OU Undergraduate Research Program to Expand with $1 Million NIH Grant

OKLAHOMA CITY – With a new grant from the National Institutes of Health, the University of Oklahoma Health Stephenson Cancer Center is growing its mission of building the next generation of health professionals.

The cancer center recently earned a five-year, $1 million grant to expand its CURE program – Cancer Undergraduate Research Experience – which provides undergraduate college students a hands-on opportunity to conduct cancer-related research. Since CURE began in 2012, it has been funded by Stephenson Cancer Center; the program’s success made the federal grant possible.

“We have been tracking our CURE students since 2017, and over 80% of them have entered a professional school. Most have entered medical school, while others are pursuing a Ph.D. or have entered dental school. I believe we are exposing them to experiences that enhance their drive to enter a health profession,” said Rajagopal Ramesh, Ph.D., director of CURE, a professor of pathology in the OU College of Medicine and associate director for cancer research, training, education and coordination for OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center.

In the past, CURE has welcomed six to eight students each year; with the grant, the number will increase to 15. CURE is a 10-week program, and students who are selected receive a stipend of $6,000. They are assigned to various labs on both the OU Health Campus in Oklahoma City and the OU Norman campus. Based on their interests, they conduct a wide variety of cancer research, ranging from laboratory-based and clinical research to tobacco science and biomedical engineering.

Faculty members oversee each student’s experience, while senior postdoctoral fellows typically work with the students on a daily basis. Ramesh said CURE is also a good opportunity for lab staff to learn mentoring techniques and interact with students who come from a variety of backgrounds and with varying research experience.

CURE students typically work on existing federally funded research. They often begin by duplicating research that has already been done, then progress to new experiments. If the work results in a research publication or meeting presentation, students will be named as co-authors, an achievement that will enhance their competitiveness in future educational goals. At the end of the program, CURE students also present posters about their research experiences.

OU student Steven Di Jorio found a rewarding experience at CURE working under the mentorship of Qinggong Tang, Ph.D., an associate professor of biomedical engineering on the Norman campus.

“CURE gave me direct research experience in cancer imaging, strengthened my technical skills in biomedical engineering and allowed me to contribute to publishable work. It also connected me with many knowledgeable faculty members and peers, which will definitely come in handy for my future applications to medical school and other research programs,” said Di Jorio, who is on track to graduate in May 2027.

CURE students also interact with other students who are taking part in similar programs. Ramesh leads a total of seven research experience programs: two for high school students, two for medical students, as well as another undergraduate program and a post-baccalaureate program, both sponsored by the American Cancer Society. Students from each age group are placed on teams for the Cancer Communication Competition, which requires them to work collaboratively to give a presentation on topics like smoking and lung cancer or nutrition and cancer.

“They may create a TikTok or a PowerPoint; they have to be very creative,” Ramesh said. “This type of teamwork opens up the channels of communication between age groups. They also have social gatherings to play pickleball and get to know one another.”

While CURE furthers students’ research skills and enhances their resumes, the experience is also about learning from failure, Ramesh said. In all research, many hypotheses do not prove to be true, but the effort still advances knowledge.

“Research is like life – it’s not always full of successes, but it teaches us how to become resilient and to rebound,” Ramesh said.

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About the project

The CURE program is funded by grant No. R25CA291599-01A1 of the National Cancer Institute, a component of the National Institutes of Health.

About the University of Oklahoma

Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university with campuses in Norman, Oklahoma City and Tulsa. As the state’s flagship university, OU serves the educational, cultural, economic and health care needs of the state, region and nation. In Oklahoma City, the OU Health Campus is one of the nation’s few academic health centers with seven health profession colleges located on the same campus. The OU Health Campus serves approximately 4,000 students in more than 70 undergraduate and graduate degree programs spanning Oklahoma City and Tulsa and is the leading research institution in Oklahoma. For more information about the OU Health Campus, visit www.ouhsc.edu.