanted to have this session tonight just to give us an opportunity to introduce the diversity and cancer research program to you, give you an overview of what you could expect as a participant and the program for this year.

But I'm going to try to make that part very short, just to get to the more interesting part of this evening, which is why we invited some of our current DICR trainees and at least one alumnus to speak with you and answer your questions about what their experience was like. I think that they are the best salespeople for programs of this kind, and I think certainly the best people to answer any questions or concerns that you might have about the program. So this is a diversity in cancer research program. It is funded by the American Cancer Society.

There are multiple programs funded through ACS, called diversity in cancer research across the country and cancer centers across the country. So the one that I'm going to tell you about is specifically for the University of Chicago. The purpose of this program is to excite young people, such as yourself, interested in science, technology, engineering, and medicine, about the broad range of career opportunities that are available to you in the area of cancer. We want to get you excited about these opportunities, but we also want to make sure that you have knowledge and skills and social networks that you need to move forward in these careers and be successful with these plans.

And DICR also has the purpose of trying to increase participation of diverse communities in cancer research and medicine just to make sure that we have a broad range of perspectives, a broad range of expertise, the people who are at the table making decisions about what we research, how we research, and how those findings are applied to improve health. You are representing the communities that we most need to serve and also those communities that are most impacted by cancer. The core of this program is the immersive research experience. So this means that for 10 weeks this summer, you will be on our campus working 35 to 40 hours a week full-time as part of a cancer research team.

So every participant of this program is placed individually in the lab of one of our cancer research faculty at UChicago. You become a full member of that research team. So you'll be doing your independent research project, you'll present that work at the end of the summer at our final symposium, and probably in the form of a poster this year. You'll be doing that work, but you'll also be doing other work that's part of regular lab life. So you'll be going to laboratory meetings, possibly presenting at those laboratory meetings, journal clubs with other members of the scientific community at UChicago and whatever else is part of that lab and the work that they do.

One of the exciting things that we can offer you as a participant at UChicago-- oops, I went backwards, backwards again. At a place like UChicago, we have a Comprehensive Cancer Center. It means that we do cancer research across a broad range of disease areas, many types of different cancers, and we use many different methodologies to explore cancer and cancer therapies and how they impact patients. So I was going to ask Rosie to walk you through these categories. If you've already looked at the application, these categories might be familiar to you. We've grouped the types of cancer research that we do into these big buckets, and I was going to ask Rosie just to go through and describe them a little bit to you to give you a sense of which of these might be most interesting to you as a summer research participant.

So molecular mechanisms of cancer, that's what you think of when you think of biology. So that could mean anything from looking at a specific protein that your lab has started to focus on as potentially contributing to cancer or maybe something that could be targeted in the future with a new drug. So that is often going to be like you are at the lab bench, you're doing experiments like you would think of a typical scientist doing. On the other side, we have cancer imaging and that's more using new imaging technology to better detect, diagnose, and determine how to treat cancers.

For clinical and experimental therapeutics, that's going to often include seeing how to repurpose drugs using precision medicine to better optimize treatment for an individual patient or working alongside a clinician to analyze patient data and determine if there's a way to predict how a patient's going to respond to their treatment. For cancer bioengineering, you can think of that as designing new tools. It can be anything from as small as a nanoparticle that goes into treat your cancer to a big machine. So anything in between that can be used to help again detect, prevent, treat cancer.

In terms of computational cancer biology, that's going to be more looking at bioinformatic data, genomic data, to again, better identify ways that we can detect and treat cancer. And then cancer prevention and control is looking at the whole picture of the environment, the biology, bio-behavioral factors, economic factors that contribute to cancer risk and determining ways that we can maybe mitigate that in the future. And so the research in the labs might not necessarily only fall into one of these buckets you might overlap with different kind of methodologies, but what we want you to do is think about these ideas and get a sense of what your interests are most aligned with.

Some of you might be looking at this list and be like, absolutely, this is where I want to be, this is the kind of work that I want to do. Some of you will be looking at this and still just shaking your head. Either of those is fine. Any information that you can give us, so you ask you in the application just to rank them just so we get a general sense of your interests. The interview is your opportunity to ask more questions about this to get more information about what these different areas are like. We might talk to you also about the kind of lab environment or research environment that you're most interested in. And we'll use that information to make your Mentor Match.

That said, you'll be working in one or more of these areas depending on the exact focus of your research mentor in the lab that you're in. Our goal is to give you exposure to all of these. So there's activities that we do, especially through our faculty lecture series that happens every Wednesday in the program. We work really hard to try to make sure that we have our representatives across these different areas that you'll interact with. Some of the peer mentors that you'll meet or the people that you're working with as part of our scientific community, you'll get some exposure to each of these. So if it's not the perfect fit for you this summer, you should still have an idea leaving this program of the kinds of research that are most interesting to you. And Michelle and Rosie, anything more about the research experience?

One thing I would add is that it's not clearly stated in any of these, but one thing that falls into each of these categories is addressing cancer health disparities and how we can improve health equity. So that really does fall into all of these buckets. That used to be a separate category but it really relates to everything we do.

Everybody checked it. Then let's figure out which kind of approach they wanted to take to understanding health disparities. So thank you for mentioning that. Mentor teams, so whether you have research experience already or not, you might be a little bit nervous about us throwing you into the lab, we really do that pretty much the second week of the program, you become part of your research team after our orientation. Just wanted to assure you that you will have a dedicated mentor team for you, so that includes the PI, the principal investigator of your lab. They're essentially the boss of that lab, they're going to be setting the expectations and the research program.

