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Carla Canepa ´08 completes American Cancer Society research fellowship

Carla Canepa ´08, right, poses with David T. MacLaughlin, the associate director of the Pediatric Surgical Research Laboratories at Massachusetts General Hospital and the chairperson of the American Cancer Society´s fellowship program

August 23, 2007

A self-proclaimed "cancer freak," Carla Canepa ´08 spent her summer the only way she wanted to: researching cancer at the Maine Medical Center Research Institute (MMCRI) as an American Cancer Society Junior Research Fellow.

While donning a lab coat and anxiously watching cell plates under fluorescent lights isn´t everybody´s idea of the perfect summer, Canepa describes the experience as "the coolest thing" she has ever done. "It was fascinating," she said. "I was in the lab from eight to five every day, and I was working with a Ph.D. who is focusing on one particular gene and its signaling role in cancer. The research experience I got just being in the lab and learning the techniques was incredible."

A biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology major, Canepa has always been interested in science, but developed a keen curiosity for cancer during her freshman year. "I had to read a book called ´One Renegade Cell,´ which is basically an overview of cancer research," she said. "I had no idea what cancer really was before I read this book, and it was just the most interesting thing."

Ever since completing that fateful assignment, Canepa has put herself on a path to fulfilling her ultimate goal: to make significant advances in the search for a cancer cure. With the help of Connecticut College´s center for Career Enhancing Life Skills (CELS), she discovered the Alvan T. and Viola D. Fuller American Cancer Society Junior Research Fellowship, a 10-week program that provides a $4,000 grant to New England undergraduates to participate in lab research with accomplished investigators.

The fellowship put her in touch with Dr. Jeong Yoon, who studies human breast cancer cells at MMCRI. Yoon put Canepa in charge of a developing her own cell line. "Basically, I got a few vials of cells and I had to grow them and prepare them for experiments," she said. Once her cells were ready, Canepa helped Yoon study the effect of a particular gene on carcinogenesis, or the process by which normal cells are transformed into cancer cells.

Working with and learning from the 21 doctors at MMCRI taught Canepa just how complex and diverse cancer research really is. "Cancer is such an overwhelmingly complicated disease, and there are so many people trying to discover the different aspects of it," she said. Still, Canepa is proud to have contributed to the field. In early August she presented her research to members of the American Cancer Society and the other 12 junior research fellows.

This year, Canepa hopes to complete a senior thesis and continue to hone her lab skills as a research assistant for one of Connecticut College´s professors. After graduation, she would like to take a year off to travel, but then she hopes to be off to medical school to study oncology in continued pursuit of her dream.

For more information contact: Amy Sullivan (860) 439-2526; amy.sullivan@conncoll.edu