Sometimes the friends you make can shape the path you take. Perhaps no one knows that better than Angela Sosin, a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Wayne State University School of Medicine’s Cancer Biology Graduate Program.

Sosin’s family moved to Macomb Township when she was 8 years old. She made quick friends with three other girls in her new neighborhood. They were inseparable at times, for the next decade, until each went off to different universities. They grew up together, and became part of each other’s families.

“Their parents were, and still are, very much like my own parents,” Sosin said.

As an undergrad, Sosin learned that the mother of one of her friends had been diagnosed with breast cancer.

“Nothing seemed to make any sense, and answers to questions simply led to more questions. I had a hard time grasping how this could happen to someone close to my parents' age,” she said. “I couldn't even imagine losing a parent that wasn't 'old.’”

The Birmingham resident was always inquisitive, she said, so it certainly wasn’t unlike her to question the diagnosis of someone close to her. “I felt that there was always a reason for anything and everything, and can remember frustrating some of my teachers in elementary and middle school by asking so many questions,” she said.

In retrospect, the experience is one that drove her to inevitably get into cancer research, although she didn’t realize it until years later, she said.

Sosin has renewed a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award, or T32, training grant from the National Cancer Institute for a second consecutive year. She is one of five Cancer Biology Graduate Program students in the T32 program. The grant for pre-doctoral students is worth more than $22,000 every year. Her dissertation mentor is Ayad Al-Katib, M.D., professor of Internal Medicine, Division of Hematology and Oncology, and her project is titled “Targeting MDM2 for therapeutic intervention in B-cell lymphoma.”

She received a bachelor’s degree in microbiology and molecular genetics from Michigan State University, and was working as a molecular biologist at a contract research company in Wheeling, Ill., before deciding to pursue her doctoral degree. She chose WSU because she was offered some financial support, liked the idea of being near her family and friends, and appreciated its affiliation with the Karmanos Cancer Institute.

“To me, it meant a broad, in-depth multidisciplinary training experience that would extend well beyond the laboratory,” she said.

Sosin developed a strong interest in hematological malignancies -- cancers of the blood, bone marrow and lymph nodes -- during her first year of graduate school. Her research interests now include developmental therapeutics and their translation into clinical relevance.

Jonathan Irish visited his uncle’s physics lab as a child. He helped set up a few basic experiments for fun, and watched a superconductor sample float above a magnet, cooled with liquid nitrogen.

“Seeing it levitate and remain there in front of me, above a bench? That hooked me,” he said.

The visit was only a few hours, but it made a lasting impression. It was his first glance at laboratory science, and he remained fascinated throughout elementary and secondary school thanks to great teachers, he said.

Irish is now a third-year student in the Wayne State University School of Medicine’s Cancer Biology Graduate Program. He’s using the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award, or T32 training grant, he secured from the National Cancer Institute to study the role epigenetics play in breast cancer -- in a lab, of course. The grant for pre-doctoral students is worth $22,000 every year.

He is co-mentored by Zengquan Yang, Ph.D., assistant professor of Oncology, and Stephen Ethier, Ph.D., voluntary professor of Oncology.

“My motivation for studying cancer is both humanitarian and personal, although on a personal level, the motivation comes from a natural curiosity in something so complex as the field of cancer research,” Irish said.

The lab he trains in studies oncogenes in breast cancer. Oncogenes are those that cause cancer to become malignant. “It is incredibly interesting, and because it affects most of us, or will at some point in our lives, it is important,” he said.

According to the American Cancer Society, 1,596,670 new cancer cases and 571,950 deaths from cancer were projected in the United State in 2011.

Irish’s project is titled “Epigenetic Mechanisms of Transformation for the NSD3 Oncogene in Human Breast Cancer Cells With the 8p11-p12 Amplicon.” He is driven by studying oncogenes that have not yet been characterized and successfully targeted therapeutically. He said he appreciates that the T32 training grant confirms his questions are a small but important part in the lab’s overall research focus.

“To me, being awarded a position on the training grant was confirmation that someone thinks I can do a good job, coupled with the expectation that I go ahead and get the job done. So, it’s a great motivator for both of those reasons,” Irish said. “To make even a small contribution toward understanding even one type of cancer better, in order to better prevent or treat it, would mean a lot to me.”

Irish, a Lansing native, earned his undergraduate degree from Michigan State University.

Shermaine Mitchell-Ryan, a third-year Ph.D. student in the Cancer Biology Graduate Program at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, received the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards for Individual Predoctoral Fellowships (F31) to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research from the National Institutes of Health.

“The F31 grant will play a critical supporting role in my pursuit of a career as an academic scientist, ensuring that the field of science will be open to diversity in thought and person,” said Mitchell-Ryan, who is mentored by Larry Matherly, Ph.D., professor of Oncology and Pharmacology. “I am extremely grateful for this support and committed to following in the footsteps of Dr. Kirschstein by dedicating myself to mentoring, encouraging and supporting individuals from communities underrepresented in research science.”

Kirschstein was considered an icon at the NIH. She performed important laboratory work on the polio vaccine, was the first woman to direct an NIH (the National Institute of General Medical Sciences) and served as deputy director and acting director of the NIH. She advocated for research training, especially interdisciplinary predoctoral programs and programs to increase the ranks of minority researchers and physician-researchers.

"Shermaine is a unique student in terms of her commitment to an academic career,” Dr. Matherly said. “As an African-American woman, she serves as an excellent role model to other under-represented minorities who might have a penchant for scientific research and academic achievement."

