Press Release 12-6-2023
Launch of a unique American Cancer Society-Fostering Innovation Award (ACS-FIA) Morehouse School of Medicine-Brown University Legorreta Cancer Center Summer Trainee Program
The Legorreta Cancer Center at Brown University, the American Cancer Society (ACS) and Morehouse School of Medicine have joined together to support an extended cancer research internship experience at Brown University. The summer internship originated via an ACS-Fostering Innovation Award (FIA) granted to ACS Professor Wafik El-Deiry at the cancer center. The award partners El-Deiry and Dr. Brian Rivers from Morehouse School of Medicine in support of educational and training collaborations. The 2-8 week ACS-FIA Morehouse School of Medicine-Brown University Legorreta Cancer Center Summer Internship Program is fully funded by the Legorreta Cancer Center and includes a generous weekly stipend for trainees.
“We were honored at Brown’s Cancer Center to receive funding from ACS for the innovative program to impact on training and career development of over 100 scholars at 4 HBCU’s including Morehouse,” said El-Deiry. “It has been a pleasure to interact with Dr. Brian Rivers at Morehouse School of Medicine Cancer Health Equity Institute, and Dr. Ellie Daniels at ACS as we brought the new summer internship to life this year.” El-Deiry presented a poster at the 2023 Annual AACR meeting entitled “Inclusive basic and advanced translational laboratory research competencies for research in cancer biology and therapeutics” in which he described the ACS-FIA Morehouse School of Medicine-Brown University Legorreta Cancer Center Summer Trainee Program and invited those who were interested to apply to the new program.
The inaugural summer student intern for 2023 is Mr. Nolan Stubbs, a medical student from Morehouse School of Medicine, who spent 8 weeks during the summer learning laboratory techniques and shadowing clinicians in the Department of Neurosurgery as well as Hematology-Oncology. As he progressed in his summer internship, Mr. Stubbs decided to spend more time on the research by taking an extra year between his 3rd and 4th years of medical school. His laboratory research at Brown on combination therapies including Tumor Treating Fields and their mechanisms is relevant to his master’s thesis in clinical research, a degree he is pursuing at Morehouse. Together, the neuro-oncology research and shadowing fit well with his plans to pursue a career in neurosurgery.
Nolan’s experience was enhanced by the collaborative research environment and ample educational opportunities in the research laboratory, various seminar and meeting venues at the Legorreta Cancer Center and the Department of Neurosurgery at Brown. Nolan said “I am grateful to Drs. El-Deiry, Rivers, and Daniels for the opportunity to work on a project learning techniques and contributing to brain tumor therapeutics research at Brown. The valuable experiences I have been gaining are critical to my development as a physician and scientist and improve my chances of being successful in a competitive field.” “I’m also excited to learn from other physician-scientists and for the opportunity to present at national meetings such as AACR and to publish my results in the coming year.”
Mr. Stubbs has also benefited from existing support mechanisms to eliminate health disparities and foster a culture of inclusion and belonging in the STEMM fields that exist at The Warren Alpert Medical School that has had interactions with Morehouse School of Medicine for years.
In support of this exceptional student, both Morehouse’s Center for Diversity in Cancer Research Training and the American Cancer Society were able to provide additional support so that Nolan can continue his research work and clinical shadowing at Brown through the end of May, 2024 when he resumes his medical school training back at Morehouse. In the future, the ACS-FIA Morehouse School of Medicine-Brown University Legorreta Cancer Center Summer Internship Program plans to accommodate 3-6 students for the 2-8 week internships at Brown University.