As a high school chemistry teacher in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, Clayton Butler doesn’t always feel connected to the rapid advances in research that have reshaped cancer care. The UF Health Cancer Institute’s annual Cancer Research Conference for Science Teachers has expanded his horizons, allowing him to learn the latest scientific discoveries and bring back a new perspective to his students.
“This has really pushed me to challenge my thoughts on the progress of science,” Butler said. “That’s what science really is, answering new questions.”
“This has really pushed me to challenge my thoughts on the progress of science.”
Since it began in 2018, the conference has deepened its impact each year, expanding to include teachers in every corner of Florida and, now, across the Southeast. This year, nearly 150 middle and high school science teachers attended the free three-day event, from Miami to Tennessee. Teachers from outside Alachua County are reimbursed for mileage to reduce barriers to attend.
The conference aims to build relationships with educators to raise awareness and share information that teachers can bring back to their classrooms. This year’s theme was lifestyle factors impacting cancer.
“The theme reflected the growing awareness of how lifestyle factors like diet or physical activity impact not only cancer risk, but also responses to cancer treatment and survivorship,” said Dietmar Siemann, Ph.D., the institute’s associate director for education and training. Conference sessions covered that spectrum, from nutrition in cancer care and the role of the microbiome in cancer progression, to the side effects of cancer treatment on the heart and muscles.
“Awareness of the impact of lifestyle factors is growing at the cancer risk level, but there’s less awareness on the outcomes level,” Siemann said. “The fact that we could behaviorally change outcomes, either by making the cancer treatment more effective or making the patient feel better during their treatment and afterward, is very important.”
Each conference speaker also shared some of their own career pathway to becoming a cancer researcher. “It’s one of the most special aspects of the conference,” Siemann said, “because teachers can share thesepersonal tidbits with their students to broaden their perspectives on the range of cancer research careers.”
“Researchers’ journeys are all over the map,” Siemann said. “Having presenters share some of their personal history also changes the relationship with the audience. It becomes more of a conversation and creates a level of intimacy.”
This year, the conference included two new hands-on preconference workshops led by UF graduate students. One workshop covered flow cytometry and using lasers to detect and analyze cells and particles. The other focused on the effects of vaping, allowing teachers to test the effects of e-cigarette vapor in living cells. They also learned from a video game-themed presentation on the harms of vaping created by the institute’s Office of Community Outreach and Engagement.
“The vaping workshop was very relevant, especially to the middle schoolers I teach,” said Joina Chiomadzi, who teaches middle school physical science in Orange County, Florida, and has attended every conference since 2018. “It’s something that’s real and most of them don’t know what they’re getting themselves into. I don’t think they have the information that I’m going to share with them.”
Chiomadzi has lost three close family members to cancer.
“Cancer is very close to my heart,” she said. “The research that’s being done here and the presentations are giving me some light on what cancer is, especially how we can find solutions.”
For graduate students, leading the preconference workshops and giving presentations offers a way to give back while sharpening their own scientific communication skills.
“It’s almost coming full circle,” said Kyle Scheller, a graduate student in the UF College of Medicine Cancer Biology Concentration, who presented his research on a rare salivary cancer. “A lot of high school teachers I had did a lot for me, getting me interested in science. It’s exciting to be able to talk to the teachers and give back what I’ve learned from my graduate program. The teachers take a lot from this and pass it on to their students to excite them for maybe pursuing research in the future.”
“The teachers take a lot from this and pass it on to their students to excite them for maybe pursuing research in the future.”
The conference also included a tour of the Cancer Institute’s state-of-the-art lab facilities and Shared Resources. Two evening social events allow the teachers to network with UF faculty and trainees.
“I love meeting people who I would never otherwise get to meet, other teachers, but also healthcare professionals,” said Kaden Stone, a biology and AP environmental science teacher at PSI High in Seminole County, Florida. “I love getting to pick their brains about what they know because they know very specific things and I love to learn.”
Ultimately, Siemann hopes to expand the conference nationally.
“If we want to spread information about cancer to the next generation, teachers are the way to do that,” Siemann said. “Teachers, to me, are really a way to disseminate information at a larger level and a more continuous level, and that’s why we started this. Educators and teachers have an enormous impact on people.”
“Educators and teachers have an enormous impact on people.”
Thank you to AstraZeneca for its generous funding to support the conference.
