Nearly 135 educators from six states across the Southeast had the opportunity to participate in the UF Health Cancer Center’s fifth annual Cancer Research Conference for Science Teachers, held July 16-17 at the Cancer and Genetics Research Complex.
Middle and high school science teachers learned about the leading-edge cancer research taking place at UF on topics from immunotherapy to how lifestyles affect cancer. The free conference aims to build relationships with educators to raise awareness and share information covering the gamut of cancer research, from prevention to new treatment strategies to survivorship.
With attendance increasing each year, the conference was opened to educators outside Florida for the first time this year. In addition to every corner of Florida, teachers traveled from Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
The Cancer Center reimburses teachers from outside of Alachua County for mileage and lodging, made possible in part through sponsorship from AstraZeneca for the second year.
By fostering an informed community, the conference is an essential component of the center’s mission as a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center.
“Having this connection with teachers allows us to develop the next generation of cancer investigators,” said Dietmar Siemann, Ph.D., associate director for education and training at the Cancer Center, noting that next year the conference may be expanded nationally.
This year’s conference program featured six faculty presentations and three graduate student presentations, with speakers from disciplines ranging from veterinary medicine to engineering to molecular biology. It also featured two hands-on workshops organized by UF graduate students. Teachers discovered how to analyze cancer samples to unravel the genetic clues behind tumor development. Teachers also learned how bacterial genetic manipulation techniques can be applied to understanding and combating cancer.
The conference also included a social event at the Hilton UF Conference Center to allow the teachers to connect with UF faculty and trainees in a collegial setting and a tour of the Cancer Center’s lab facilities.
Richard Holford, who teaches health sciences at Fort Myers Middle Academy, attended for the first time and said he found the conference highly informative, particularly the information about artificial intelligence and cancer vaccines. The conference helps fill a need in educating the public on the latest developments in cancer research, he said.
“For me, this has been very helpful and there’s lots I can teach my students. I can let them know how important this kind of symposium was for me and use it to help spread awareness about developments in treating cancer.”
– Richard Holford, health sciences teacher, Ford Myers Middle Academy
The conference offers Amanda Matusik new material to bring back to her students every year.
“I really liked the topics this year because they’re hitting on immunotherapy and I think that’s up and coming and very engaging,” said Matusik, who has attended the past four conferences. “Cancer is one of our main topics that we talk about with cells and the cell cycle with our high school students.”
Matusik, who teaches at Boone High School in Orlando, also enjoyed this year’s presentation on how collaborations with the UF College of Veterinary Medicine can accelerate cancer research discoveries for humans, noting the potential to engage students in discussing the similarities between animals and humans.
“I love that every year the topics and speakers are different,” she said.
Despite the march of automations and artificial intelligence, the most valuable commodity remains people, said Jonathan D. Licht, M.D., director of the UF Health Cancer Center.
“By working with the teachers of our future researchers and leaders, we are cultivating an engaged, interested workforce from across the spectrum of our communities,” he said. “We hope teachers can sprinkle their lesson plans with some of the latest advances in cancer research and care to motivate and inspire their students to consider the health professions and cancer research as future careers.”
Special thanks to our UF graduate students for organizing the preconference workshops and to our presenters!
UF Graduate Students:
- Maddy Carelock
- Gabriela Hery
- Maria Hernandez
- Alaleh Anvar
- Siddhi Chitre
- Yueying Liu
- Yodarlynis Campaneria
- Brittney Poole
Presenters:
- Dietmar Siemann, Ph.D.: Lifestyles and Cancer; the Team-based Interdisciplinary Cancer Research Training (TICaRT) Program
- Meghan Ferrall-Fairbanks, Ph.D.: Unleashing the Power of Mathematics for Cancer Therapy
- Arinola Lampejo; Exploring Vessel Plasticity in the Tumor Microenvironment
- Rowan Milner, Ph.D.: How Man’s Best Friend Helps Us Understand Cancer in Humans
- Christiano Marconi: Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy
- Kristianna Fredenburg, M.D., Ph.D.: Non-coding RNAs as Predictors of Cancer Outcomes
- Ryan M. Thomas, M.D.: The Microbiome and Pancreatic Cancer
- Madison Carelock and Jeremy Ducharme, Ph.D.: TICaRT Team Presentation: Utilizing Chimeras to Reverse Therapy-Induced Cachexia
- Frederic Kaye, M.D.: Cancer genetics using lung cancer as a model4er6
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