Initiative One – 2025
Olga Buhlak
SASCO REU studentMentors: Will Shao
PIs: Jason Papin
Initiative One - 2025: Quantifying mitochondrial morphology and topology in colorectal cancer
A project under the SASCO umbrella focusing on studying the effect, and ultimately mechanism by which mitochondrial morphology and topology influences the distribution of proteins within the cell. My role in the project is to work with mitochondrial immunofluorescence data in order to develop a meaningful way to quantitatively describe mitochondrial morphology and topology, ultimately aiming to develop a set of features that can serve as a mitochondrial “fingerprint” for cell lines with distinct mitochondrial networks.
George Marshall
SASCO REU studentPIs: B.J. Purow and Matt Lazarra
Initiative One - 2025: Treatment of U251 Glioblastoma (GBM) Cells with Fluoxetine and Chloroquine
Treating glioblastoma cells with Prozac and chloroquine, then measuring effect on cell count.
Rose Olumuyide
SASCO REU studentMentors: Catalina Alvarez and Monse Gerado
PIs: Kevin Janes
Initiative One - 2025: Investigating the Feedback loop between FOXM1 and Cyclin F in Breast Epithelial Cells
My project will investigate how CCNF regulates FOXM1 activation throughout the cell cycle by combining protein measurements with transcriptional snapshots and computational modeling. First, I’ll synchronize cells at key cycle phases and directly quantify Foxm1 and Cyclin F protein levels at each stage. Next, I’ll use RNA-seq data from those synchronized cultures—and from breast cancer samples—to infer stage-specific FOXM1 transcriptional activity. Finally, I’ll map those activity profiles onto a model to reveal how CCNF-driven timing shapes FOXM1 dynamics and downstream regulatory programs. 2026 update: Rose is a Barry Goldwater Scholar in addition to previous honors of Ronald E McNair Scholar, John P & Anne Welsh McNulty Scholar, and NIH STEP UP Scholar.
Calum Dudgeon
REU studentMentors: Jeffrey Hsu
PIs: Kevin Janes
Initiative One - 2025: An Improved Image Processing and Quality Assurance Pipeline for Multiplexed Images of Premalignant Breast Tissue.
Annabelle Cao
Mentors: Andrea Denton
Initiative One - 2025: A Bibliometric Analysis of Citation Practices Among Basic Clinical Faculty in SASCO
Annabelle, a senior at Albemarle County High School, worked with the SASCO data manager, Andrea Denton, on A Bibliometric Analysis of Citation Practices Among Basic Clinical Faculty in SASCO. Annabelle will be attending Columbia University as an Egleston Scholar fall 2026.
