Sara Santagostino, a member of the Larner College of Medicine Class of 2028, and Israel Odekunle, a Ph.D. student in the cellular and molecular biology program working in the Seward lab, are 2025 Juckett Summer Fellows at the UVM Cancer Center (UVMCC). The two standout scholars scored in the top 10 percent of all applicants and earned the distinguished fellowship—which comes with a stipend of up to $5,000—in recognition of their promising cancer research and potential to make a lasting impact.

Santagostino’s project is “Detection of Epstein-Barr virus latency patterns in primary large B-cell lymphoma of the CNS”; her mentor is Larner Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Ashley Volaric, M.D. Odekunle’s project is “Utilizing precision-cut lung slices to study early transcriptional events in Kras-driven lung adenocarcinoma”; his mentor is Larner Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine David Seward, M.D., Ph.D.

This article was adapted from a story by Jane Teeling Chou, Senior Communications Professional, UVM Cancer Center.

Read more about the Juckett Summer Fellows at the UVM Cancer Center