Program Overview

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Cancer Research Experience for Undergraduates (CREU)

The Cancer Research Experience for Undergraduates (CREU) is a summer program at the University of Colorado Cancer Center. The program is supported by an R25CA grant and the University of Colorado Cancer Center.

Program Description

The goal of the program is to engage scientific curiosity in the next generation of scientists, challenging qualified college undergraduates to consider a cancer-related career in the future. Selected college undergraduate fellows spend ten weeks in laboratories at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

Important Dates

• Applications open on November 15, 2025, and close on February 1, 2026.
• Program dates are May 26 to July 31, 2026.

Program Information

What to Know About the Cancer Research Experience for Undergraduates

• Fellows work full-time for approximately ten weeks during the summer.
• Fellows may not combine their research work with other significant work commitments or daytime class work.
• Stipends are paid in biweekly installments through direct deposit as fellows complete their program requirements.

Fellowships Are Open To

• Students currently enrolled at an undergraduate institution, including seniors, at the time of application submission.
• Students who are able to devote 40 hours per week to this program.
• U.S. citizens, permanent residents, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients.
• Individuals from all backgrounds who seek to expand knowledge, representation, perspectives, and/or experiences in the biomedical sciences.

Fellows Receive

• CREU/SURF students receive a $6,000 stipend, paid over the 10-week program.
• Out-of-state students receive up to $500 for travel to the program by air, car, or public transit.
• $1,000 to use towards housing, paid over the 10-week program.

Program Requirements

Fellows must commit to completing program requirements. If selected as a fellow, participants must sign a Student Agreement committing to these requirements:

Orientation

Orientation will be held on the first day of the program. This one-hour meeting is mandatory for all fellows.

Goals and Objectives

With the help of their mentor, fellows will write a two to three-page, double-spaced report describing the goals of their research project. The report is due within ten days of the start date.

Twice-Weekly Lectures

All fellows are required to attend twice-weekly lectures on various topics related to cancer research.

Clinical/Translational Workshops

These half-day workshops feature speakers from faculty and biotechnology companies on the CU Anschutz campus.

Career Mentoring

Informal discussions will be held during the ten weeks, with topics including academic career trajectories, biotech/pharmaceuticals careers, life/work balance, and others.

Poster Session

All fellows will participate in the annual poster session on the last day of the program.

Program Mentors

When applying to be a CREU/SURF fellow, participants will select four mentors they would like to work with and note them on their application. The program makes every effort to assign fellows to their first choice, but may make alternative assignments based on mentor availability.

Research Interests

The following mentors and their research interests are available for the program:

• Caitlin Bell, MD: Extensive population-level evidence demonstrates that patients with cancer have significantly increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.
• Benjamin Bitler, PhD: Investigating novel DNA damage repair mechanisms that can be targeted to overcome therapy-resistant ovarian cancer.
• Andrea Bonetto, PhD: Molecular mechanisms related to the onset of cachexia in colorectal cancer.
• Virginia Borges, MD, MMSc: Determining the reasons why young women's breast cancer has worse recurrence and survival outcomes.
• Alessandra Brambati, PhD: Studying the molecular mechanisms that regulate microhomology-mediated end-joining (MMEJ), a poorly understood DNA double-strand break repair pathway.
• Cecilia Caino, PhD: Interested in liver metastasis.
• Zachary Clayton, PhD: Employing preclinical to clinical translational experimental approaches to determine the influence of cancer and cancer therapy on cardiovascular disease risk.
• Kyle Concannon, MD: Studying targetable resistance mechanisms to tyrosine kinase inhibitors in lung cancer.
• James DeGregori, PhD: Research focusing on mutational patterns in normal lung or on hematologic malignancies.
• Elan Eisenmesser, PhD: Biochemical and structural studies on metabolic enzymes and their superassemblies.
• Patricia Ernst, PhD: Studying epigenetic mechanisms regulating normal hematopoiesis and leukemia.
• Xiying Fan, PhD: Utilizing large-scale sequencing tools to better understand the mechanisms of cancer immunoediting.
• Daysha Ferrer Torres, PhD: Studying how the esophagus repairs itself after injury and how these processes differ across racial and genetic backgrounds.
• Craig Forester, MD, PhD: Seeking to define how epitranscriptomic changes impact specificity in protein synthesis.
• Michael Graner, MS, PhD: Understanding how tumor/host immune responses in immune suppression and immunotherapy development.
• Adam Green, MD: Investigating pediatric high-grade glioma.
• Curtis Henry, PhD: Researching obesity-induced T-cell function using biophysical and bioengineering assays.
• Rebecca Ihrie, PhD: Focusing on brain tumors across the lifespan and their relationship to stem cells of the developing and adult brain.
• Craig Jordan, PhD: Evaluating leukemia stem cell biology and therapeutic vulnerabilities.
• Miria Kano, PhD: Investigating survivorship care for people diagnosed with breast cancer and barriers to clinical trial enrollment for those diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
• Laurel Lenz, PhD: Doing basic research geared towards improving the activation and impact of natural killer (NK) cells in the context of cancer and other diseases.
• Traci Lyons, PhD: Studying the relationship between semaphorin 7a and mesenchymal and macrophage-related phenotypes.
• Siddhartha Mitra, PhD: Leading an independent laboratory focused on researching tumor immunology and exploring the crucial role of oncogenes in controlling tumor immune surveillance.
• Joe Nassour, PhD: Studying how activation of the RAS pathway triggers the senescence program, causing cells to permanently stop dividing.
• Mike Oliphant, PhD: Integrating single-cell genomics, patient-derived organoids, and high-throughput drug screening to understand how breast cancers begin and how they rewire their metabolism to become resistant to therapy.
• Eric Pietras, PhD: Investigating metabolic targeting of pre-leukemic stem cells in clonal hematopoiesis and myelodysplastic syndrome.
• Todd Pitts, PhD: Developing new novel therapies for colorectal and pancreatic cancers.
• Jennifer Richer, PhD: Elucidating mechanisms of endocrine therapy resistance in women's cancers and identifying targetable proteins involved in tumor progression.
• Rebecca Schweppe, PhD: Determining how the androgen receptor mediates resistance to BRAF inhibition using innovative in vitro approaches.
• Natalie Serkova, PhD: Applying advanced MRI imaging protocols to detect, characterize, and differentiate brain tumor subtypes.
• Dan Sherbenou, MD-PhD: Utilizing primary bone marrow biopsies in developing new therapies, personalizing the application of current drugs, and designing novel drug combinations to treat acquired resistance.
• Meredith Tennis, PhD: Investigating a molecular profile of persistence in lung premalignant lesions for mechanistic connections to activity to a lung cancer prevention agent.
• Linda van Dyk, PhD: Researching cancer biology, gene regulation, and microbiology virology.
• Rajeev Vibhakar, MD, PhD: Investigating mechanisms of resistance in pediatric brain tumors using patient-derived cells and advanced molecular techniques.