You'll also be working with the permanent staff of that lab, we have professional research professionals who work in that lab as a permanent part of that team. There's also postdoctoral trainees, people who've already received their PhDs or their medical degrees who are doing research, graduate students in the lab, other undergraduates. You'll become part of that whole lab team, and they'll all be there to help guide and support you throughout the summer. You also have our team, of course.

One of the things that's distinctive about the way that we run our diversity in cancer research program is that you are undergraduates, you will be doing some of the program activities with trainees in our high school pathway programs, and the expectation is that you will have a leadership role and a mentorship role for those high school students. So we'll be doing some mentorship training with you at the beginning of the summer, you will be a peer mentor and you'll be assigned a group of 3 to 4 high school students in one of our other pathway programs, and it'll be your job to help guide them through the summer at the same time that you're going through the summer yourself, so maybe that would be a good question to ask some of the current students on the call about how that worked and what that experience was like.

High school students typically want to hear about college, about your advice for how you picked a school, how you applied to that school, how you got in, other aspects of your experience making that transition, maybe advice about their research and coursework and things that they haven't experienced it themselves. So we think that's a pretty unique aspect of this program, we think it's a pretty rewarding aspect, so hopefully something for you to look forward to. In addition to the summer research, we do a lot of career and skill development. So this typically happens Wednesday afternoons. You're in your lab 35 to 40 hours a week, but Wednesday afternoon is preserved for programming time.

So this is when we have our DICR students, we have our Chicago eyes and cancer students, which are high school and college, our research start students, our high school students, they're all together for Wednesday afternoon for this skill and career development. This is when we do the faculty lecture series that I mentioned, we'll also do some focused skill development workshops. So this could be research based skills such as reading a scientific paper or doing a literature search. Sometimes it is actually physical lab skills, that is something that would be important for us to address. We also do some more career development skills.

So that could be learning how to do informational interviewing or other networking skills in this field. Science communication we do a lot, we think that's a super important skill for you all to develop. With these workshops, some of these will be targeted to you at your career stage, at your interest and making sure that you're benefiting from the advice and experience and skills that we have to teach you, but also I mentioned your high school students, some of these we're going to be expecting you to help us facilitate and run. So for example, every year we do a panel on applying to colleges.

If you are a pro already at reading scientific papers, we might ask you to help us facilitate that workshop for the high school students and even some of our undergrads in the program. Anything else about our skill and career development? Moving right along. I'm doing better Michelle, I'm talking less, this is good. I get excited. So the summer is 10 weeks long, DICR is a year round program. So what that means is, in addition to your summer research after you've completed that, we expect you to complete one activity per month over the course of the following academic year. These activities should take anywhere from 5 to 10 hours.

The nature of the activities themselves changes from year to year based on opportunities that become available to us or based on feedback that we get from our DICR trainees about what is most interesting or useful to them. Ideally this will include travel to at least one conference over the course of the academic year. This is certainly something I would encourage you to ask Izzy in particular, is going to join our call a little later, so she can tell you about her experience going to a conference. It could involve some community outreach and engagement initiatives, perhaps in collaboration.

The cancer center actually has a community outreach engagement team, but also because this program is funded through American Cancer Society, we have an interest in partnering with our local Chicago AACH branches on community outreach and also advocacy issues. And we do volunteer work at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. We have a book club series, a lot of different types of activities, again to develop your career awareness, your exposure to these careers, people doing these careers and also some skills both with research and career development that are going to help you move forward. So efficient Michele.

Nitty gritty, program dates. For this summer, the summer research experience is June 10th through August 16. So this is the full 10 weeks. This is an in-person program and again it's full-time. You should expect to be on campus for 35 to 40 hours a week working with your team. The daily schedule will depend on the lab that you're with. Some labs like to get started a little later in the mornings and go a little later in the afternoon, others like to get started super early, but you can expect that generally you should plan to be on campus for roughly normal work hours, so 8 to 4, 9 to 5 is how most labs work.

Monthly academic year activities are variable, again depending on what opportunities are available to us and what your interests are. They are hybrid, so when possible we try to do in-person activities because we like to see you all. Our January activity for example is a book club on campus because we're expecting students who are in the summer program to be around for the holidays. Most of them are from Chicago, but we are also very accommodating. We know that you are at school, you've got a super busy schedule, some of you might be applying to this program, and will be living in Chicago for the summer, but you go to school and live in other parts of the country.

So in those cases, we can certainly make accommodations for you to participate either virtually or independent projects working independently with one of us on what that project could look like. The one thing that I don't have on this slide is that you receive a stipend for participating in this program. It's $5,000 for the year. And I believe that the way we've broken that down, I think it's 4,000 Michelle for the summer or maybe 4,500 for the summer. I think we changed it to 4,500 for the summer, if you can confirm.

OK, awesome 4,500 for the summer. So that means you get three installments, you will get a $500 check before the summer starts to give you enough funding to get here, to get transportation to and from campus. You'll get 2,000 in the middle of the summer if you successfully complete the first five weeks of the program. The second 2000 the end of the summer if you successfully complete the last five weeks of the program, and then the last 500 is split up into installments over the course of the academic year assuming that you're meeting a monthly academic [INAUDIBLE] we do not provide additional support for you to travel to and from Chicago to and from campus.

Megan you froze a little bit so can you just--

How long ago did I freeze?

Just a few seconds, I mean, it wasn't long but just I don't know what you missed.

