By Eliza Dysart
The UF Health Cancer Institute’s Predoctoral Awards accelerate cancer research by investing in trainees at a key time in their careers, when support can make a real difference.
Now celebrating its 10th anniversary, the program has supported 51 UF doctoral students across five colleges and 19 departments plus The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology since its launch in 2016. That represents an institutional investment of $510,000 in training the next generation of cancer researchers.
“By backing these trainees early, we’re helping accelerate discoveries that ultimately matter for patients,” said Dietmar Siemann, Ph.D., associate director for education and training at the UF Health Cancer Institute.
“By backing these trainees early, we’re helping accelerate discoveries that ultimately matter for patients.” — Dietmar Siemann, Ph.D.
The Predoctoral Awards program was established to recognize outstanding trainees conducting innovative cancer research and to provide them with the resources and confidence to advance their work at a critical point in their training.
The competitive award provides $10,000 to each recipient, including $8,000 for research and $2,000 for travel. It’s open to UF doctoral students working on cancer-focused projects within 15 months of passing their qualifying exam.
The program’s awardees have collectively produced more than 215 publications, with recipients drawn from nine UF Ph.D. programs plus The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute.
$510,000 Total investment in training the next generation of cancer researchers
51 Doctoral students supported
215 Publications to date
This year’s awards, which were sponsored by the Ocala Royal Dames for Cancer Research, were presented at the Cancer Institute’s annual Research Showcase on Jan. 29. Awardees gave three-minute thesis presentations on their research. The trainees’ research projects reflect the breadth of cancer research underway at UF.
“They are tackling fundamental questions in cancer biology while also laying the groundwork for new therapeutic approaches,” Siemann said.
The 2025 awardees are Karl Ensberg for his work on molecular drivers of MHV68-induced lymphomas; Yilin Jia for developing platforms to target structured RNAs; Alessandro Leo for studying the role of BAP1 in the life cycle of KSHV; Caitland Love for research on immunotherapy strategies for glioblastoma; and Kyle Scheller for investigating transcriptional mechanisms in mucoepidermoid carcinoma.
“This award not only reassures me that my hard work over the past few years has been meaningful, but it also motivates me to continue pursuing impactful discoveries in the fields of condensate biology and cancer biology,” said Scheller, a graduate student in the UF College of Medicine Cancer Biology Concentration who works in the lab of Lizi Wu, Ph.D.
The award will allow him to perform additional experiments that will strengthen the foundation of his project and broaden his technical expertise. It will also support his attendance at scientific conferences, where he can share my work, learn from others and build collaborations within the research community.
The award has had a lasting impact on recipients’ research and career paths.
“My research focused on a specific signaling pathway that’s involved in cancer metastasis, which is a process when cancer cells disseminate from the primary tumor site to different parts of the body,” said Mai Tanaka-Wakefield, a 2019 Predoctoral Awardee. “When cancer cells do disseminate, patients’ survival rate decreases.”
Tanaka-Wakefield said the award allowed her to continue and expand that work, eventually exploring why certain cancers spread to specific organs, a phenomenon known as organ tropism.
“I was able to use the funds to continue that research, but actually evolve into something that I ended up finding really fascinating,” she said.
Tanaka-Wakefield has since transitioned from bench science into the biotechnology industry, working as a strategy consultant, investor and now an operator at a biotech company developing therapies for pulmonary fibrosis. She said the award contributed to building confidence early in her scientific career.
Zac Wakefield, a 2020 Predoctoral Awardee, used the funding to deepen his research experience studying the cardiovascular toxicity of the chemotherapy drug doxorubicin using mouse models.
“The award gave me the confidence as a researcher to believe in the work I was doing,” he said.
Wakefield now attends Boston University School of Law, where he works in patent law, representing clients in science-based fields. He said the recognition helped bridge his scientific background with his legal career.
