Awardees & Updates – 2011

Jessica Lacy is a MD candidate at the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology program. Jessica is working on developing tools for diagnosing difficult to detect early ovarian cancer masses before they grow and spread. This involves using PET/CT scans and imaging agents to detect the DNA repair enzyme PARP1 which is overexpressed by well known BRCA-mutant cancers. Jessica was valedictorian of her high school class and graduated from Harvard University summa cum laude in chemistry. She has won numerous honors and fellowships for her academic excellence. Her supervisor wrote “Jessica has proven herself to be highly adaptable, intelligent, and extraordinarily dedicated…her performance in the lab continues to impress. She is a superbly talented individual . . . easily among the top 5% of students in my laboratory and undoubtedly has a very bright future as a physician-scientist.”

Leah Novinger is a MD/PhD student at the University of Vermont College of Medicine specializing in cell and molecular biology. Leah’s research is in the field of breast cancer, specifically identifying and isolating individual antigens and antibodies that can be used in developing customized treatment with less toxic side effects typically associated with current options. As an undergraduate student at Penn State University she graduated with honors in biochemistry and molecular biology with an early focus on breast cancer. Her supervisor wrote “Leah is an exceptional student that is highly dedicated to a career in breast cancer research.”