Here we go again. $5,000 for the year. This is meant to offset transportation costs, opportunity costs, to give you enough funding to complete the program. Please note that we do not provide additional funding on top of that for travel to Chicago to and from campus or for housing. If you have extreme financial hardship, you can talk to us. But I just want to lay out that's what the expected stipend is for the summer. And then the last slide I have is just a nuts and bolts of the application procedures. So on our website, and I'm imagining most of you have it already because that's how you got here this evening, but there's an applicant information packet available to you on DICR the website.

Please review that. It gives you all the information, details about the program that I'm sharing with you this evening but also tells you exactly what you will be asked on the online application form so you can have those answers ready to go. The online application form is due on January 22nd by midnight that day. We asked for two recommendations or not a letter of support. This is a recommendation form. There is a link to that form and also a packet for your recommenders on our website.

And to give us the most time to review, please have your recommenders submit those also by January 22nd by midnight. One of those recommenders should be a professor, so someone who has had you in class and is really familiar with your academic achievement. The second letter could be from a coach, from an organized activity leader, from a leader from your church, an employer, someone who has a sense of your ability to function in a professional work environment. I would say. Please do not ask a close family member or a friend, that doesn't really give us the insight that we need to understand how you perform in a program like this.

Second round of applicants; so will be invited to an interview with our leadership team. We have these scheduled for February 19th virtually. We chose that date because most people have the day off of school and it's a little easier to go around your schedules. If for whatever reason you are not available on that day, we will make accommodations and we'll interview another day so not anything to worry about, but that's the timing of the interviews.

We will make our decision notifications by March 1st, and then you have about two weeks to decide whether you're going to accept that offer of admission or not. What have I missed? Good to go. So now we can get to the more fun part of our evening. And we're going to promote to panelists, some of our current and past DICR trainees. So please have your questions ready. I think that we have disabled the chat but if you have questions, you can use the Q&A function at the bottom of your screen.

I did mention that, I said that to everyone. Yes, Q&A please any questions that I'm going to start promoting.

OK, awesome. Anyone who would like to get us started with questions? So you know what I'm going to do? First as soon as we get our trainees up here, I'm going to ask them to talk a little bit maybe just like 1 or 2 minutes overview of your research project, I think would be really useful. Hey Emily, it's good to see you. These poor souls are like in the middle of finals, a lot of you on the call I'm sure. So I really appreciative that you're here tonight. Emily, so you were one of our very first DICR cohort at UChicago. So if you can remember, can you talk a little bit about your research project with Dr. Crone.

So, yes I was part of the first cohort in 2021 and with Dr. Crone, I was in the pathway for molecular mechanisms of understanding cancer and that also intersected with how we can take advantage of those molecular mechanisms to find different ways to use drugs. So it was kind of a mix, but it was pretty cool in that. I studied breast cancer cells and we noticed that there are specific defects in how cancer cells repair their DNA and so we're like, why not we try to manipulate that, find tease out like what's really going on in the molecular level, and let's try to use these known chemotherapeutics that have been used in the market and in research, and really say what effect does that have with DNA damage breaks.

So I guess that's just very general, so it was pretty nitty gritty and knowing the exact molecules, and when they latch on, and they promote repair. But it helped me like with a larger scope and understanding. We have these different chemotherapeutics, we have these ways already. How can we manipulate them? How can we give them to a certain cancer population, in this case breast cancer patients? And how can we use those drugs more efficiently, so I think was my contribution in that project.

Thank you. And that was a project that you were able to extend with Dr. Crone the next two years?

Yeah. So in the next two years, I stayed on in his lab. We looked at what I've found in the data and along with the help of the rest of the lab, it ended up becoming my bachelors of science thesis and so I was able to really take that project onwards and that became a full accepted thesis that contributed to my graduation this past spring.

Thank you. Izzy.

So should I talk a little bit about my project as well or? So I was a DICR student from last summer, and I worked in the Oaks lab. Specifically my project was on pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors which are a pretty rare subset of pancreatic cancers and I explored this family of anti and pro-death proteins and seeing if we can shift the balance of cell death in these cancerous cells towards death by increasing or inhibiting the amount of anti death proteins. And this was a new uncharted territory for pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. So it was really cool getting to see how this pathway, this protein pathway could be exploited to shift these cancer cells that normally really resist cell death and push them towards cell death.

So I got tested a couple of drugs and see how those drugs can possibly inhibit that pathway and push those cancer cells towards death and it was pretty cool because the drugs that I ended up choosing worked at least a little bit. So that was really fun and exciting and I was able, like Megan said, to present my research at ABRCMS last November, which is really cool and it was really nice. Being able to share a poster with more people that actually came and were interested about my research and what I was doing, which was really cool and getting feedback from like strangers and learning more about what they're doing. So it was really cool being able to tie my project outward.

Do you remember ABRCMS stands for?

It's I think-- oh, this is a good question. We talked about this.

We do, I can help. It's the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists.

That's what I thought, I didn't want to butcher it.

No I asked you mostly to tease you just because it's ridiculous acronym, but that's one of the conferences that we tend to go to every year. It's a really cool conference because it's focused specifically on undergraduates and graduate students. So there's opportunities to present science, there's opportunities to learn a lot of science, but then they also have a lot of panels and support services dedicated to career development and transitioning from undergrad to graduate school or beyond which is pretty cool. So we we're in Phoenix this year for that and Izzy got a poster award, she did not mention that piece. Sebastian.

