In 2020 , the UH Cancer Center was awarded over $ 2 million in funding to establish two new research training programs for undergraduate and graduate students . $ 750,000 was awarded to Gertraud Maskarinec , MD , PhD , Cancer Center associate director for Research Education , and Joe W . Ramos , PhD , Cancer Center deputy director , for their winning internship program proposal . Another $ 1.36 million was received from the National Cancer Institute to establish “ Cancer Research Education , Advancement , Training and Empowerment ” ( CREATE ).
Maskarinec and Ramos submitted one of 16 winning proposals to the University of Hawai ‘ i at Mānoa Provost ’ s Strategic Investment Competition . The researchers proposed a year-long internship program that would offer undergraduate students the opportunity to conduct research in an interdisciplinary environment under the mentorship of our faculty members . The first eight students to be supported by this funding began interning virtually in June 2020 , and in December , presented their projects that they worked on with their mentors from the Cancer Biology and Population Sciences in the Pacific programs . They will continue their research throughout the 2021 spring semester .
The CREATE program will utilize the knowledge and talents of UH Cancer Center faculty members , who will mentor undergraduate and graduate students living in the Pacific , by providing them with an intensive 10-week hands-on research experience . The program , led by Maskarinec , Ramos , and Joseph Keawe ‘ aimoku Kaholokula , PhD , chair of the Department of Native Hawaiian Health , John A . Burns School of Medicine , is set to start in the summer of 2021 .
PICTURED FROM LEFT TO RIGHT : HOPE DANG , ERICA MA , MELDRICK RAVIDA , NICHOLAS VAN , LAURYN LIAO , KIRRA BORRELLO , AND CELINE ARNOBIT . NOT PICTURED : NICOLE TAKAHASHI .
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