Huntsman Cancer Institute PathMaker Programs for Cancer Research

The goal of this R25 program is to increase opportunities for individuals interested in pursuing careers in biomedical and cancer-related research by providing research experiences for high school and undergraduate students, research and curriculum development experiences for middle and high school science teachers, and outreach to middle school students, their families, and their communities. The Huntsman Cancer Institute PathMaker Programs for Cancer Research will bring cancer research training pathways to Utah and the surrounding Mountain West states of Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and Wyoming to support NCI’s R25 program goal of increasing the pipeline of young learners interested in biomedical, behavioral, and clinical cancer research. Our program builds on institutional funding and successful supplements to our Cancer Center Support Grant and will comprise three complementary components: PathMaker Scholars, PathMaker Bridge, and PathMaker Connect. PathMaker Scholars is a mentored cancer research experience for high school and undergraduate students; PathMaker Bridge provides mentored cancer research experiences and guided curriculum development for middle and high school science teachers, providing a bridge to their students; with PathMaker Connect we will connect HCI and our Scholars and Bridge participants with community partners through innovative events designed to educate and inform participants about cancer.

Connect events will be conducted with our Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) team. Learners from all groups will be encouraged and welcomed to apply and we will recruit broadly across the Mountain West, including young learners from rural and frontier areas. We will recruit using an extensive email database we have developed with contact information of close to 1000 high school science teachers, college counselors, science specialists at state and/or county Boards of Education, and science teachers at colleges in the Mountain West. We will also recruit in person with our COE team as they travel to events across the Mountain West.

Applicants will be reviewed holistically and evaluated on academics, prior research, potential benefit from the program and letters of recommendation. This project will be led by a multi-PI team comprising a physician scientist and two basic scientists, all of whom have extensive relevant experience in career mentoring, and biomedical research career training. Student research experiences will be enhanced by a rich professional preparation and community-building program. PathMaker Bridge will partner with the internationally-recognized University of Utah Genetic Science Learning Center (GSLC) to provide an exceptional professional development program to guide Bridge teachers in the use of their research experiences to create novel curricular materials, with the potential for world-wide dissemination on the GSLC website.

A professional evaluator will provide formative and summative evaluation to ensure the program achieves its maximum potential.

Grant Number: 3R25CA240171-05S1
NIH Institute/Center: NIH
Principal Investigator: Donald Ayer