Wait, before Sebastian goes, I just want to say I know people are posting some questions in the Q&A, so we will address, we're going to let our panelists talk first and then we will definitely address the questions. So I just want to make sure we want to do it live because we are recording this. So I don't want you to think we're ignoring you, we will address them I swear. I'm sorry, go ahead Sebastian.

Hi, my name is Sebastian. This summer I did computational research. What we did was look into prostate cancer and I worked in Dr. Greg Kaczmar's lab. So it was new to me because computational work, I've never done coding or anything like that, but the great thing is that they prep you for that. And again, what I did was to analyze two models and based on those models, I was trying to see which was the better model that could detect cancer in the prostate. So that's the baseline of what I did. I was focusing on the peripheral area of the prostate, but that's a simplified rundown of what I did this summer.

Awesome. Yours is kind of a cool project that was computational but a very clear application to the clinical side of things and-- Samuel, hello.

Hello, everyone. Good evening. Thank you for inviting me here as well. So during the summer, I actually worked with Dr. Crone as well. I am also part of the cohort from this past summer. And then my project mainly involves assessing the stemness of ovarian cancer cells in mice because typically we use mice as models for research of most of these disease especially with cancer. And the problem with ovarian cancer is that it takes a really long time to develop, but cancer cells that are most similar to stem cells tend to be more aggressive and develop at a more faster rate.

So we were seeing if we could manipulate those mechanisms to accelerate the speed of research. In my lab, especially I learned quite a lot, not only about the science itself and like many wet lab techniques, but more also about administration and the work that goes into actually managing a lab and managing a project. When it comes to funding as well, I heard a lot, Dr. [INAUDIBLE], about how it is writing grants or writing papers. We also went a little bit into the possibilities of using AI for assistance in writing, obviously not like replacing someone for writing, but that's in a way to assess better ways of writing specific abstracts and grants and that stuff.

It was a very varied a very diverse work that I really enjoyed and while the research that we worked on I'm expecting to present it in AACR this coming April.

Do you remember what AACR stands for?

It is American Association for Cancer Research.

Awesome. That's great. Michelle do you want to lead us in our--

I sure can. So the first question was how many participants will be selected for the program?

UChicago is planning to take six this year.

So six. That's a good question. Yes. Next one is-- well thank you Lucas, we thank you for coming tonight, so what would you say are the characteristics you are all looking for the ideal application? What do you think?

I think that's us.

Yeah, that's for us. So I would say enthusiasm. I mean, obviously you're going to bring a lot to the table and we want to just make sure that this is a good fit for you. So it's just how much you really are dedicated to this and want to pursue. The 10 weeks are pretty intensive, so we want to make sure that you're kind of ready for that.

I agree with Michelle. I think being really clear about why you're doing this program and what you expect to gain from it. So for some of you already have research experience, maybe you want to develop a network within UChicago specifically or develop certain skills in a specific kind of research, but you already know that this is what you want to do. Some of you might just want to be testing this out that you don't have any research experience. You just want to see what this is like you're just more in exploratory mode. Some of you might be already very committed to cancer.

We have a lot of students who unfortunately have a very personal connection to cancer and they are really passionate about cancer specifically. Some people not so much and they just understand that cancer is a really huge field with a lot of implications and a great way just to get some scientific research experience, but it might not be cancer specifically that you're interested in. All that is OK. As Michelle says is an intensive program, you're committing a lot to it. We just want to understand from you why you're committing yourself to this and why you're so interested in it.

So I would say that we do think a lot about benefit for our students. So when we typically get a lot of applicants to these kinds of programs, what is it that we can offer this student specifically, how are they going to benefit from the program? I think those two things are pretty closely related. And then the last thing I would say is just-- so this first two things I think we get from your application, in your written application. We also think a lot about how we are taking you and putting you into these laboratory teams. Like I said the second week of the program, we need to be able to trust that you have the maturity and the organizational skills and irresponsible enough to function well in that professional research environment.

This program depends 1,000% on the goodwill and partnership of our faculty and we did make sure that when we're giving them a student to work with for the summer, that student is going to take this seriously and be responsible enough to live up to the expectations of those labs. So that's something that we're really looking for in the interview and then also with those recommendation forms that we get from your professor and whoever else you're asking to recommend you for the program. Rosie anything else?

I would just second the need to be responsible for yourself and your time, especially in a lab. A lot of labs are going to be somewhat team based but then also giving you tasks to do on your own. And so you have to be able to work independently and manage your time but also know and have the confidence to go and ask questions and I think that's really important and not being afraid to ask questions when you don't know how to do something.

That's a huge one. All right, we have a question for our one alumni and our current students. What courses did you take during your undergraduate program before the internship that you found helpful in your participation in the program? Anybody?

That's fine. So I would say in my own experience almost any laboratory class helps a lot, especially general biology. If anybody here is planning to go to med school, that's one of the main requirements that a lot of med schools have is just any general biology lab. And the reason why that is because if you're joining a wet lab, which is a possibility, a lot of the techniques that you're using are probably going to be the same techniques that you learned during one of those classes. As sub as basic as say, manipulating an iPad or maybe more complex stuff like doing a quick change or a mini prep procedure on population of E-coli or that kind of stuff. Techniques are very similar between labs and having a basis of how it is manipulating these kinds of substances is always useful.

