Holcombe, Queen Show Off New Cancer Center Outreach and Education Van to WCAX
The University of Vermont Cancer Center unveiled its new Outreach and Education Van on May 1 at the Vermont Statehouse in Montpelier. Cancer Center Director Randall Holcombe, M.D., M.B.A., and Katie Queen, Ph.D., deputy associate director of cancer research, training, and education, and colleagues were on hand to explain the many benefits of this “research lab on wheels” to WCAX-TV and other media.
“People [in rural areas] have less access to care and less information about cancer prevention and screening. And so we can address that, in part, through this van by bringing that kind of information and making sure that individuals in the rural communities have information about how to get access to the appropriate cancer screening,” Holcombe said.
Beyond education, the van is equipped with a full “BioMobile Discovery Lab”—complete with high-powered epifluorescence microscopes and other cancer research equipment—that allows scientists to actually screen for cancer out in the field and share resources for prevention.
In addition, the van will travel to schools in rural Vermont to give students a firsthand look at cancer research. “Students will actually get to do hands-on work with all this equipment,” said Queen.