Student Profiles

Hannah developed an interest in research in high school where she was fortunate enough to have basic science exposure. She conducted breast cancer research on signaling pathways that were important to metastasis.  The lab focused on RAF kinase inhibitory protein (RKIP) signaling which functions as a metastasis suppressor by inhibiting cell migration, invasion, intravasation into blood or lymph vessels, and extravasation from circulatory vessels. These exciting projects unveiled how exciting science can be because she likened signaling to finding pieces of a puzzle.

Hannah remained in the same research lab during college. This allowed her to delve deeper into her passion for science to uncover more pieces to the puzzle in the RKIP signaling project.  From this experience she knew she wanted to further her knowledge in cancer research.  Consequently, a cancer project was her only criteria after graduation.  Luckily Hannah was able to work on a cancer project during my gap years. Her gap years also afforded her the opportunity to become exposed to Immunology and tumor immunology. She fell in love with this field during my time off. Hannah worked on resistance mechanisms to immunotherapy in melanoma, pancreatic cancer, and breast cancer and learned just how intriguing the human body is.  Hannah hopes to further her knowledge in immunology and discover novel ways the body’s best defense can perform its job in the fight against cancer.