Yeah I also have to agree the bio lab classes really helped, I think they helped in terms of building a scientific understanding and knowing how to think like a scientist, that's really necessary when you're thinking about your next steps and your project. Obviously you're getting help from your post-doc that you're working with a grad student but I think regardless it's really good if you are going to be in a wet lab and the techniques you'll use a lot of them. But also thinking and knowing how to read papers was something that I covered in my bio lab classes and that scientific intuition you could apply to any lab that you join whether it's a wet lab or a computational lab, just the thought process and building a hypothesis. And that was really helpful, I found that was tangibly implemented in those classes.

Anybody else? All right, we'll go on. So Emily this is specifically for you. OK. What is your undergrad major at the time?

So I graduated with-- so I studied biology, so just general biology and within that in UChicago there's a specialization. And I happen to choose the cancer bio-specialization and that was really cool because from the DICR program and meeting other or interacting with faculty members during those weekly lectures, I would be like, oh I heard of this person, I know what their research is like, maybe I'll go take a class with them for that specialization. So I think that's how I came about with choosing what I wanted to major in.

I was just generally interested in seeing how cancer biology can be approached and like studied in different lenses, whether that's Dr. Doullens disparity in breast cancer class which that was really fun or even like a very technical class like doctor McLeod's heterogeneity in cancer. It was really interesting, so that's why I chose what I wanted to focus on in my undergrad years, was largely because DICR helped me expose myself to these different faculty and what studying cancer can really be which is a lot more all encompassing than what we usually think of when we first think of cancer or cancer bio which is that very nitty gritty molecular bio.

And the program helped me open my eyes to really think in more broader terms and think about who are the stakeholders of understanding cancer, who's being affected, what do we know, what do we not know. So that's where I landed in my studies. And I did the bachelors of science which I had to do the thesis and it was great that I did this program because I think the project that I did gave me a sense of what I wanted to do for a thesis and really motivated me to keep going through the thesis process even though it was quite grueling but well worth it.

So Emily's unique on this call because she is a UChicago student. You do not have to be UChicago student to participate in this program, but that's why she was able to identify people to take classes with and also continue that research for two years. But Izzy, Sebastian, and Samuel you are not currently attending UChicago, so I guess I'd be curious to maybe you could tell what your majors are and then if any of what Emily said resonated for you in terms of thinking about courses you want to take or how you're thinking about cancer, other impact that it had on how you're approaching your undergraduate education. We can start with majors.

Well, I'm also a bio-science major. I go to Northwestern and we have specializations, but they're not as concrete as I think you Chicago's are. But I think what this program really helped me see the expansiveness of cancer and not only obviously on the molecular and basic science level but in the public health aspect. And I think those lecture series especially on Wednesdays really helped with that because we had some individuals and scientists come in who really focused on that aspect.

So I think that informed my decision and wanting to maybe more advocacy work regarding cancer and I think that was probably one of the coolest things about the program, was that it really expanded my expansiveness and maybe want to take more a social determinant of health class in the future to circle back to that. So cancer hits every single part of basically health so it's a cool way to really explore all of those parts.

So I can go next. I'm a bio-chem major at DePaul University in Indiana. I want to say that my research really motivated me to just explore biology a little bit more. I know it was a computational lab but I was just really interested to see all the different tissues that make up the prostate and stuff like that. So I got like more closer to the biology in terms of my major.

I also continued my research, so I'm still doing research with my UChicago lab from this past summer throughout this year, and so I'm still learning more, I'm still getting more intrigued with the different projects that I'm undergoing. But I think that's really all I can say in terms of how my summer research is influencing my current classes. But in terms of my interest, I'm for sure more interested in prostate cancer and a lot more computational work. I'm more intrigued now in terms of learning how to code, how to do all these different things that I initially didn't know but the summer opportunity totally taught me so.

And me particularly I am a neuroscience major in Brandeis University. And I would say that the research that I did was very-- I was already pretty interested in biology in general, obviously neuroscience a little bit more directed toward neuroscience stuff. But it solidified my interests. One thing I will mention however is that the skills that I learned while working in the lab proved to be extremely useful in classes that I've been taking because I learned stuff like imaging techniques, I learned programming in Matlab in particular, and these are things that really helped me move through my semester a little easier than it would have been otherwise especially since there's a lot of classes.

If you're pre-med, you're probably going to have to take a physics lab as well and physics lab does require a lot of imaging and coding so that's a really useful skill to have and I also gained a bit of an interest in immunology which I'm planning to maybe take an elective in immunology if I can find one to fit in the neuroscience major. It has been an extremely useful program moving forward in that regard as well.

Thank you everyone. OK we have a couple of programming questions. So the first one is; it possible to work around summer classes because I wanted to take some summer classes and try to do the program as well? And the next one is; can you be any year in the undergrad to join the program?

OK, the second one is easier. So I'm going to do that first. So you can be a freshman, sophomore or junior when you apply, so right now. And the reason we don't take seniors is because of that academic year activity the year after your summer research experience, so you just graduate, you age out of the program before the program is over. So freshman, sophomore, junior currently when you apply. The question about classes, it does not go well.

We've had people try it and if that is something that you're thinking about doing, I would encourage you to apply and then this is something that we have to talk about pretty seriously during the interview stage. We would want to know what the classes are, what the schedule is like, is this virtual, is this live? It is really hard to do, and in general we would say you shouldn't and we don't want you to. But we understand that there are some very specific circumstances when this might not be avoidable. That is a conversation we should have during the interview.

