Aliyah Love, rising sophomore studying cancer biology, stands next to her research presentation in the Summer Undergraduate Research Expo.For many students at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, freshman year is a period of exploration. They gain exposure to a wide range of courses and faculty members, and, through these experiences, they find opportunities to further explore their interests.
For Aliyah Love, a rising sophomore studying cancer biology, freshman year has provided her an opportunity to further examine a long-standing area of interest: cancer.
“I’ve always been interested in cancer and also infectious diseases,” said Love.
Love is from Tampa, Florida, and discovered UAB during a visit to Alabama with her family. They made the trip so her twin sister could tour the University of Alabama and took a brief detour to visit UAB too.
“I came on campus, and everyone was really welcoming,” said Love. “It’s a big university, but it’s not too big. I can walk around campus and see familiar faces, and everyone is so friendly. And the staff here wants to help me be successful.”
In addition to its beautiful campus, friendly community, and helpful staff, UAB also offers an innovative and rare undergraduate program in cancer biology. The program is an interdisciplinary degree between the College of Arts and Sciences and the Heersink School of Medicine, and its co-directors are Drs. Braden McFarland and Sadanandan Velu. The program piqued Love’s interest for a number of reasons.
“[Cancer] is really frustrating because there’s no cure. It has a lot of unpredictable characteristics,” said Love. “My uncle passed about a year ago from cancer, that’s inspired me to study it more and be able to help people who are battling the same thing.”
Alongside being drawn to the campus environment and the innovative coursework, Love also learned that her father, mother, and uncle attended UAB. So, with all of that in mind, she decided to enroll in the cancer biology program at the University, jumpstarting her journey to helping people.
During her first year at UAB, she decided to apply for opportunities to participate in cancer research, leading her to a program titled, RAMP-UP: Research in Aging through Mentorship and Practice — Undergraduate Program.
RAMP-UP is a program within the Minority Health and Health Equity Research Center that focuses on “mentored research experiences and education in research regarding senior adults, aging, and health disparities research for underrepresented students in MSTEM fields.” The program follows a cohort model, and the students participate in research and receive mentorship for eight weeks during three consecutive summers throughout their undergraduate careers. This past summer was Love’s first experience with RAMP-UP, and it provided multiple opportunities for her to conduct hands-on research and learn from experts at UAB.
“My mentor is Dr. [Julienne] Carstens… she previously trained at MD Anderson Cancer Center. I’m working in her lab with a couple of graduate students,” said Love. “We’re studying metastatic pancreatic cancer. The formal goal of my project… is to develop clinically relevant metastatic mouse models that reflect patient tumor subtypes.”
As a rising sophomore, Love is still new to conducting research in a lab, but, given her long-term interest in addressing cancer, she embraced the newness and sought guidance from those around her.
“Over these eight weeks, it definitely has been a challenge, but in a good way,” said Love. “RAMP-UP is a really good experience for people to get more involved with research and figure out if that’s something they’re interested in… [the people in the lab] have been really helpful and answered all my questions, and they’re really patient with me in teaching me new things. I have gotten a lot out of it. I’ve learned so much that I didn’t know before.”
And, through this summer’s UAB Expo (coordinated by the Office of Service Learning and Undergraduate Research), Love had a chance to put her learning and research on display for her peers and professors. Her poster was titled, “Characterizing Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer Subtype Syngeneic Transplant Models,” and it proved to be a perfect way to end her first summer with RAMP-UP.
Now, as the fall semester approaches, she is beginning to look to the future.
“I’m preparing for next summer,” said Love. “I will be still in the lab—I’m going to volunteer a couple of hours a week… just so I can still stay involved throughout the school year. I’m still very excited [about cancer biology].”