Being nominated by Dr. Matherly, Mitchell-Ryan said, was “was an honor in itself -- a clear demonstration of Dr. Matherly’s faith and belief in me as a graduate student who embodies the ideals and principles the award is based upon.

“As an African-American female from a working class family of very modest means, I experienced firsthand a dearth of scientist role models familiar to me,” she said. “I struggled to find people to help me believe that a nerdy, inquisitive and sassy little black girl with a microscope could grow up to be the scientist I so badly wanted to be.”

Mitchell-Ryan obtained her bachelor’s degree in biology at St. Mary’s Public Honors College of Maryland and a master’s degree in cancer biology, prevention and control from the University of the District of Columbia and the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University. She is participating in research that focuses on the development of novel therapeutics that target tumors that express folate receptor alpha.

In addition to her current award, she previously received the Dean’s Diversity Fellowship and a Rumble Fellowship. She holds an appointment on the NIH T32-CA009531 Training Grant.

With a strong interest in health care disparities, Mitchell-Ryan hopes to become an independent investigator focusing on therapies that may aid in reducing the disproportional rates of cancer incidence, morbidity and mortality in the African-American community.

In addition to her academics, she was elected student representative for the Cancer Biology Graduate Program and serves as a volunteer for the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute and Susan G. Komen Detroit Race for the Cure Volunteer Speakers Bureau.

Magen Marie Johnson, a third-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Pharmacology at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, was awarded a competitive Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award for Individual Predoctoral Fellows (F31) from the National Institutes of Health to support her doctoral dissertation project, “A profile of addiction: the midbrain transcriptome in cocaine abuse.”

Drug addiction is a chronic and relapsing disorder associated with significant costs to both affected individuals and society at large. This two-year fellowship will support Johnson’s research investigating the molecular basis of human drug addiction, with the ultimate goal of identifying novel targets for the treatment of addiction.

“Magen clearly has the aptitude and motivation needed to become a successful biomedical scientist” said Michael Bannon, Ph.D., professor of Pharmacology, who serves as her dissertation mentor. “She learned a tremendous amount during the preparation of her fellowship application, and the receipt of this award will certainly advance her career development.”

Johnson obtained her bachelor’s degree in biopsychology from the University of Michigan before coming to Wayne State University to earn her doctorate.

In addition to her current NIH award, she previously received a WSU Rumble Fellowship. She serves as the elected student representative in the Department of Pharmacology.

The award is named for the first woman to direct an NIH component (the National Institute of General Medical Sciences) and served as deputy director and acting director of the NIH. She advocated for research training, especially interdisciplinary predoctoral programs and programs to increase the ranks of minority researchers and physician-researchers.

A student in the Wayne State University School of Medicine’s M.D./Ph.D. program has been awarded a prestigious F30 fellowship by the National Institutes of Health for his research into the additional beneficial effects of cryotherapy in the fight against cancer.

Jesse Veenstra’s award of the $199,000, five-year fellowship includes a stipend, 60 percent tuition coverage and a health insurance allowance for the remaining years of medical school and doctorate training.

Originally from Cadillac, Mich., Veenstra, who now lives in Royal Oak, has completed his first two years of medical school and is in his second year of doctoral studies in the cancer biology program.

Veenstra, 26, is studying cancer immunotherapy under Wei-Zen Wei, Ph.D., professor of Immunology and Microbiology for the School of Medicine and the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute. Specifically, he is researching the mechanisms by which cryosurgery provides additional benefits in fighting cancer.

“Cancer is a difficult disease to treat due to its destructive nature,” Veenstra said. “This is especially true in the aging population, where patients are less able to tolerate more aggressive therapies, such as invasive surgery and chemotherapy regimens. Alternatively, cryosurgery -- the use of freezing temperatures to destroy diseased tissue -- is increasingly recognized as an efficient, minimally invasive method of treating solid tumors. Compared to surgical resection, cryosurgery is less damaging to surrounding structures, places less stress on the body, has improved patient comfort, is more affordable and provides a better cosmetic result.”

Perhaps more importantly, Veenstra noted, cryosurgery has the potential to induce an immunologic response to tumor-associated antigens released from the ablated tumor. That response can prevent tumor recurrence and is capable of eliminating distant metastatic origins.

But, since such a response has not yet been witnessed consistently clinically, and researchers don’t yet know the mechanisms by which cryoablation induces anti-tumor immunity, the goal of Veenstra’s project is to elucidate these mechanisms by studying the interaction between the immune regulatory system and cryoablation.

“We hypothesize that cryoablation in coordination with DNA vaccination and immune modulation will promote effector mechanisms and overcome suppressive elements to provide long-term anti-tumor protection capable of eliminating metastatic disease,” he said.

Veenstra said he was attracted to the field of immunology and oncology since he was first exposed to basic pathology as an undergraduate student at Grand Valley State University, from which he received a degree in biomedical science.

“I enjoy the highly cerebral, problem-solving approach needed to understand the intricate workings of the immune system as well as the mechanisms of cancer development,” Veenstra said. “After further exposure to each field throughout medical school it has been clear to me that both fields are heavily intertwined with one another.”

After graduation, Veenstra plans to develop a career that combines clinical practice and research aimed at understanding the pathways by which immune memory and killing lead to cancer regression and how failures in these pathways can lead to cancer progression. “This will ultimately provide better diagnostic tools, management strategies and alternative treatment options for cancer patients who are not able to tolerate current therapies.”