The University of Colorado Comprehensive Cancer Center supports multidisciplinary education and training in the context of CU Cancer Center’s research and clinical mission through the development of novel programs, active participation in the training of mentees across a broad spectrum of educational stages including middle and high school students, undergraduates, post-baccalaureates, graduate students, medical students, residents, and fellows. We also provide career development activities for junior faculty (referred to as mentored members) and cancer-focused educational and training activities for cancer center members.
We place a major emphasis on the integration of training and education activities with cutting-edge basic, population, and clinical cancer research undertakings. Furthermore, in close collaboration with the CU Cancer Center Community Engagement and Outreach Office, we put a unique focus on including and recruiting underrepresented populations to participate in education and training activities.
Serve and improve the care of cancer patients by fostering the careers of cancer care providers, new investigators, and aspiring young scientists in cancer research, population science, and clinical care.
Educating and training the next generation of innovative leaders in translational, basic, clinical, and population science-related cancer research will conquer cancer.
CRTEC is dedicated to training the next generation of scientists. Click below to find out more about our K-12 programming that provides exposure and real-world experiences for young students in the cancer biology field.
CRTEC’s education and training initiatives for undergraduate and post-baccalaureate students engage scientific curiosity in the next generation by providing opportunities for students to explore future careers in cancer research while fueling the biomedical research pipeline. Click below to find out more about our undergraduate and post-baccalaureate programming.
CRTEC supports the education and training of graduate, medical, and postdoctoral students through the organization and facilitation of the Cancer Symposium Seminars and Colloquiums, dissemination of relevant training and grant opportunities, assisting with cancer-relevant training grants, and providing funding for training courses and innovation grants. Click below to learn more about the programming for graduate, medical, and post-doctoral students.
The Cancer Center hosts a symposium series each week during the fall and spring semesters that is organized and facilitated by CRTEC. In these symposiums, our Cancer Center members and students, learn about current research occurring in the field of Cancer Biology. Scientists from the CU Cancer Center in addition to distinguished researchers brought in from across the nation present their research at the seminars.
These CME-accredited seminars are held on Tuesdays from 12:00 - 1:00 pm MST in either a virtual or hybrid format as a live web conference with a Q&A session during the last 15 minutes. When COVID restrictions allow, pizza lunch is provided for those attending in person.
For the schedule of the upcoming Cancer Symposium Seminars:
Can’t attend a symposium session you are interested in? Most of the symposium sessions are recorded (with permission of the speaker) and posted on the Cancer Center Symposium Series YouTube Channel.
The 2023-2024 cohort of PIKE-PREP Scholars have arrived on campus!
Preparation in Interdisciplinary Knowledge to Excel - Post-Baccalaureate Research Education Program (PIKE-PREP) is a mentoring and training program directed by Dr. Eduardo Davila and Dr. Carlos Catalano and administered by Dr. Adela Cota-Gomez and Shawndra Fordham, which helps underrepresented post-baccalaureates to gain research experience and other needed training to gain admission into top-tier PhD or MD/PhD programs.
This year's Scholars have started the year off strong with an informative and fun orientation day, during which we got to know this wonderful and talented group of people. The scholars were also introduced to their research lab teams and started to get familiar with their research projects, where an abundance of their time and effort will be focused on.
This year's PIKE-PREP Scholars are Anne Williams mentored by Dr. Gidon Felsen, Brooke Linden mentored by Dr. Eduardo Davila, Daniela Gonzalez-Rivera mentored by Dr. Michael Harris-Love, Jordan Swartz mentored by Dr. Matt Sikora, Kat Arce mentored by Dr. Rachel Friedman, Megan Hupka mentored by Dr. Kelly Doran, Olivia Ovard mentored by Dr. Diego Restrepo, Rebecca Han mentored by Dr. Manisha Patel, and Zoe Drigot mentored by Dr. Sarah Clark.
Alongside their research projects, the Scholars will also participate in career and professional workshops on a variety of topics that will help them advance their career training and will present at either the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists (ABRCMS) conference or the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics & Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) National Diversity in STEM Conference. We are excited and honored to be able to support them on their professional journeys this year.
(Pictured: Top row left to right — Daniela Gonzalez Rivera, Kat Arce, Rebecca Han, Brooke Linden, and Zoe Drigot. Bottom row left to right — Megan Hupka, Anne Williams, Jordan Swartz, and Olivia Ovard)
CC2STEM’s pilot cohort of students are finishing up a successful summer of research! Community College to STEM (CC2STEM) is a program that gives Community College of Aurora students the opportunity to have a high caliber mentored biomedical research experience. This program was founded by the CU-AMC Chapter of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native American Scientists (SACNAS), led by Katia Nino, PhD Candidate in the Molecular Biology Program and HHMI Gilliam Fellow, and is collaboratively funded by a CU-President’s DEI Award and the CRTEC office.
This year’s CC2STEM students are Shrostina Magar mentored by Dr. James DeGregory and Mariana Olono mentored by Dr. Eric Pietras. They are working with their mentors and lab teams to gain valuable experience in the biomedical sciences. CRTEC will continue to work with the SACNAS student chapter to secure external funding to expand this already amazing program.
(Left Mariana Olono, Right Shrostina Magar)
This spring, five 2nd-year CU-SOM medical students received an amazing opportunity to present their cancer research nationally via the LaCamera Oncology Travel Awards (LaCOTA), thanks to funds generously donated by the LaCamera family specifically to support oncology training of CU-SOM medical students.
LaCOTA awards provided funding support for these medical scientists in training to present their research and participate in professional development activities at oncology-focused national conferences.
The five students who received the award in Spring 2023 were, Luis Barrientos, Jamie Burke, Bridget Foy, Sarah Shortall, and Caroline Walsh.
Through the LaCOTA program, these medical students had the opportunity to present at prestigious national conferences and gain valuable oncology training experience. Please join us in congratulating these future oncology medical scientists.
On Friday June 23rd, 2023, CRTEC hosted an amazing group of students from the Challenge Foundation to educate them about cancer research at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus through the Cancer Center Research Rangers (C2R2) program. The C2R2 program provides middle school students the opportunity to learn about cancer and cancer research through hands-on experiences.
C2R2 students got the opportunity to participate in interactive sessions, from seeing their own cells under a microscope to being able to see and touch lungs (simulated) that were affected by smoking. Through this program, C2R2 students learned about cancer basics, prevention, control and careers from highly experienced educators and researchers, Dr. Adela Cota Gomez, Dr. Kristin Schaller, Shawndra Fordham, Alexa Bauer, and Ben Kooiman.
Throughout the day, these amazing Rangers were very engaged and excited to learn from these experts, as well as participate in the hands-on activities. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity for these Rangers, and they gained valuable knowledge that we hope will carry with them throughout their lives.
Dr. Richard Schulick, Director, CU Cancer Center
Program Co-Director
Assistant Director for Education Administration
Education and Outreach
Program Developer
Student Assistant