A womans wearing blue gloves holds up a vial under a fume hood.
Duke's PRIME-PREP Program helped Gabriella Torres get the research experience she needed to become a PhD student in the Duke University Department of Integrative Immunobiology.

Filling in the Gaps

Published

A young woman in front of a fume hood.
Duke's PRIME PREP program helped Gabriella Torres achieve her goal of being accepted into the Duke PhD program in integrative immunobiology. Photo by Eamon Queeney/Duke University School of Medicine.
 

When Gabriella Torres was eight, she needed steroids to control asthma and allergies. Then her allergist recommended she take up swimming, and it helped. When she was nine, her younger brother was diagnosed with leukemia. He was treated and recovered. But watching him go through that left an impression.

As she got older, Torres had nothing but questions. Why did swimming improve her asthma? Why did her brother get so sick? And why did treatment work for him when it doesn’t for so many other children?

Torres was driven to find the answers. In college at New York University, she thought about becoming a pediatric oncologist; she pursued research experiences recommended for students interested in medicine. But then during her junior year an internship at a pharmaceutical company got her interested in pursuing a PhD. “I had never heard of getting a PhD before that,” said Torres, who is from New York City, where her parents are chefs. “But I was able to see that I could use my love of thinking critically about problems long term but still work on a project that relates directly to helping people.”

Torres was on the swim team in college and spent much of her free time training. But she got as much research experience as she could, then applied to the integrative immunobiology PhD program at Duke University School of Medicine in 2023.

Torres didn’t get in. Her goal of becoming a scientist could have ended there. Instead, she received a call from Johnna Frierson, PhD, asking her if she’d be interested in applying for Duke’s PRIME PREP Program, which provides a year of research experience to recent undergraduates.

Torres interviewed for PRIME PREP and got in, then she spent time at Duke conducting research in the lab of Stacy Horner, PhD, associate professor in integrative immunobiology.

"

I was able to work 40 hours a week in a lab and learn how to conduct a project, how to think critically about next steps, how to analyze my data. Those were all experiences that I had done very surface level in the past. It really gave me a different perspective as to what it takes to be a scientist. And I wouldn’t have had that experience somewhere else.

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Gabriella Torres / PhD student in the Department of Integrative Immunobiology

“I was able to work 40 hours a week in a lab and learn how to conduct a project, how to think critically about next steps, how to analyze my data,” Torres said. “And those were all experiences that I had done very surface level in the past. It really gave me a different perspective as to what it takes to be a scientist. And I wouldn’t have had that experience somewhere else.”

Torres also participated in professional development activities where she talked to other young scientists and to representatives of graduate schools from all over the country.

After PRIME PREP, Torres got admitted to seven graduate schools. She chose to enroll at Duke, and she’s now a first-year PhD student in the Department of Integrative Immunobiology. She didn’t want to leave the Duke community, she said. “The immunology program is on the smaller side, and that makes it feel more welcoming. I like being able to walk down Research Drive and wave to people and ask how their day is going.”

She’s a peer mentor for PRIME PREP this year, and she is excited that her younger brother is currently studying molecular genetics and microbiology at the University of Vermont. “He learned about a PhD through me, so now that’s his goal,” she said.

PRIME PREP is just one effort at Duke aimed at keeping talented people from all backgrounds on the path to becoming scientists and physicians.

Gerry Blobe, MD, PhD, director of education and training for Duke Cancer Institute, describes the goal of DCI’s efforts like this: “If someone wants to get involved in cancer, whether it’s research or clinical care, whatever level they are, is there a way for them to do that? And even more importantly, is there a way to make sure that it sticks?”

Many of these programs are federally funded, but donor support can help make the experiences better, Blobe said. “Offering team-building events, scientific skills courses, ability to take graduate level classes or computers to the participants — all of that is something that donors can help with,” he said.

Four diverse students sit at a round table.
Durham-area high-school students participating in HackBio.

Below are just a few examples of these efforts.

Cancer Career Exploration Day

Who: Undergraduates 
What: A one-day visit to hear about career options at Duke Cancer Institute, as well as how to apply to medical school and graduate school.
The goal: Teach college students about careers in cancer care and research.

Prime Prep Program 

Who: Recent undergraduates 
What: They spend a year at Duke conducting research and participating in professional development activities.
The goal: Increase enrollment in graduate school for students interested in medicine.

Hack Bio

Who: Durham-area high school students 
What: They visit Duke campus over four days to work together on projects related to human health and the environment, listen to speakers about topics such as college life and science communication, and work in teams to pitch a solution to an environmental problem to a panel of expert judges.
The goal: To get young people excited about careers in science.

Prime Summer Research Program

Who: Rising college juniors and seniors
What: 8-week program in Duke Cancer Institute labs
The goal: Give promising undergraduates better understanding of how laboratory discoveries can be translated to cancer treatment.

This article was originally published in the Fall 2024 Breakthroughs. Read more about DCI's breakthrough research and patient care in this biannual magazine.  

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Angela Spivey

Duke University School of Medicine

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