Cancer Prevention and Control (CAPAC) Research Training Program

The application deadline for the CAPAC Program was extended to this Friday, January 26, 2024! Please make sure to submit all required documents before deadline!

Meet our CAPAC 2024 trainee, María F. Dos Santos Torres! María is currently a rising second year MD student from the University Puerto Rico, School of Medicine. During the summer, María has been working under the guidance and mentorship of Dr. Surangani Dharmawardhane at University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus. Their study focuses on identifying pharmacodynamic biomarkers for Rac and Cdc42 inhibitors in the treatment of pancreatic and breast cancer. #PancreaticCancer #BreastCancer

Meet our CAPAC 2024 trainee, Janlouis Rodríguez Figueroa! Janlouis recently completed an MPH in General Public Health from the University of Puerto Rico-Medical Sciences Campus, Graduate School of Public Health. During the CAPAC experience, Janlouis has been working under the guidance and mentorship of Marievelisse Soto-Salgado, DrPH and Lorena González-Sepúlveda, MS at the University of Puerto Rico Comprehensive Cancer Center. Janlouis is analyzing data from 2015 to 2021 to identify social determinants of health (SDoH) that affect smoking rates among people living with HIV (PLWH) in Puerto Rico. Using a cross-sectional study design and data from the Medical Monitoring Project (MMP), Janlouis will create an SDoH index based on the Oregon SDoH index to evaluate the relationship between SDoH factors and smoking. #SocialDeterminantsofHealth #CancerResearch

Meet our CAPAC 2024 trainee, Isabel T. Rivera Plata! Isabel is currently completing an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras Campus. During the summer, Isabel has been working under the guidance and mentorship of Dr. Abiel Roche Lima at the University of Puerto Rico-Medical Sciences Campus. They have been working on training machine learning algorithms to identify factors associated with cervical dysplasia progression. More specifically, their project utilizes clinical data in order to predict the determinants of cervical dysplasia that affect the Hispanic population, as Hispanic women face higher rates of cervical cancer, often with more severe outcomes. Their research aims to tackle these disparities in cervical cancer incidence by ultimately focusing on the unique needs within a diverse population. #HealthDisparities #CancerResearch

Meet our CAPAC 2024 trainee, Yaraliz Corchado Vargas! Yaraliz is currently completing a masters degree in Molecular Biothechnology from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico in Aguadilla. During the summer, Yaraliz has been working under the guidance and mentorship of Dr. Yisel M. Cantres at the UPR Conprehensive Cancer Center. They have been working in the development of 3D oral mucosal organoids as models to study oropharyngeal cancer and HPV. #OropharyngealCancer #CancerResearch

Meet our CAPAC 2024 trainee, Jazmar Villarini Torres! Jazmar is currently completing a master's degree in microbiology; Molecular Diagnosis at the Interamerican University Metro Campus. During the summer, Jazmar has been working under the guidance and mentorship of Dr. María González-Pons at UPRCCC. They have been working in examination of gene-environment interactions between SNPs in key cytokine gene promoters and the prevalence of gut bacterial toxin genes in samples with colorectal adenomas. #CRC #colorectalcancer

Meet our CAPAC 2024 trainee, Mirelys Valentín López! Mirelys recently graduated from her master’s degree in public health from Ponce Health Sciences University. During the summer, Mirelys has been working under the guidance and mentorship of Dr. Karen Ortiz and Dr. Axel Gierbolini at the Puerto Rico Central Cancer Registry from the UPRCCC. They have been working on a descriptive study of oral cavity and pharyngeal cancer within the Puerto Rican population. As a secondary project, she has been working in the phase of administrated questionnaires targeted at hematologist-oncologists to understand the barriers they encounter when discussing palliative care with patients and caregivers. #CancerRegistry #CancerResearch

Meet our CAPAC 2024 trainee, María Sofía Segarra Juelle! Mari Sofi is currently a second year MD student at the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine. During the summer, Mari Sofi has been working under the guidance and mentorship of Dra. Ana P. Ortiz at the UPR Comprehensive Cancer Hospital. We are looking at the prevalence of oral human papilloma virus in a population based sample of women in Puerto Rico. We will also be looking at risk factors for oral HPV prevalence in this population as well as correlation to cervical and anal HPV infections. #HPV #CancerResearch

Meet our CAPAC 2024 trainee, Sailing Jane Tak Tang! Sailing has recently completed a dual MS/MPH degree in Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology and Geospatial Data Science from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. During the summer, Sailing has been working under the guidance and mentorship of Dr. Ana Patricia Ortiz and Dr. Nancy Cardona Cordero at the UPR Comprehensive Cancer Center. They have been working on identifying neighborhood characteristics of Puerto Ricans and Superfund sites (heavily contaminated sites designated by the Environmental Protection Agency). A secondary project is linking this information to cancer incidence rates with publicly available contaminant levels from the Toxic Release Inventory. #EnvironmentalHealth #CancerResearch

Meet our CAPAC 2024 trainee, Valeria M. Schleier Albino! Valeria recently completed a master’s degree in environmental health from the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus. During the summer, Valeria worked under the guidance and mentorship of Dr. Magaly Martinez Ferrer at Comprehensive Cancer Center. They have been conducting extensive research on the effects of Methyl Jasmonate (MJ) on cancer cells, focusing specifically on the A-253 cell line, which is derived from human salivary gland carcinoma. Methyl Jasmonate, a plant hormone involved in stress response and defense mechanisms, has demonstrated significant anti-cancer properties in various studies. The research aims to elucidate the underlying mechanisms by which MJ induces apoptosis (programmed cell death) and inhibits proliferation in cancer cells. #CancerResearch #CancerPrevention