Ten undergraduate students from Yale, Cornell, Villanova and other universities and one incoming graduate student have finished a 10-week stint with researchers at Wayne State University School of Medicine and the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute as part of the Cancer Biology Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program.

The purpose of the program is to introduce promising undergraduate students to cancer research and encourage advanced studies and careers in the field.

Thanks to long-standing support provided by the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit through the Cancer Research Philanthropic Fund on behalf of Dr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Forman and a new grant from the DMC Foundation, the undergraduate students were paired with a mentor scientist who provided hands-on exposure to the basics of a research laboratory and the research process.

Students performed research projects designed to yield new findings related to cancer etiology, detection, treatment and more. Students were expected to maintain records of their research, participate in laboratory meetings and departmental programmatic seminars and attend weekly lectures on basic cancer biology taught by the Cancer Biology Graduate Program's doctoral students.

The program concluded with the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow Poster Day held August 8 in the Margherio Family Conference Center, where the fellows presented posters describing their research accomplishments to faculty, students and staff.

A significant number of the program's alumni have gone on to pursue graduate education in cancer biology through the Cancer Biology Graduate Program.

This year's fellows were:

Evan Arbit, Michigan State University

Ginette Balbin-Cuesta, Marygrove College

Evan Bylett, Michigan State University

Keith Cordner, Michigan State University

Anthony Guastella, Oakland University

Sarah Kimball, Cornell University

Brian Myung, Villanova University

Thomas Ridella, University of Notre Dame

Syed Tariq-Un Nabi, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Mercy Ude, Yale University

Lucas Wilson, Michigan State University