Pitt’s first undergraduate cancer-focused research program is underway

Alexis Helsel has wanted to study cancer since middle school, but she was doubtful she would ever manage it. As it turned out, she didn't even need to wait until graduate school.

Helsel, a senior molecular biology major in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, is one of ten students in the first cohort of the Program in Cancer Training and Education (PICTE), launched in summer 2026 as the University's first cancer-focused undergraduate research program. PICTE offers a rare and transformative opportunity for early career scientists to step directly into the world of translational cancer biology.

Unlike most undergraduate research programs, which typically offer short summer placements, PICTE spans both the summer and fall terms, allowing students to build sustained research momentum. Fellows join one of 16 participating faculty labs, receive a stipend and housing allowance, attend regular cohort meetings and conduct hands-on research aimed at understanding the molecular mechanisms that drive cancer.

After their 10-week intensive summer program, the first cohort of students are now continuing their research into the fall.

Through lectures and lab visits, Helsel said, "we got to engage with different topics that we wouldn't really think about in regular biology classes, things like ethics and our responsibility to the community when we conduct research."

Helsel has worked in the lab of Avinoff Professor of Biological Sciences Jeffrey Brodsky since she was a sophomore and had been involved with a cancer-related project even before she joined PICTE. Patients diagnosed with stage 3 and 4 ovarian cancer experience high rates of later relapse, she explained - her project concerns a protein that's thought to be involved in a pathway that allows cancer cells to survive even through treatment.

"I'm trying to make cancer cells more sensitive to chemotherapeutics," she explained.

PICTE was developed by faculty in the Dietrich School's Departments of Biological Sciences and Chemistry, with leadership from Brodsky (above right) and Biological Sciences Assistant Professor Sarah Hainer (above left), both long-standing members of the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center's Cancer Biology and Genome Stability programs. Their shared goal is to prepare the next generation of cancer researchers and physician scientists by providing training far earlier than traditional pathways allow.

The program is supported by five years of initial funding, with the intent to expand both student slots and faculty participation in the years ahead.

More than a simple research placement, PICTE is structured as a community that emphasizes mentorship, professional development and forming a scientific identity. Students are given the tools to explore career pathways, interact with researchers and clinicians at the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, and develop the communication and leadership skills essential for future scientific success.

The program's first cohort includes students studying chemistry, epigenomics, biochemistry and cellular biology, and through weeks of seminars and other activities, networking among students gives them a chance to broaden their perspectives and make connections across research areas.

"As we progress through the summer session and now into the fall, we're learning how to communicate our science with our peers," Helsel said. "You gain so much deeper of an appreciation for what they're studying."

Later this fall, the first cohort of PICTE students will attend and present at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists in Seattle, a national scientific conference hosted by the American Society of Microbiology. The opportunity provides fellows with exposure to the broader scientific community and valuable networking with researchers across the country.

For Helsel, each of these is a step toward doing research that will concretely help people, she said.

"It takes trust to put into an undergraduate's hand projects that other people have worked on for so long and have been dreaming about for so long," she said. "I just feel very honored to be trusted to carry that, and I don't take it lightly."

Photography and some text material provided by the Dietrich School