UNM Cancer Center Program Growing Cancer Research and Retaining Researchers

Setting the Table

UNM Cancer Center Program Growing Cancer Research and Retaining Researchers

The University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center is dedicated to growing the next generation of clinicians, providers and scientists.

The Cancer Research Training and Education Coordination Core (CRTECC) reaches into high school and even middle school to inspire interest in the sciences and particularly in cancer research.

“I think a lot of people don’t realize that one of the core missions of the UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center is to educate, train and mentor the next generation of the cancer care workforce. And that’s really CRTECC’s purpose.” said Jennifer Gillette, PhD, professor in the UNM Department of Pathology and associate director of Education, Training and Mentoring at the UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Gillette breaks down the CRTECC into three aims, depending on which students are being served. Those aims branch into a variety of programs starting with students as early as the seventh and eighth grades and extending to junior faculty who work in the labs of the Cancer Research Facility.

Aim 1: Starting Young

Gillette said CRTECC’s first aim focuses on the youngest of students: middle- and high schoolers and undergraduate students.

Twice a year, the program hosts an all-day conference, called “Empowering Young Minds,” for middle school students. The conference includes lectures and hands-on activities to introduce students to various aspects of cancer biology and science more broadly.

The conference moves to different locations around the state to give kids from throughout New Mexico an opportunity to participate.

“It’s important to expose kids to science early, to help them understand what cancer is and the many careers involved in research and healthcare, and to get them excited and prepared to be successful in high school,” Gillette said.

Students at the 2024 STEM Pathways Conference in Espanola, NM, work on their projects

In addition to the Empowering Young Minds conferences, CRTECC offers high school and undergraduate students the Continuing Umbrella of Research Education (CURE) for Cancer program.

CURE is a 10-week summer internship program in which students aged 16 and older spend 40 hours a week attending seminars, lectures and trainings, while completing a cancer-focused research project.

Students in the CURE program work with mentors from the university and share what they’ve learned at the end of the summer in a campus-wide symposium.

The Cancer Research – Scholarship and Training in Population Sciences (CSTEPS) is similar to CURE. It is a 10-week summer program, but it focuses only on undergraduate students with a cancer research interest in community-based population sciences.

Ten students are selected into the CSTEPS program, matched with a UNM faculty mentor, and complete a capstone research project that they present at the end of the summer.

While they work with their mentors, they also participate in weekly seminars, workshops and review of the latest published discoveries in cancer.

The final summer program is the American Cancer Society (ACS) summer internship program, in which undergraduate students have an opportunity to work alongside researchers, learn from peers, and present their findings.

Aim 2: After the Bachelor’s Degree

“In our Second Aim, we move from undergrad to post-baccalaureate, in other words students just finishing their bachelor's degree, and then our graduate and medical students and our fellowship programs,” Gillette said.

In 2023, the UNM Cancer Center launched another program aimed at students who had finished their bachelor’s degree but may be uncertain about what to do next.

The ACS-funded UNM Cancer-Post-Baccalaureate Research and Education Program, (Cancer-PREP), opens UNM Cancer Center laboratories to these students, giving them experience in doing scientific research, clinical shadowing and learning more about the varied careers in science.

Doctoral students from the UNM Biomedical Scieinces Graduate Program who are interested in cancer research training are enrolled in the Cancer Biology Concentration (CBC). The CBC provides an integrative, transdisciplinary view of cancer with trainees participating in courses designed and directed by faculty from each of the three UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center Research Programs.

UPN Students work on a project together.

The UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center also collaborates with the UNM School of Medicine to mentor medical students with an interest in cancer from the Community of Scholars program and hosts fellowships in Hematology-Oncology, Gynecologic Oncology and Surgical Oncology.

Aim 3: Facilitating Professional Success

“Our third Aim is to focus on bringing in junior faculty and facilitating their success,” Gillette said. “Helping them establish their research programs and supporting them in their transition through promotion and tenure.”

One of the specific ways the UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center helps junior faculty is through another ACS grant program.

The ACS Institutional Research Grant (ACS-IRG) program allows the UNM Cancer Center to offer pilot grants to early-career researchers. These grants help scientists jump-start a new research project that might not otherwise receive funding but could later be funded by agencies like the National Cancer Institute.

CRTECC collaborates with other programs at the UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center, Health Sciences Center, and School of Medicine.

And, it partners with other universities.

One such collaboration, the Southwest Transformative Educational Advancement and Mentoring (STEAM) Network brings together UNM, New Mexico State University, the Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine, and Northern Arizona University. It also includes the students and faculty participating in Aims 2 and 3.

Launched in 2024 and funded by a grant from the National Cancer Institute, the STEAM Network program offers mentorship, career development, and educational opportunities to graduate-level, post-doctoral, or junior faculty involved in cancer related research at any of the four schools.

Jennifer Gillette, PhD, works with a student in the lab.

Growing New Mexico Scientists

While CRTECC’s direct offerings and its many collaborations offer a cornucopia of opportunities, the hunger for more health care professionals persists.

“One of the best ways to respond to a shortage of health care workers is to ensure that students are aware of the broad career opportunities available to them from an early age,” Gillette said. “For example, research not only leads to novel treatments that provide hope to our patients and their families, but it also serves as an economic engine for the state of New Mexico.”

Gillette added that exposing clinicians to research helps them become better doctors and nurses.

“We need to be able to help students find the path that excites them and provide them with the critical skills necessary to be successful on that path,” she said.

The UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center serves the entire state of New Mexico, a geographically large and culturally diverse southwestern state. Gillette sees CRTECC as a means to grow and keep health care professionals from New Mexico in the Land of Enchantment.

“There's a huge tie culturally to family here in New Mexico and a genuine desire to take care of their community,” Gillette said. “This connection gives us an opportunity to provide the infrastructure that engages kids from all across the state, giving them the tools and skills they need to pursue their dreams. So that someday, yes, they can make the next break through discovery, or perhaps go back and be the nurse, doctor, or radiation therapist in Farmington or Hobbs, who will care for the next generation of cancer survivors."