Lanre Ajeigbe to join Advanced Pathways to Research Program (A-PReP)
In her second year as a PhD student in the Oral Biology Program, Olanrewaju Ajeigbe, known as Lanre, has been accepted in A-PReP, the research training program for doctoral-level professional health sciences students and early PhD students interested in clinical and translational research.
“I was particularly attracted to the A-PReP program because of its emphasis on translational projects, which is my field of interest,” she said. “I resonated with the goals of the A-PReP program, including scientific capacity building, scientific collaboration and networking. As someone who has mostly worked in the clinic and is just starting out in research, the program was a useful resource for me to develop critical skills that would be greatly impactful in my career.”
For 12 weeks this summer, Ajeigbe will be working with faculty mentors Rajaram Gopalakrishnan, BDS, PhD, professor and director of the Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology (known on campus as “Dr. Raj”), and Erin Dickerson, PhD, associate professor of oncology in the College of Veterinary Medicine. “The goal of my research is to understand the underlying mechanisms that influence the transformation of cells from a premalignant phase to a malignant state,” she said. “We want to understand this to potentially target metabolic markers that could halt the progression of oral cancer.”
“I hope to work with Dr. Raj on our project that focuses on identifying the monocarboxylate transporter (MCT1) as a potential predictive marker for the progression of premalignant lesions to a malignant stage,” she explained. “I hope to be able to present our work at the end of the summer and in other conferences in the future. In the long run, I hope my research can be applied in clinics by helping with identifying a potential metabolic marker that will aid in patient diagnosis and prognosis.”
She’s excited about this accomplishment and was happy to share the good news with her mentors. “I got the news about being selected on a Friday after a long day in the lab,” she recalled. “I was in the elevator, exhausted and thinking of what I'd have for dinner. I checked my phone, saw the email and all of the stress simply melted away. I was so excited. I had my eye on this application for quite a while, and I was just so elated to have been selected. I immediately emailed my mentors to share the good news. I am so happy to finally be able to carry out my proposed project.”
For those who might be interested in applying next year, Ajeigbe shared that she found it helpful to reach out early to the CTSI about possible grants. “I got so much information from that interaction, and I’d highly recommend that others contact them," she said.