Thank you to our presenters and to our UF graduate students, faculty and staff for organizing and leading the preconference workshops!
Presenters:
- Dietmar W. Siemann, Ph.D. – Environment, Lifestyles and Cancer
- Bairu Zhao – Why Do Some Adolescents Engage More Than Others? Findings From a Game-based Tobacco Prevention Study
- Dejana Braithwaite, Ph.D. – Florida ASCENT: Nutrition Support for a Growing Population of Cancer Survivors
- Maria Hernandez – Chronic Sleep Deprivation Negatively Impacts the Gut Microbiota and is Associated with Enhanced Colorectal Cancer Progression and Loss of Chemotherapy Efficacy
- Kyle Scheller – Mucoepidermoid Carcinoma: How a Single Mutation Drives a Rare Salivary Gland Cancer
- Steven Madore, Ph.D. – Shared Resources Drive Novel Cancer Discoveries and Therapies
- Melissa Vilaro, Ph.D. – Bridging Research and Reach: UF/IFAS Extension Programs in Cancer Prevention
- Lisa J. Merlo, Ph.D., M.P.E. – Mental Health and Well-being Among Physicians and Other Healthcare Professionals
- Katelyn A. Bruno, Ph.D., FHFSA, FACC – Cardio-toxicity in Cancer Therapy
- Christiano Marconi, Ph.D. – Using mRNA Vaccines to Fight Cancer
- Martin Schonk – FoxP1: A Genetic Switch Involved in Muscle Loss During Pancreatic Cancer
Flow Cytometry Workshop:
- Mariza Miranda, Ph.D., Scientific Director, Flow Cytometry & Optical Microscopy Core
- Anastasia Chambers, Graduate Student, Biomedical Sciences Program-Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Concentration
- Ashley Gaffey, Graduate Student, Biomedical Sciences Program-Immunology & Microbiology Concentration
- Sarah Jewell, Graduate Student, Biomedical Sciences Program-Cancer Biology Concentration
- Bo Peng, Graduate Student, Biomedical Sciences Program-Immunology & Microbiology Concentration
- Christiano Marconi, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Associate, Dept. of Neurosurgery
Workshop Escorts:
- Remi Peppler, IT Liaison, UF Health Cancer Institute
- Abhi Chandra Nalinakshi, CTEP Staff
- Ciara Eads, CTEP Staff
Vaping Workshop:
- Laura Parra, M.P.H., CHES, TTS, Community Programs Specialist II, Office of Community Outreach and Engagement
- Lori Rice, Ph.D., Research Associate Professor, Dept. of Radiation Oncology
- Christine Jarosik, Ph.D., Biological Scientist II, Dept. of Radiation Oncology
- Yodarlynis Campaneria, Graduate Student, Medical Sciences Program
- Gabriela Hery, Graduate Student, Comparative Biomedical Sciences Program
- Ibtida Ishmam, Graduate Student, Biomedical Sciences Program-Cancer Biology Concentration
- Yueying Liu, Graduate Student, Biomedical Sciences Program-Cancer Biology Concentration
- Elizabeth McArthur, Graduate Student, Biomedical Sciences Program-Cancer Biology Concentration
- Bristy Podder, Graduate Student, Biomedical Sciences Program-Cancer Biology Concentration
- Brittney Poole, Graduate Student, Biomedical Sciences Program-Molecular Cell Biology Concentration
- Jaclyn Shaw, Graduate Student, Biomedical Sciences Program-Cancer Biology Concentration
- Kyle Scheller, Graduate Student, Biomedical Sciences Program-Cancer Biology Concentration
- Martin Schonk, Graduate Student, Biomedical Sciences Program-Physiology & Functional Genomics Concentration
CGRC Tours:
- Jin Koh, Ph.D., Scientific Director, Proteomics & Mass Spectrometry Core
- Diansy Zincke, Ph.D., Scientific Director, NextGen DNA Sequencing Core
- Mariza Miranda, PhD, Scientific Director, Flow Cytometry & Optical Microscopy Core
- Huijia Liu, Graduate Student, Biomedical Sciences Program-Cancer Biology Concentration (Dr. Jobin’s lab)
Tour Escorts:
- Anthony Portugues, Events Manager, UF Health Cancer Institute
- Abhi Chandra Nalinakshi, CTEP Staff
- Ciara Eads, CTEP Staff
- Jonette Taylor, CTEP Staff
