Cancer was first detected in 1775, by British surgeon Percival Pott. Since then thousands of brightest minds of their times have worked to cure this deadly disease. Yet, it remains unbeatable to this day. In 2018, 9.6 million people died due to cancer. Many researchers try new frontiers to tackle this wrath on human kind. One of such progressive programme is called Cancer Nanomedicine Co-ops for Undergraduate Research Experiences, or CaNCURE, for short. CaNCURE provides hands-on research experience with a focus on treatment of cancer using nano medicine through an academic year co-op internship mentored by world-class cancer researchers and clinicians at Northeastern University and Dana Farber / Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC). The program is directed by Srinivas Sridhar, Distinguished Professor of Physics at Northeastern University. He says,
“What we’re doing is putting together our great students with the world’s best researchers in nanomedicine, training them to become cancer researchers”.
One of the brightest minds working on the program belongs to Amanda Stroiney. She has studied behavioural neuroscience and criminal justice at Northeastern with an aim to study brains. But she got an opportunity to do internship with Dana- Farber Cancer Institute and it changed her life forever. She worked in the radiology department at Dana-Farber, studying two different imaging techniques that are used to diagnose a patient’s cancer. At the end of her graduation, she got two opportunities- one in her field of brain studies and another in Cancer Research. Now, after her graduation in 2016, Stroiney works with her colleague Francis Nimick on a startup called Outcomes4Me, opting for Cancer research. It includes developing a mobile app that delivers personalised treatment information to people with breast cancer.
Sarah Sherman, another Northeastern University graduate got an opportunity to work in CaNCURE. She graduated from Northeastern University with combined literature and biology. Now, Sherman is pursuing cancer research in Bostwana.
Shraddha Patil
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