What you should not do is show up to the first week of the program or show up in your lab that first day and say, oh by the way, I have to leave at 2 because I have my online class, that is a disaster. And that ruins your relationship with your mentor, and it ruins your relationship with this team. So if that's something that you're thinking about doing, it's really not avoidable, then let's have that conversation early to make sure that it is actually feasible and that there's a good reason for doing it, so that you can make the most of both opportunities and you're not burning a bridge or you're not able to invest in the program as much as you should to get what you need to out of it. Does that sound about right, Rosie?

Definitely, I mean like we said earlier, it's an intensive summer program and we expect you to be there 35 to 40 hours a week and I mean, we cannot control what you do other like in the evening or if it's an evening program or whatever you're thinking but during the day, it's a full-time kind of a job and we expect you to be present and dedicated during that time. So, I mean that would be-- and it's hard, if you want to take classes and do that, I would think it's a little bit hard to juggle but everybody's different.

And same goes with other part time jobs? Sorry Rosie.

I think trying to balance a part time job or another course is too much. You lose out on the full experience of both things and I would say, that would make your summer very overwhelming.

So we have another question.

Start training, so I just want to check is this the same right to you, this is pretty intensive. Getting knots.

There have been many times, especially towards the last few weeks where I had to stay well past 5 o'clock. I think I've stayed in the lab up to 9 because I have to perfectly time when I need to stop myself from a certain treatment. So it's kidding when we say it's intensive. But we're saying that if you really are dedicated towards what you want to do and really want to-- if you're dedicated towards your project, I think you'll notice that you do need a lot more time than you think. So just be prepared for that, and I'd say, yeah, just really be ready to focus in on what you're passionate about because hopefully this is something that, of course you're applying here because you are passionate about a certain project you have in mind or will have in mind. So just think on that.

So the next one is; I think this can go for our former participant as well as our current participants in the program. What do you think set you apart in the application process? That's a good question.

Guys tell us.

We'd love to get your view.

How you approach the application process or what advice do you have for someone who's thinking about applying now? It's the same questions as before.

I think something I would advise is just be transparent about your goals, why you're interested in the program. Don't just like say, oh I'm interested in it when you're really not. Just be genuine. I guess that's the best thing I could really say as long as your genuine self, that's the best you can do. So that's all I could really say just based off my experience.

I agree. I think really showing that you'd be committed to the program and really expressing your interest in it beyond just the surface level and connecting yourself to the research and be willing to learn more, I think is important.

I would agree. Being as honest as possible is extremely important. When it comes to experience as well, it always will help. It is not necessarily 100% required but it really helps if you are aware of the environment of a lab for example. If you have any experiences that connect you to that environment, it would be really good to bring them up because that's something that will definitely help if you end up admitted in the program. And also I remember getting a question during my interview about what I do for fun, Megan might remember. So if you have other interests as well, for me it's personally digital art and that kind of stuff. Definitely we are human beings and we like all sorts of stuff even outside of our career interests. As Sebastian said, just be genuine.

Along with those, if I could think back to my application way back then. I think for me I was very goal oriented in that. There are so many other programs like these that are being offered and I really had to keep asking myself what's the long term goal that I have in mind, such that I need to do this program and have this experience in order to get where I need to be. So in my case, it's applying to medical school, wanting to pursue like an MD-PhD program or really wanting to know is research really a fit for me in my future and the subsequent years of my undergrad career?

So I think in my application I highly emphasize that this is really a time where I wanted to test the waters of sorts and say, one is like research, am I fit to do research, what's it like because I didn't really come in to this program with much, if any wet lab research. And then I remember emphasizing I want to get into medicine so I think with the exposure to the faculty members, to exposing myself to how to collaborate in a lab environment, how to present scientific topics to a broad audience, I think highlighting those was also helpful because these are skills that I wanted to learn and in thinking how do I want to be a good medical school applicant or at least thinking of one aspect that can make me a good medical school applicant.

I think it was the experience of exposing myself to research, exposing myself to networking with other faculty at UChicago, exposing myself to how can medicine look differently in the biomedical sciences or understanding disparities. So that's what I took out of it, being very goal oriented and being honest with what do I want to know and what do I want to learn and just expressing that curiosity and enthusiasm.

I've just said what you've heard from all four of our students is very thoughtful responses to why they wanted to do this program. So I wanted to clue you in to three common pitfalls of applicants. The one is to give us the impression that this is the check in the box. So like Emily just talked about thinking about medical school and how this program would help her get there, which is very different than somebody saying, I'm going to apply to medical school, this will look very good on my application or UChicago program will look very good on my application.

That doesn't tell us a whole lot about how this program is going to benefit you really or what you're going to bring to the program and what you're going to get out of it. So check in the box is something to avoid and I don't think most people are actually thinking of it that way, but be careful it's not coming across that way. The second thing is listing program qualities. In the response to the question about why do you want to do this program, one of the things that people often do is just list back for us all the components of the program that they're excited about. Why do you want to do this program? What do you hope to gain?

They'll tell us, oh it'll be great to have a mentorship team, it'll be great to have this research experience, it'll be great to go to the faculty lecture series or they just start listing things that they're excited about. But guess what? Every single word of that response, you could put on every single application and it would be true. So it's really hard for us to gauge how this is going to benefit you uniquely or as an individual. So that's why we're still trying to encourage you to think about how being very specific about what this program could mean for you and your experience if that makes sense.

