This year, students from Atherton, Butler, Christian Academy of Louisville, Collegiate, Fern Creek, Jeffersontown, Kentucky Country Day, Male, Martha Layne Collins (Shelbyville), Manual, New Albany, (IN), Sacred Heart, Seneca and Waggener are taking part in the summer experience.

With support from the Humana Foundation and the Regional Cancer Center Corporation, for the first time in its 23-year history, the eight-week program was able to offer students an increased stipend of $4,000 to participate and gain valuable experience in medical research. Students interested in science but who may have needed to work summer jobs, now have the opportunity to follow their interests.

UofL News spoke with the BCC High School Summer Research Program Director, Robert Mitchell, professor in the Department of Surgery, UofL School of Medicine, and deputy director of basic and translational research at UofL Health – Brown Cancer Center.

We also caught up with Erin Brock, Seneca High School science teacher and program coordinator, and participating Fern Creek High School student, Aliete Yanes-Medina.

UofL News: What is the main goal of the summer cancer research program?

Robert Mitchell: We want to give students who are passionate about science an opportunity to experience – firsthand – how a cancer research lab operates and how important it is for developing new and improved cancer therapies. I’ve heard of three or four students from this summer’s program who are now considering going into a graduate research program after finishing college. For us, that’s a huge victory.

UofL News: Each student has their own mentor and research project. How has that helped them develop as students and scientists?

Mitchell: Each student has the opportunity to present their own project at the end of the summer in poster form – a project that they were forced to learn, understand and, most importantly, put into words how scientific problems are approached and completed. It’s a powerful thing to see a young student’s pride in describing something that they’ve accomplished on their own at the end of the summer.

One of the most popular things that was added this year is the weekly rotations through five different core laboratories that make up our Drug Discovery Platform (DDP). These rotations expose students to each step of the process involved in discovering new anti-cancer drugs. I’ve witnessed kids who are painfully shy or introverted become extremely animated and excited while they were doing their own enzyme inhibition experiment during one of the DDP rotations.

UofL News: Erin, this is your first year working with this summer program. How do you see this experience helping students define their future career goals?

Erin Brock: Our model is helping kids make connections to the community, and UofL has been a huge partner. When I was in high school, I knew I loved science, so I assumed I needed to be a medical doctor – but there are so many alternatives I wasn’t aware of, just like for these students. One of the best parts of this program is getting them exposed to scientific research and helping them to discover their own passion. I think they all got something meaningful out of it.

Aliete Yanes-Medina displays her project at the poster presentation

UofL News: Aliete, what has this summer’s research experience meant to you? What has been your biggest takeaway?

Aliete Yanes-Medina: I always wanted to get into medicine, and I thought I would be going straight into patient care, but when I saw this opportunity, I realized this was something I wanted to explore. Also, personally, a lot of people in my family have had cancer, so I was emotionally connected.

My takeaway has been the fact that I’ve been learning so much and how everybody in the lab is supportive. They’ve said, ‘Hey I found this article that you may like’ and then they send it to me, or ‘Hey, I found this resource that may help you to understand the articles’ and they send it to me. It has definitely opened my mind, and my plan now is to do research in the future. I was thinking about going to college out of state, maybe doing biology, but it has completely changed what I want to do now. I’m staying at UofL.

Mitchell: It’s so amazing seeing a student light up and become inspired by cancer research. Just reaching one student like this is reward enough.

Black patients have been shown to receive coronary artery calcium scoring (CAC) tests eight times less frequently than white patients. The test reveals whether people at moderate risk for developing heart disease have calcium deposits in their heart arteries and physicians should recommend preventative medications for them, such as statins.

This summer, second-year medical students Brown and Ballenger created a video and questionnaire to help physicians understand and overcome potential barriers Black patients have experienced in obtaining the CAC test. With the help of Dinesh Kalra, chief of cardiology, and other physicians in the , the video and survey were sent to physicians in the UofL Department of Medicine and other UofL providers.

“It reminds physicians about when this preventive test should be ordered, much like screening for blood glucose, cholesterol or cancers. Hopefully after that, we will be able to show that the gap we were seeing in African Americans getting tested less often will be eliminated,” Kalra said.

The survey revealed that the study increased physicians’ confidence in CAC testing and understanding of its role in predicting the risk of future heart attacks. After providers watched the educational video and reviewed guidelines for the test, they reported a greater willingness to order the test and understanding of implicit bias in medicine, which may drive such disparities in health care between Blacks and whites. Kalra’s team hopes to apply these findings in other diseases affected by such disparities, such as heart failure or blood pressure control.

Brown and Ballinger worked on the study as part of the UofL cohort of the national . Winn CIPP offers a six-week summer service-learning experience for medical students who are underrepresented in medicine and committed to a career path that addresses diversity, equity, and inclusion in clinical trial studies.

Brown and Ballinger both have a personal or family history of heart disease, so they understand the need for preventative care delivered through the calcium scoring test. They see this summer’s project as a chance to improve their research skills to benefit their future patients.

“As medical students, we don’t get a lot of instruction on research in our classes,” Brown said. “This program has provided a great opportunity for me to learn as much as I can about research and how to ask questions and how to think and how to analyze data.”

Ballinger believes her experience in Winn CIPP will help her increase trust in research among Black and other underrepresented patients.

“The community aspect of reaching back and providing education and offering education to the community and creating trust in clinical research in general is really important to us moving forward in our career,” Ballinger said.

Seven medical students participated in four mentored projects with , five of whom are UofL students. UofL first hosted the Winn CIPP program in 2023 and is one of nine sites for 2024.