ERIN MURRAY
This summer, Moffitt Cancer Center encouraged curiosity during its two summer internship programs, which are the Summer Program for the Advancement of Research Knowledge (SPARK) and ENCOURAGE-Diversity Program.
Inside the proteomics lab at Moffitt Cancer Center a few weeks ago, SPARK intern Alex Klug was finishing his final presentation.
“I am selecting the location of each sample, and then I am going to select them all,” said Klug as he sorted data on a computer. “They had me back for a second time. They call us ‘SPARKlers,’ or at least people in my lab do. So I am a two-time ‘SPARKler,’.”
In that lab, he worked on track-infusion cancer research. He studied the function, structure and nature of certain proteins.
“Through the experiences that I had in high school and doing more research about cancer, and obviously the personal family experiences, definitely as I was a high school senior, I knew I was going into undergraduate with a focus on doing cancer research,” Klug said.
Ovarian cancer took the life of Klug’s maternal grandmother. He never knew her because she died so young.
“My grandmother, she was not old. I think she was in her 30s or 40s, and cancer can affect you at any age. That is not something I understood as a kid,” Klug said.
Many interns at Moffitt have some tie to cancer, and it is what often drives them to want to find a cure.
Moffitt Cancer Center Molecular Oncology senior member and core scientific director, John Koomen, discussed the benefits of the program.
“In the high-level research environment, like we have here at Moffitt, we have a lot of advantages and a lot of equipment that they may not see in undergraduate research and undergraduate labs, so it is really great. Especially the second year, to spend more time with them, being productive in the lab, and already kind of understanding what to do,” said Koomen.
For Klug, using this high-level equipment is incredible.
“You can learn different concepts in the classroom, and practice them in university labs and high school labs. But here at the SPARK program at Moffitt Cancer Center, I feel like I have a certain degree of autonomy, as well as responsibility, and I feel like I am making an impact in patients’ lives,” said Klug. “It is such a fulfilling sensation knowing what you are doing is helping others.”
Klug plans to go into research, and he wants to be a physician, too. He is currently applying to medical schools, as he attends his final year at the University of Florida.
In total, 15 college students took part in the SPARK program and the ENCOURAGE-Diversity Program.
Source: Charter Communications
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