Andrea Lim, a fifth-year molecular and cellular biology graduate student at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington, recently won a National Cancer Institute Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Fellow Transition Award.
The award seeks outstanding graduate students with the potential for pursuing a career as an independent cancer researcher. The award provides up to six years of support for graduate students through the process of finishing their doctoral dissertations (one to two years) and continued through their transition to mentored postdoctoral research training (up to four years).
Lim, who is working on her doctoral dissertation proposal, investigates the mechanisms of disseminated tumor cell, or DTC, quiescence (or dormancy) regulation by the lymph node microenvironment. DTCs are thought to be responsible for metastasis, or cancer spread, which can lead to cancer-related deaths.
