Since 1997, the BYU Simmons Center for Cancer Research has supported a fellowship program that allows hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students at BYU to conduct full-time cancer research.
Dr. Steven Castle, the center's director, shared information about the center's extensive collaboration with many prestigious universities and medical institutions. They have been involved with Johns Hopkins University, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and many others around the world.
Because of the connections and funding provided by the center, students shared they have had life-altering research experiences.
Israel Davila Aleman, an undergraduate student, has been able to do research with Dr. Amber Gonda at BYU as a summer fellow and shared that it was because of this experience that he has decided to pursue a career as a research scientist.
“I want to pursue a PhD; I want to make a difference, not just in the treatment as a clinician or a surgeon, but also especially as a scientist ... I want to make this change in my patients’ lives because of the science that I or my lab do together,” Aleman said.
Matthew East was able to work during the summer of 2024 at Johns Hopkins University with Dr. Brian Ladle. He studied osteosarcoma, a dense bone cancer common in children.
Along with obtaining many important lab skills, East also had the opportunity to attend weekly seminars that helped him learn about the process of becoming a doctor. He shared the experience taught him that he can make a significant difference in the field.
East also shared that his time at Johns Hopkins was miraculous because it put him close to family in Maryland soon after his grandfather passed away. This allowed him and his wife to attend the funeral and give his grandfather “a really special goodbye.”
Aubrey Pope, another undergraduate student, was able to do research at Massachusetts General Hospital. She worked on developing tools for early identification of potential complications after cardiac or thoracic surgery.
Along with her research, Pope also volunteered with the American Lung Cancer Screening Initiative to help combat deaths from low screening rates.
Ariel Denos is a graduate student at BYU. Although the rest of her lab does research related to Alzheimer's, Denos shared she is able to work with a drug specifically targeted towards cancer cells in pancreatic cancer. She said her research is possible through the center's funding.
Though she has encountered setbacks in her research, her colleagues in the center have helped her remember the importance of the work she is doing, and she has been able to collaborate with other scientists to find new avenues for her research.
Mikaila Sass, another graduate student at BYU, shared she has used the funding provided by the center to investigate how proteins are formed in the body and how to prevent or correct situations where proteins form incorrectly.
Through the center's funding, Sass said she has been able to fully focus on her research, accelerating the rate at which she is able to make discoveries.
The connections provided by the center have also helped Sass in finding expertise that she would not have otherwise had, and she has been able to feel the importance of her work.
“What I’m doing actually matters and is important and has the potential to impact people’s lives," Sass said.