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HYRS student in "dream job"

Local high-school student gets hands-on experience unraveling the genetics of cancer

(Edmonton, AB) When Jordan Lewis began his Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research summer job in a University of Alberta laboratory, he knew he would learn a lot about medical research. "But this is much better than I had imagined. We've been doing experiments every day, and getting some good results," says Lewis, who is funded through the Foundation's Heritage Youth Researcher Summer (HYRS) program to work in Professor Linda Pilarski's lab. "This has turned out to be the ultimate life‐changing experience for me."

Lewis is one of 20 Grade 11 students chosen to participate in the six‐week HYRS program, which provides hands‐on health research experiences in laboratories and clinics at U of A.

Also funded by AHFMR, Linda Pilarski, PhD, is a professor of oncology at the U of A Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry in the Cross Cancer Institute. Her team investigates multiple myeloma, an incurable cancer that attacks bone marrow and compromises the body's ability to fight infection. Overseen by PhD student Hemalatha Kuppusamy, Lewis has spent the summer studying blood and bone marrow samples of people with a pre‐malignant condition to multiple myeloma, analyzing a specific gene that is suspected to trigger this deadly cancer.

"It is my pleasure to mentor students like Jordan," says Kuppusamy, a member of Pilarski's cancer research team. "It's a good learning experience for me to guide a young student through the complexities of research. I'm excited about the work we are doing here, and it is rewarding to inspire that excitement in Jordan."

Pilarski's team is investigating the pre‐cancerous stage of multiple myeloma, working on new techniques to diagnose this cancer before it starts. "We are looking at the genes of people who have had this cancer, and also those who are predisposed, but did not get it. We're exploring what happens during that transformation into cancer. If we pinpoint that moment of transformation, we can offer people better options for treatment and for survival," says Kuppusamy.

In a couple of weeks, Jordan Lewis will return to high school in High Prairie for his final year of classes – but his dreams have grown along with his experiences in the lab. "This has got me thinking about a MD/PhD program," he says. "One day, I'd like to be a professor ... to have a lab of my own."

"Our role is to support excellent people – from students to senior researchers," says Jacques Magnan, PhD, Interim President and CEO, AHFMR. "The HYRS program gives students firsthand exposure to health research with some of the finest scientists in the world."

"If we can successfully mentor young people like Jordan and accelerate their understanding of and exposure to research, we will be helping to build the next generation of research excellence in our province," Magnan adds.

For more information please contact Karen Thomas, AHFMR Media Specialist, 1.877.423.5727 x225, 403.651.1112 (cell),


Background

  • Province‐wide, there are 42 students working this summer at the University of Alberta, the University of Calgary, and the University of Lethbridge.

  • This year, the HYRS program received 173 applications from Grade 11 students in 75 schools around Alberta. An adjudication committee of teachers from St. Albert, Lethbridge, Calgary, and Edmonton, and a professor from the University of Calgary selected 42 students. Sixteen of the HYRS students are from towns and rural communities across Alberta.

  • HYRS participants receive a grant to work on research projects supervised by AHFMR and university research mentors. The HYRS program hosts guest lecturers, poster sessions, field trips, and an open house where HYRS participants spend a day sharing what they have learned with their high school science teachers. AHFMR also offers three‐day workshops that give high school science teachers research training at the three Alberta universities.

  • Students who apply are required to have an 85% average, have completed core science subjects, two teacher references and a community reference, and write an essay about health research that interests them and why they want to be part of the HYRS Program.

  • The Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research funds more than 600 researchers and researchers‐in‐training at the University of Alberta, the University of Calgary, the University of Lethbridge, and their affiliated institutions. AHFMR's commitment is to fund health research based on international standards of excellence and carried out by new and established investigators and researchers‐in‐training. In 2005 the Alberta Government pledged an additional $500 million to the Foundation's endowment. The endowment supports an annual investment of approximately $60 million in health research in Alberta. Since 1980 AHFMR has committed more than $1 billion in funding to Alberta's medical research community. Visit www.ahfmr.ab.ca

    • For more information about HYRS: Jenelle Job, HYRS Program Coordinator, Northern Alberta, 780.423.5727 x233. www.ahfmr.ab.ca/HYRS/

    (Edmonton, Alberta) When Jordan Lewis applied to the Heritage Youth Researcher Summer (HYRS) program, he had no idea he would be transported into a world where scientists use sophisticated technology and genetics to fight cancer. The Grade 11 student from High Prairie is working in the laboratory of Linda Pilarski, PhD, who is supported by the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research and a professor of oncology in the University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry.

    Pilarski's research team investigates multiple myeloma, an incurable cancer that attacks bone marrow and compromises the body's ability to fight infection. Overseen by PhD student Hemalatha Kuppusamy, Jordan Lewis has spent the summer studying blood and bone marrow samples of people with multiple myeloma, analyzing a specific gene which is suspected to trigger this deadly cancer.

    Reporters are invited to a media availability in the Pilarski lab at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at the Cross Cancer Institute, 11560 University Avenue, Edmonton.

    WHAT: HYRS student describes his dream job in research

    WHEN: Wednesday, August 12, 2009, 10 a.m. – noon

    WHO: HYRS student Jordan Lewis
      His mentor, PhD student Hemalatha Kuppusamy

    WHERE: Room 2306
      Cross Cancer Institute (CCI)
      11560 University Avenue
      Reporters, please park in Lot D (on your right as you exit University Avenue into
      the CCI) and gather in the lobby for escort to the lab.

    For more information please contact Karen Thomas, AHFMR Media Specialist, 1.877.423.5727 x225, 403.651.1112 (cell),