Program Overview
The National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Division of Cancer Biology is offering rising Junior and Senior undergraduates with outstanding research potential the opportunity to work closely with faculty mentors from NCI-supported institutions. The program is designed specifically for students who wish to gain experience in interdisciplinary cancer biology research but have limited prior research experience (0-1 years). Students who do not otherwise have the opportunity to perform research at their home Institution, but are especially interested in cancer research careers, are encouraged to apply. Opportunities are available at 16 research institutions across the United States.
Each student participant will be working with a faculty mentor whose lab is pursuing a multi-disciplinary approach to cancer research. Projects include experimental and computational studies of the mechanisms underlying cancer processes. Multi- and interdisciplinary approaches to cancer research often bring together disparate fields, such as cancer biology, biochemistry, and genetics, with engineering, physics, mathematics, and computer science. Students will either assist the faculty member’s lab in an ongoing research project or work collaboratively with the mentor and/or lab members on a new project of mutual interest.
In addition to performing research at their selected institution, students will have the opportunity to travel to the NIH campus in Bethesda, MD for a two-day undergraduate research conference. The conference will include a scientific poster session, career mentorship keynote talks, and the opportunity to meet other students from around the country. The summer program will also feature weekly webinars centered around collaborative activities that will introduce and improve research skills, including activities that introduce data science approaches to analyze large multiomic datasets.
Participating Institutions
In 2023 the program consisted of 16 research institutions, each hosting one student. Research Institutions participating in the Summer Research Program are members of research programs supported by the NCI Division of Cancer Biology. The Division of Cancer Biology programs aim to address complex challenges in basic and translational research through the use of experimental biology, often combined with in silico modeling and multi-dimensional data analysis.