UAB ENhancing Research In Cancer-related Health professions (ENRICH) successfully completed its second year of the rigorous 10-week summer program to engage in cancer research at UAB.

ENRICH, an R25 grant from the National Cancer Institute, anchored in the UAB Department of Pathology, immerses students in the scientific process, foundation discovery and multidisciplinary translational frameworks for careers in cancer research. This program allows master-level graduate students from a diverse spectrum of disciplines to establish an innovative research experience through partnering with the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center, the UAB Physician Scientist Development Office and UAB Center for Clinical and Translational Science’s Training Academy. 

This cycle, held on July 24 at the Wallace Tumor Institute, hosted participants from UAB’s Heersink School of Medicine, School of Public Health and School of Health Professions. Each participant presented scientific posters and got the chance to deliver oral presentations at the symposium. Riyaz Razi, mentored by Dr. James Markert and Ethan Wan, mentored by Dr. Akash Desai, were the poster contest winners. Sophia Fox, mentored by Dr. M.K. Sewell-Loftin and Ananya Deshpande, mentored by Dr. Elizabeth Brown, were the oral presentation winners.

The program is led by Elizabeth E. Brown, Ph.D., M.P.H., Endowed Professor of Cancer Pathobiology, Associate Director for Population Science, O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center, Molecular and Cellular Pathology, Lalita Shevde-Samant, Ph.D., Associate Director for Education and Training, O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center, Professor, Molecular and Cellular Pathology, and Eve M. Phillips, M.P.H., Program Manager.

“We had an exceptional cadre of medical and graduate level ENRICH trainees in 2025. ENRICH trainees presented a broad spectrum of scientifically meritorious research across the cancer research continuum ranging from underlying biological mechanisms, cancer etiology and outcomes, interventions efficacy testing, implementation science, to health care utilization,” Brown says.

“Our trainees had the support of dedicated mentors whose mentorship was clearly evident in the high-quality of research that the ENRICH trainees presented,” Lalita says.

Learn more about the program and its requirements here.