Chaminade University students are participating in high-impact STEM research at universities nationwide.
Through Chaminade University’s Undergraduate Research and Pre-Professional Programs, students like freshman Brielle Lo ’27 and Calista Ancog ’27, junior Scott Bowman ’26 and senior Alexandrea Cole Patino ’25 are participating this summer in cutting-edge STEM research at universities nationwide.
As part of a research project with the Social and Behavioral Interventions (SBI) program within the International Health Department of Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, Cole Patino has been involved in an extensive literature review of menstrual health and self-care, from menarche (the first menstrual period in a female adolescent) to menopause.
She said the literature review will be used to inform health care educational materials, self-care and more.
This summer, Cole Patino is participating in Johns Hopkins’s Summer Research Early Identification Program (SR-EIP).
“I will assist in writing, per Johns Hopkins University’s partnership with the World Health Organization, this PICO guideline, which I will present during the Leadership Alliance’s National Symposium in Connecticut in July,” she said.
As one of only 41 member institutions that make up the consortium of the Leadership Alliance at Brown University, Chaminade has helped guide students on how to advance their academic opportunities and enhance their educational experience through the Alliance’s First Year Research Experience (FYRE) Program and Summer Research Early Identification Program (SR-EIP) at select institutions across the nation.
The goal and purpose of the Leadership Alliance is to increase the participation of underrepresented and underserved students in M.D. to Ph.D. training programs.
To date, the Leadership Alliance has mentored more than 6,000 undergraduates and over 1,000 Leadership Alliance summer program alumni, known as Doctoral Scholars, have earned a Ph.D. or M.D. to Ph.D.
“The Leadership Alliance is guided by the principle that promoting and advancing underrepresented talent in research produces a significantly equitable and diverse research workforce and society,” wrote The Leadership Alliance Executive Director Taiese Bingham-Hickman, M.S., MBA, Ph.D., in a recent article titled, “Leading Towards Impact: Diversity and Leadership in Higher Education.”
“Catalyzing a culture of academic achievement, belief in expanding diversity in faculty ranks and promoting mentorship, the Leadership Alliance creates change that promotes and contributes nationally to discourse about diversity, equity and inclusion in our colleges and universities, and the research workforce.”
A participant in the Alliance’s FYRE Program, Lo is studying a type of cell signaling pathway known as the Wingless/Integrated, an ancient and evolutionarily conserved pathway that regulates crucial aspects of cell fate determination, cell migration, cell polarity, neural patterning and organogenesis during embryonic development.
“From what I’ve learned so far from my mentors at University of Miami, it is a fundamental mechanism for establishing polarity in vertebrate limbs during embryo development,” said the Kauai native. “It also ties heavily into cancer and cell fate determination/migration.”
Meanwhile, Bowman is conducting his own medical research with University of Coloradoʻs Anschutz School of Medicine’s Cancer Research Experience for Undergraduates. After losing his good friend, Victor Martinez, to colon cancer last year, the Silversword soccer player wanted to honor him by making an impact in the medical world.
“I started working in Dr. Weichhaus’s cancer research lab at Chaminade last spring, then when I got the opportunity to research colon cancer over the summer, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity,” said Bowman, who is participating in Colorado University’s Cancer Research Experience for Undergraduates.
“I’m expecting to gain practical lab skills and a wider knowledge of both lab procedures and cancer biology in general, as well as where I see my role in health care may be in my future career.”
Since being recast as the Undergraduate Research and Pre-Professional Programs—replacing the former Office of Health Professions Advising and Undergraduate Research (OHPAUR)—students’ appetite for participating in research projects has steadily grown since 2009, according to Amber Noguchi, Ph.D., Chaminade’s Program Director with the Undergraduate Research & Pre-Professional Programs.
“We promote all of the opportunities that we receive—usually via email—through our monthly URPPP (Undergraduate Research and Pre-Professional Program) newsletter and our internal Google site for students,” said Noguchi, who also serves as the Leadership Alliance’s primary coordinator with Chaminade University.
“We also held an Undergraduate Research Workshop Series during which students learned about research opportunities, as well as how to write an effective personal statement and prepare their applications. This past year, Dr. Justin Wyble served as our Faculty Undergraduate Research Coordinator and he ran our workshops.”
After shadowing graduate students and observing the different lab skills they utilize while working on their projects, Lo has grown an affinity of research, citing her own studies in the Wnt signaling pathway, and how it influences the anterior-posterior body plane development of starfish embryos.
“I am investigating this through conducting microsurgery on them, and using various chemical inhibitors to suppress parts of the pathway,” said Lo, who credits Noguchi for convincing her to sign up for the Leadership Alliance’s FYRE Program. “Initially I wasn’t too interested in the idea of research this summer as I wanted to pursue more health-based summer experiences.
“But I think since health depends on biology for the majority of its workings, it would be useful to take time to learn about it a little outside of the classroom,” Lo added. “It is an environment where I can build a variety of skills—from teamwork and presenting information to micropipetting and making an agarose gel.”