The last thing is Samuel said that there is always that question about is there anything else that's important for us to know about. That is an optional box, but we notice if it's blank. We love that box and we get the most interesting and meaningful responses oftentimes because people can put all kinds of things there. And it's really fun for us to see what they really want us to know about them. I do remember talking to Samuel about his interest in art. I remember reading that in his application and I remember having that conversation during the interview. And one of the reasons we were so excited about it is because that summer, we happened to be putting together a project.

It was an outreach project that was based on science and art. We're like this is amazing. He's got this interest, he's got these skills, he has a lot to contribute to this program, and it would be a really cool opportunity for him to apply those skills in a scientific context. That was all because the question was it 3 or 4. So I would say do not leave that box blank and if you want to, but we get a lot of attention to it and it really is probably the number one opportunity that we have to get a sense of who you are as an individual and your personality I mean, and what's really meaningful to you. Michelle and Rosie does that all resonate with you too, sounds right?

The last part is important. Just obviously you applied to this program, we know you're excited about science, we know this is your gig, but we want to a little bit more about you. We've heard from musical theater people and we've heard from artists and we've heard from people that take taekwondo or that have been an orchestra. I mean, we've heard from all different things. So we want to really get to you basically, get to know what really or a lot of people talk about how cancer is affected their family or they have a friend or whatever.

So those things are important and in the application process, it does and it can set you apart if you really are heartful about what you say. And like Megan said, not just checking a box being like, OK I'm going to want to know what my aspirations are but we want to make sure that this is the right program for you because we as a program and I know everybody can attest to this, we put everything into this program and we give everything to you and we want to make sure that you get the full experience out of this.

I would just add, as you're writing your application, think about the other people in your biology classes and your major and how you stand out from them. So you obviously know that you're not the same person as everybody else around you in your classes. What do you do that is unique to you? What is it that really has your focus outside of classes? We don't care if you got an A in biology, we don't care about your transcript specifically and do we even ask for the transcript anymore? It's not even.

That's not important to us as much as what is it that you care about, why do you care so much to spend the time to apply to this program? What do you do in your community? What club did you start things like that help you stand out.

I'm sorry, Megan go ahead.

It doesn't have to be that you launched your own nonprofit. Or, you know-- [LAUGHS]

There are many that have done that.

There's so many. So I always use the example of this one applicant, Michelle has heard this a gazillion times, but one applicant who the first line of her essay was, I love bread. And her essay was all about how she is a baker, she loves bread baking because combination of food and cooking but also chemistry and it's a skill that she has that nurtures her family and her essay was just about this love of hers and how she's applying this to science and how she sees this relating to this step into cancer research. It was awesome, and we referred to her as bread girl through the whole application review. So it was just a way for us to get to know her and to remember her and it wasn't something super profound or unattainable for most of our applicants, it was just a personal detail. So if that helps, no pressure.

Translating for your family member in a doctor's office or things like that you might not necessarily think of that, show that you care about this and show that you have a passion for this but you don't have to start a company and the next month to have us consider your application.

We have one more question. One more or I think there might be a couple in here. So how has this program influenced your career aspirations, obviously this is towards our panel not the administrative group, have they reaffirmed your interests and broadened what you want to become? In addition, how do you think the research that you did made an impact in the field of oncology in the future?

It's great questions.

Can our panelists see them because that was a lot?

I think they can. Can you see the Q&A? Sorry I should have said that.

I can go first, I guess. So I was really interested initially in this program because I was interested in cancer research. The summer before that, I started working in an epigenetics cancer lab and that's really where my interest in cancer really grew but I really only knew it within the sphere of epigenetics and I think I got placed into a wet lab but one that was in a different topic that I was used to or familiar with. Again same techniques which was nice that I could transfer that over, but it really allowed me to explore a completely different realm of cancer that I didn't explore in the past.

And I think again, seeing that breadth and the expansiveness of how you can study cancer really affirmed that I do want to continue research in my future career. I'm currently on the pre-med path and considering med school, but now I'm really considering Med school and maybe an MD-PhD. And another great thing about this program that I have to shout out, Rosie checked in with all of us and she asked how we were doing and she asked what's up with us and what we're doing now even though this program ended in August and I expressed my concern that maybe I don't know if I want to do just MD or MD-PhD.

And that clinical research split and she connected me to five people. I was like, whoa thank you so much. So already that is such a great thing with this program because the resources are outstanding and everyone here is really there to support you in this program and really watch you grow and blossom into a confident scientist or whatever you want to do in your future. So I just had to shout that out about really influencing my career aspirations because it really feels like I have a support system that I could turn to if I need support through this program. That I really appreciate because in my current lab I have that as well. But I think what is really nice about a tangible summer program is that everyone there is specifically there to help you, which is really nice.

And again it really reaffirmed that I do want to continue doing oncology research and my understanding and expansiveness of it really grew through this program. And then I think that my research what was really cool was that I was able to really see the connection between it, like I said in that conference because people found my poster and were interested in what I was talking about and actually was able to talk to a graduate student from a completely different lab in a different state that was working on a similar thing. But actually it tied back to what I was doing in my home lab, my Northwestern-- gosh, look at these worlds colliding and everything is just super cool in that aspect because it's so broad and expansive that it really had that kind of broadness and all these directions you could take really reaffirmed my want to go into oncology and medicine in general.

Who wants to follow that?

Well in terms of interest. Well, I went into the program having been pretty clear on just wanted to do Med school, and I came out of the program being maybe not actually. Also Rosie should know that, also thank you shout out to Rosie for all the help as well deciding because now I'm currently thinking between Med school and perhaps a master's degree. That are both completely different from each other and it really feels like this program really gave me a clear view of what I actually like to do.

