There are some world-renowned cancer research facilities in the state of Florida — the Moffitt Center and the Mayo Clinic to name a couple — but until now, Southwest Florida went without such a program.
Florida Gulf Coast University birthed its own cancer research program just shy of a year ago, but it was students who were the driving force behind its inception.
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When WGCU first talked with the FGCU Cancer Research Program, it was sharing lab space with a fruit fly study and had little equipment to share between its members. Now, the club has secured lab space at the university's off-campus Emergent Technologies Institute and has the endorsement of the College of Arts and Sciences.
The students may not be entering the program with years of cancer research under their belts, but the founding faculty member, Dr. Lyndsay Rhodes, has enough experience for them all, having authored more than 30 peer-reviewed manuscripts in more than a decade of cancer research. Dr. Rhodes joins Gulf Coast Live to talk about the future of the program.
Also joining the show is the program's president, Nicole Mamprejew, who is a dual major in biology and psychology, and the vice president, Xylia Horgan, a fellow biology major.
