CREATE Program

Examples of UH Cancer Center Interns Research Projects

Population Sciences in the Pacific

“The association of type 2 diabetes on survival of breast and colorectal cancer patients in the Multiethnic Cohort”
The objective of this study was to analyze the association of T2D on the survival of BC and CRC patients across five ethnic groups.

“Performance of polygenic risk scores of breast cancer risk in the Multiethnic Cohort”
The objectives were to evaluate the performance of polygenic risk score models in predicting breast cancer risk for different ethnic groups from the MEC and to investigate how PRS is affected by additional factors when predicting risk.

“’Court Cool’: assessing skin cancer intervention efficacy in Hawaiʻi high school athletes”
This project assessed the impacts of an educational skin cancer intervention adapted from the “Pool Cool” program on Hawaiʻi high school tennis team members in order to determine what aspects of the intervention can be most effective in improving sun-protective practices.

“Exposure to point-of-sale tobacco marketing and tobacco product use among young adults”
This study examined whether exposure to point-of-sale marketing of cigarettes and e-cigarettes was associated with a higher likelihood of cigarette and e-cigarette use among Hawaiʻi young adults.

Cancer Biology

“Initial screening for compounds that block TNF-α induced vascular permeability”
The goal of this project was to do an initial screening using a natural compounds library and find compounds that counteract the effects of TNF-α and enhance barrier function in cancer associated sepsis.

“Improving a gold and titanium containing metallodrug’s efficacy against bladder cancer”
This project was primary focused on creating and testing a metallodrug’s (pharmaceuticals that contain metals like silver or platinum to be used as anticancer drugs) effectiveness against bladder cancer in bladder cancer cells.

“Effects of the tumor suppressor Tcf21 on matrix metalloprotease activity”
The objective of this study was to determine how tcf21 expression affects MMP2 and MMP9 expression in the lung fibroblast cells through qPCR and zymography.

“Developing a workable cell system to study aging biology”
This project examined the effects of aging and accumulation of cell damage associated with cancer within the fanconi anemia genetic system over time using western blots.