Summer Program for Academic Research in Cancer (SPARC)

The objective of the proposed Summer Program for Academic Research in Cancer (SPARC) at the Indiana University Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center (IUSCCC) is to provide cancer research career pathways for undergraduate and medical students. This objective will be achieved by providing mentored, high-quality, cancer-focused research experiences along with didactic and professional development workshops to undergraduate and first-year medical students to prepare them for cancer-related fields. Twenty-five trainees (15 undergraduate and 10 first-year medical students) will be recruited every year to spend 10 weeks performing cancer research and attending didactic and professional development workshops, clinical shadowing with physician-scientist mentors in the case of medical student trainees, and networking events. SPARC is open to any eligible student across the country with a residential option. Still, we anticipate the majority of undergraduate students to come from major universities in Indiana. In contrast, medical students are likely to be from IU School of Medicine or from Marian University College of Osteopathic Medicine. While undergraduate trainees will potentially become graduate students in the translational cancer biology PhD program, medical trainees can become part of our recently established Medical Oncology Clerkship. Sixty-five IUSCCC investigators with a proven track record of mentoring undergraduate and medical students and conducting extramurally funded research will serve as mentors. Project trainees will gain enhanced laboratory and research skills, including an appreciation of the cancer research enterprise and patient care, understanding of career opportunities, and a long-term academic relationship with mentors. Didactic lectures include basic cancer biology, immuno-oncology, and precision therapy, and professional workshops, including career opportunities, communicating science, manuscript writing, and tumor board to round out the summer experience. An administrative structure consisting of a principal investigator with administrative and mentoring expertise, co-investigators with program implementation, mentoring, and program evaluation experience, and a program manager with recruitment and community outreach experience has been established, along with program assessment/refinement by internal and external advisors. SPARC continues the success of IUSCCC in administering summer research programs for the past 20 years and expands the scope to fulfill the mission of the IUSCCC to educate students from a wider educational spectrum who will become ambassadors for cancer knowledge and research in their communities and eventually become biomedical professionals who help in reducing cancer burden.