Meet our 2022-2023 Scholars

12 students were selected for the 2022-2023 UF Health Cancer Center University Scholars Program.

2022-2023 Scholars

Adam Bouhamdan

• Major: Microbiology and Cell Sciences
• Minor: N/A
• Mentor: Ara Jo, Ph.D.
• College of Public Health and Health Professions
• Research Project Title:
• Comparative body composition stratified by types of treatment among patients comorbid with breast cancer and type 2 diabetes
• UFHCC Research Program: Cancer Control & Population Sciences

Allison Cama

• Major: Microbiology and Life Science
• Minor: Education Studies
• Mentor: Maria Zajac-Kaye, Ph.D.
• College of Medicine
• Research Project Title:
  Effect of Thymidylate synthase inhibitors in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
• UFHCC Research Program: Cancer Therapeutics & Host Response 

Megan Crotty

• Major: Biology
• Minor: N/A
• Mentor: Carma Bylund, Ph.D.
• College of Medicine
• Research Project Title:
  Coding Empathic Communication in Dignity Therapy.
• UFHCC Research Program: Cancer Control & Population Sciences

Sofia John

• Major: Statistics
• Minor: Women’s Studies
• Mentor: Meghan Ferrall-Fairbanks, Ph.D.
• College of Engineering
• Research Project Title:
  Mathematical Model of Bladder Cancer
• UFHCC Research Program: Mechanisms of Oncogenesis

Manoj Kambara

• Major: Microbiology and Cell Sciences
• Minor: Bioinformatics
• Mentor: Dominick Lemas, Ph.D.
• College of Medicine
• Research Project Title:
  The Impact of Maternal Obesity on Perinatal Cancer Outcomes Using Electronic Health Records
• UFHCC Research Program: Cancer Therapeutics & Host Response

Jake LeClaire

• Major: Microbiology and Cell Science; Spanish
• Minor: Mathematics
• Mentor: Elias Sayour, M.D., Ph.D.
• College of Medicine
• Research Project Title:
  Development of a novel RNA-Nanoparticle vaccine for cancer immunotherapy
• UFHCC Research Program: Cancer Therapeutics & Host Response

Michael Lunin

• Major: Biology
• Minor: Pathogenesis
• Mentor: Christian Jobin, Ph.D.
• College of Medicine
• Research Project Title:
  Generation of Bilophila Wadsworthia deficient in hydrogen sulfite production using a chemical screen
• UFHCC Research Program: Cancer Therapeutics & Host Response

Rohan Master

• Major: Professional Biology
• Minor: N/A
• Mentor: Weizhou Zhang, Ph.D.
• College of Journalism & Communications
• Research Project Title:
  Developing a PROTAC-based NR4A1 Degrader for Cancer Therapy
• UFHCC Research Program: Mechanisms of Oncogenesis

Reagan McGinley

• Major: Microbiology and Cell Science
• Minor: Business Administration
• Mentor: Juan Guan, Ph.D.
• College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
• Research Project Title:
  High-resolution fluorescence imaging of the assembly of liposome-RNA nanoparticles for RNA-based vaccine and immunotherapy
• UFHCC Research Program: Mechanisms of Oncogenesis

Claire Roffi

• Major: Biology & Japanese
• Minor: N/A
• Mentor: Rowan Milner, Ph.D.
• College of Veterinary Medicine
• Research Project Title:
  Single-cell microfluidic device to visualize MHC fluorescently tagged U937 dendritic cells and their exosomes’ interaction with T cells
• UFHCC Research Program: Cancer Therapeutics & Host Response

Aleezeh Shaikh

• Major: Economics
• Minor: Chemistry
• Mentor: Matthew Merritt, Ph.D.
• College of Medicine
• Research Project Title:
  Using the Ketogenic Diet to Disrupt Tumor Growth in Glioblastoma Cells
• UFHCC Research Program: Cancer Therapeutics & Host Response

Aryeh Silver

• Major: Microbiology and Cell Science
• Minor: N/A
• Mentor: Loic Deleyrolle, Ph.D.
• College of Medicine
• Research Project Title:
  TBD
• UFHCC Research Program: Cancer Therapeutics & Host Response