The Cancer Center at Illinois (CCIL) is committed to training the next generation of researchers to become pioneers in their scientific fields. Beginning with educational outreach to middle school students, and then high school, undergraduate, graduate, postdoctoral, and early career researchers, the CCIL has structured programs designed to equip cancer scientists and engineers at every stage of their education and career development.
The following student stories offer an incomplete but noteworthy illumination of the numerous students in CCIL programs and member research labs who are excelling in a variety of ways in their educational journey.
Eesha Alaparthi
Cancer Scholars Program
1st place, 2026 WECE Hardware Hackathon
For an Indiana Jones-themed challenge at the 2026 Women in Electrical and Computur Engineering Hardward Hackathon, Eesha’s winning team designed and built “The Quest of the Cursed Temple”: an interactive, state-driven embedded hardware game featuring three progressively challenging modules with randomized gameplay and multisensory feedback. Eesha was joined by Nitya Vergis, Shreya Vijay, and Meenakshi Pillai.
Matt Beard
Cancer Scholars Program, Alumnus
University of Illinois Alumni Association Senior 100 Honorary
This award acknowledges notable Illinois seniors for both their past achievement and their future commitment to the University. The program serves a two-fold purpose: to honor what these select 100 have already accomplished and to recognize the skills of leadership and University loyalty these new graduates will bring to the world at large.
Cindy Chen
Cancer Scholars Program
Mayo Clinic Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow, Rochester, MN
This summer, select Illinois undergraduates joined researchers and clinical teams at Mayo Clinic in Arizona, Florida, and Minnesota, where they worked in laboratories, clinical research settings, and healthcare environments to experience collaboration, mentorship, and the day-to-day work of a major medical center.
Cindy is interested in developing therapeutics and personalized medicine for neuropsychiatric disorders. At Illinois, she works in the Cellular Neuroscience Imaging Lab analyzing changes in biophysical properties of tissues and cells associated with conditions such as traumatic brain injury. Returning to Mayo Clinic for her second summer in the SURF program, Cindy will continue pharmacogenomics research in neuropsychiatric disorders.
Sarah Guo
Cancer Scholars Program
Mayo Clinic Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow, Rochester, MN
Sarah is interested in immunology and cancer research. At Illinois, Sarah works in the Ranoa Lab studying interactions between CAR-T cells and the tumor microenvironment to better understand immune resistance in solid tumors. Returning to Mayo Clinic for her second summer in the SURF program, Sarah will study how early-life immune development in the intestine shapes oral tolerance, with a focus on neonatal T cell function and immune cell composition. Read the full bio.
Stephen Thomas
Cancer Scholars Program
Mayo Clinic Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow, Rochester, MN
Stephen is interested in neurodegeneration and musculoskeletal diseases. At Illinois, he works in the Chung Lab studying how neuron receptors influence hyperexcitability and seizure propensity. At Mayo Clinic, Stephen worked in the Assistive and Restorative Technology Laboratory to increase spinal cord stimulation study accessibility for patients with lower spinal cord injuries. He worked in the Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and Biomedical Engineering departments to improve patient outcomes through technical clinical studies.
Emily Depke
Cancer Scholars Program
The Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute’s 2026 Community-Academic Scholar
Emily and project partner Gurneer Sidhu are working with Health and Kinesiology Professor Rachel Hoopsick and the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District on Translating Baseline Findings from the HEALERS Study to Inform Healthcare Worker Well-Being. The project is a collaboration with the HEALERS (Healthcare Environments: A Longitudinal Examination of Resilience and Stress) Study, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District.
Emily is a Chancellor’s Scholar majoring in neural engineering with a minor in psychology. A volunteer experience in her own rural community led her to a passion for addressing systemic challenges in the medical field. Emily has been actively involved with the Cancer Center at Illinois, where she has participated in the Cancer Scholars Program and the 2026 International Cancer Education Conference (ICEC) Abstract Program. Her research for the ICEC focused on cancer screening disparities in rural regions of the United States. She also works in CCIL member Joseph Irudayaraj’s Cancer Toxicology lab examining the impact that exposure to Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) has on various organs. Emily plans to pursue a doctoral program where she can apply engineering and public health research to address health disparities in underserved populations.
Jackson Kohls
CCIL Student Organization member, Researcher in CCIL member Sayee Anakk’s lab, Alumnus
2025-26 Maleiha Carino Foundation Scholar
Jackon’s research journey includes cadmium-induced prostate cancer using 3D cell modeling at the UI College of Medicine and the Anakk lab at Illinois, where he independently designed an experiment testing whether bile acid transporter inhibition affects liver cancer cell proliferation. He leads a genetic analysis on a study examining sex-dependent links between dietary fiber intake and liver tumorigenesis in mouse models. He is also co-investigator on a study of cancer health disparities between rural and urban Illinois patients and presented two posters at the 2025 International Cancer Education Conference in Memphis, TN.
Anh Nguyen
Cancer Scholars Program
2025-26 Maleiha Carino Foundation Scholar
Anh studies Molecular & Cellular Biology at Illinois. Before her undergraduate studies, she had two state-qualifying high school projects on the Warburg effect and alcohol metabolism in cancer. She also performed glioblastoma research in Dr. Ruli Gao’s lab at the Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern. She is a co-author on a paper published in Circulation, a leading cardiology journal (Pan et al., 2025) and co-developed a computational library for studying alternative splicing in tumorigenesis. Anh currently works in Brenda Wilson’s lab, where she engineers bacterial toxin scaffolds to selectively degrade cancer-driving proteins like KRAS. Beyond the bench, Anh is on the Steering committee for the ACS Cancer Action Network Youth Leadership Caucus and was selected for the International Cancer Education Conference Abstract Program, where she led an independent project on gender-specific barriers to timely cancer diagnosis in women.
To read more about students in CCIL education and training programs, follow our “Get to Know a Cancer Scholar” series.
Editor’s notes:
Sources:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7455358567928193024/
This story was written by Jonathan King, CCIL Communications Coordinator.