As I mentioned before, that biology lab that I took during the first year in my college was the thing that kick-started like hey actually I like being in the lab. And I went to the program and say, well actually I like being in the lab. Maybe Med school is not the only thing I can do. So I feel like it's really, really helped me see that there are so many options in terms of grad school and career paths that I could take even at this point even though I'm like in the second half of my undergraduate degree. And it's been really revealing.

And in terms of the research that I did may impact the field of oncology. Well my contribution was probably pretty small but I would like to believe that at least once a contribution and there are things coming to the ovarian cancer research field. When I was in doctor council, I've got the impression that ovarian cancer in particular was not necessarily like an obscure field of research but it is a field that is not touched upon as much as, say breast cancer research for example. So I would like to think that I at least helped my supervisor, some of the other grad students or full time researchers working there to move forward a little bit in their contributions.

I could go, I mean, I do graduate so I guess I should have a sense of how to answer this question. So I think going into this program, I definitely was like MD. I think this is a common theme where we all come out as MD and maybe thinking more about research, whether that's a master's or like a PhD and I definitely came out with that sense of, oh definitely like an MD-PhD. But I think I don't know taking this question a bit further, what I think I gained the most and thinking about what I want to do in my future is just general interests of how as a physician do I want to maybe approach cancer or how as a physician do I want to be knowledgeable about cancer disparities.

Because honestly before this program, I couldn't really tell you much about cancer disparities, what that looked like, the socioeconomic lens of how cancer affects people and not just, oh it's basically your body turning against you and all the molecular aspects of it. I feel like coming out of the program, I definitely gained like a more holistic sense of what cancer is and honestly, a more optimistic ones of what we can do about it. And so thinking about my career aspirations, although the program did let me think about an MD-PHD program.

I think a larger takeaway for me from this program was really I want to go into Med school and I want to do this training and really have this bigger sense of what the research is like in cancer, what different kinds of research there is, and how I can bring that to the bedside as a physician or even just having that knowledge and having a thoughtful conversation with researchers and scientists and clinical technicians or clinical investigators.

I think that's like pretty cool to take that away from this program is having those communication skills to be an effective physician and just a medical professional in general. So I think there are definitely a lot of tangible-- I definitely gained this broader sense of knowledge that will definitely take me throughout my career, whether that's Med school, whether that's research and even right now as I'm in this transition phase, I guess you could say of a gap year.

OK. So I entered as a pre-med really thinking MD. Everyone else I came out thinking maybe MD-PhD, but the more I heard about the commitment to the research and staying in the lab, I don't know if I could do that, which is OK. But during my research, I was in meetings where MDs were there in our meetings so they're helping with the research, but they might not be in there 17 hours of the day. My PI would always say he was in there 24 hours, he's available 24/7 hours.

But I think it did broaden my perspective of thinking how can I still engage with research but keeping my MD goal in mind. It also brought in I think my thought of how to interact with coding and AI. This summer we went to a poster presentation for the AIs trainees. And one of the quotes that still stays with me today is, physicians won't be replaced by AI, but physicians that don't know how to work with AI or how to code will be replaced with those that do.

And so now I'm very open to like learning how to code because I have friends that know how to code and do all that and there's no way I'm going to be doing that. I'm bio-chem or I'm dealing with biology, chemistry, that's not going to apply to me. But I think this was an awakening and just eye opening to just see how you can learn all these different skills and there's still going to be useful to you and they could really open up a lot of doors for your future. So now I'm considering radiology a lot more specifically for oncology. I like working with MRI just because that was what I was doing for the summer.

But I'm just so open and so intrigued to see how AI is going to affect the future of detection and prevention. But also that's how it shaped my future and my research how it's helping that. I was checking out two models so that was the step forward to seeing what model was going to be best for the detection of cancer. And that's going to be helpful towards the overall goal of knowing that, and then applying it to AI. So that could really help out in the detection of that in the future just using AI a lot more in those spaces. So that was a step and that's what my research is doing right now as well.

I think that's an awesome question to leave it on. Those are all awesome answers and I just would emphasize that the number one reason to take part in this program is that you get to work with peers like this, you guys are amazing. I love hearing you talk about your experiences. Thank you so much for taking the time to share with our future applicants.

I'd like to add one thing, just an FYI. We stick with you I mean, in the future and we don't leave you alone. So we just want to make sure that as our panelists have mentioned, we are there for you in your future endeavors. I mean, we are there, we're ready to mentor you if you need a letter, I mean, we're there with you every step of the way. It doesn't just end after the year, I mean, we're with you through your whole career and through this whole process.

So which is a really wonderful benefit of this program. So I mean I just wanted to make sure that everybody-- and I do have one more comment that Tyler made of our inner audience, which I thought was really nice. It said not a question but I hear so much confidence, the alumni students and I'm sure he meant inner current students, of the program are able to articulate about their experiences and their journeys as well. Which I think is really a wonderful comment, thank you, Tyler for saying that. Go ahead Megan.

I was just going to wrap it up unless anyone has any final comments or thoughts or questions. But the applications are due January 22. All the information you need should be on our DICR web page, if it's not, the contact information will take you directly to Michelle, so she will be very happy to help you. Thank you for being here tonight. We look forward to your applications. And again, thank you all for being our panelists this evening. You are by far the best advertisement we have for our program. It's great to see all of you. So enjoy your holiday, be safe, and we hope to meet you soon. Good night everyone.