Danielle Twum
Roswell Park Cancer Institute graduate student Danielle Twum has received the prestigious Emerging Scholars Award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), who recognized her among the distinguished alumni of its Continuing Umbrella for Research Excellence (CURE) programs. The CURE programs are supplemental funding mechanisms that support students from underrepresented minorities in their training in the cancer sciences. Ms. Twum received the NCI award in June in Bethesda, Maryland, as part of the NCI’s Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities professional development workshop, at which she was invited to speak on career pathways.
Over the past decade, Roswell Park has hosted more than 90 students in its CURE summer research program for high school and college students. Ms. Twum received this national honor based on her scientific scholarly achievements and significant participation in science-related professional development activities as both an undergraduate intern in the Roswell Park Summer Research Experience Program and as a graduate student in the Institute’s Graduate Division Tumor Immunology Program. A graduate of Vassar College, Ms. Twum received training in oncology and immunology in the laboratory of Thomas Schwaab, MD, PhD, as a CURE scholar in the Roswell Park Summer Program in 2011. She is now working under the mentorship of Scott Abrams, PhD, to study the role of transcription factors in immune regulation of myeloid-cell function and how they affect breast cancer progression.
Ms. Twum is an author on peer-reviewed publications, scientific conference presenter, invited TEDx presenter, lecturer in the high school summer program, and mentor to junior students in the research laboratory. In April, she was named runner-up in the “Three-Minute Thesis” competition hosted by the University at Buffalo Graduate School. ■
