The Cancer Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) program is the undergraduate program of USC Michelson CSI-Cancer. Each student is assigned a mentor who helps them work on a specific project. CUREs can be seen in both the wet and dry lab, developing assays and creating Markov chain models. Being a CURE student cannot be defined; it is up to the student to set their own goals and project!
USC undergraduates interested in the research in our lab are also encouraged to enroll in BISC 410: Applications of Molecular Biology to Medicine taught by professors Kuhn and Hicks available in spring semesters. Students should review the prerequisites leading up to BISC 410.
The Fall 2023 application is closed! Please check back in January for updates on the Spring 2024 application.
Please contact Allie Welsh, awelsh@usc.edu, with any questions.
The CURE Team

Christina Chang
Team: Retinoblastoma
See MoreMajor: Biochemistry
Minor: Public Health, East Asian Languages and Culture
Joined: Fall 2021
Research Focus:
Scholarships and Fellowships: Presidential Scholarship, USC Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship
Involvements on Campus: Science Outreach, AMWA
Talk to me about: Dramas and table tennis

Brandon Ye (he/him)
Team: UTUC
See MoreMajor: Quantitative Biology
Minor:
Joined: Fall 2021
Research Focus: Substantiating predictive models for metastatic relapse in newly diagnosed UTUC patients utilizing a multi-cancer liquid biopsy approach.
Scholarships and Fellowships: Presidential Scholarship, USC Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship, USC Dornsife SURF
Involvements on Campus: Healthcare Markets Initiative @ USC Schaeffer, USC MEDesign, Science Outreach
Talk to me about: NBA basketball, spikeball, and John Mayer

Srikar Kolluru (he/him)
Team: Legacy LMD, MUC1 CAR-T
See MoreMajor: Human Biology
Minor: Business
Joined: Spring 2022
Research Focus: Understanding disease progression and cellular enumeration in terminal LMD patients.
Scholarships and Fellowships: Spring 2022 Gala Foundation Innovation & Convergence Scholarship
Involvements on Campus:
Talk to me about: Anything Marvel related, running, and Harry Potter

Monica Rodriguez (she/her)
Team: RNA
See MoreMajor: Quantitative Biology
Minor: Culture Competence in Medicine
Joined: Spring 2022
Research Focus: Correlating copy number status with gene expression.
Scholarships and Fellowships: Trustee Scholarship
Involvements on Campus: Mobile Clinic, Trojan Democrats, Undergraduate Student Government, iGEM, Biology Club
Talk to me about: Horror movies, LA Dodgers, locally owned restaurants, ghosts books, Taylor Swift

Theresa Luo
Team: Multiple Myeloma
See MoreMajor: Chemistry
Minor:
Joined: Spring 2022
Research Focus: Genome analysis of peripheral blood assays from clinical data.
Scholarships and Fellowships: Trustee Scholarship
Involvements on Campus: Science Outreach, USC MEMO, USC SCAPE
Talk to me about: Anything Marvel or Disney related :))

Emmett Liljegren
Team: PACS
See MoreMajor: Human Biology
Minor: Global Health
Joined: Fall 2021
Research Focus: Platelets, endothelial cells, and COVID-19.
Scholarships and Fellowships: Trustee Scholarship, Trudi Berwin Student Support Fellowship, USC Dornsife SURF
Involvements on Campus: QuASA, JEP
Talk to me about: Coffee, music, baking, hiking, and science!

Amy Huang
Team: Bladder Cancer
See MoreMajor: Biological Sciences
Minor: Healthcare Studies
Joined: Fall 2021
Research Focus:
Scholarships and Fellowships: Trudi Berwin Student Support Fellowship, USC Dornsife SURF
Involvements on Campus:
Talk to me about:

Kaelyn Cho
Team: RNA
See MoreMajor: Biomedical Engineering (Electrical Emphasis)
Minor:
Joined: Spring 2021
Research Focus: Understanding differences in white blood cell RNA expression patterns
Scholarships and Fellowships:
Involvements on Campus: ASBME, FSAE electric, Hellions of Troy
Talk to me about: Theology

Andrew Udov (he/Him)
Team: Prostate Cancer
See MoreMajor: Human Biology
Minor:
Joined: Spring 2022
Research Focus: Developing methods to track CAR T-cells within metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer patients and longitudinally studying the effectiveness of the therapy.
Scholarships and Fellowships: Trustee Scholarship, USC Dornsife SURF
Involvements on Campus: USC EMSC, USC Mobile Clinic, Southern California Healthcare Outreach
Talk to me about: UFC and bowling

Vidur Mushran
Team: Data Science
See MoreMajor: Neuroscience
Minor:
Joined: Spring 2023
Research Focus: Developing a rare cell characterization map for clustering and defining liquid biopsy profiles
Scholarships and Fellowships:
Involvements on Campus: Trojan Marching Band
Talk to me about: Squash and classical guitar

anya Shah
Team: Lung Cancer
See MoreMajor: Global Health
Minor: Natural Sciences
Joined: Spring 2022
Research Focus:
Scholarships and Fellowships:
Involvements on Campus:
Talk to me about:

Divya Suresh
Team: Pancreatic Cancer
See MoreMajor: Biological Sciences
Minor: Business
Joined: Fall 2021
Research Focus: Identification of biomarkers for pancreatic cancer diagnosis using the HDSCA3.0 workflow.
Scholarships and Fellowships: Presidential Scholarship
Involvements on Campus: Alpha Epsilon Delta, Worldmed @ UPC, USC Scholars Leading Scholars, Trojan Scholar Society, Prison Education Project
Talk to me about: Weightlifting and rap music

Amelia Marvit (She/her)
Team: Breast Cancer
See MoreMajor: Human Biology
Minor: Healthcare Studies
Joined: Spring 2022
Research Focus: Using peripheral blood and cerebrospinal fluid liquid biopsies to track responses to CAR-T therapy for HER2-positive breast to brain metastases.
Scholarships and Fellowships: 2022 Helen Leslie Milligan Turner Memorial Fellowship, Paul M. Halopoff Scholarship, Society of Trojan Women Scholarship, Women in Science and Engineering Fellow, USC Alumni Scholarship Match Award, USC Alumni Association SCion Scholarship, Robert Glenn Rapp Foundation Endowed Scholarship
Involvements on Campus: Chabad at USC, Biology Club, AMWA, Garden Club, Peer Tutoring, JEP, Women in Science and Engineering, Human Biology Association
Talk to me about: Time travel, garden snails, and scooters

samuel liu
Team: Data Science
See MoreMajor: Chemistry, Data Science
Minor:
Joined: Spring 2023
Research Focus: Developing a channel classifier nodel for rare cell characterization
Scholarships and Fellowships: Presidential Scholar, Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship
Involvements on Campus:
Talk to me about: Hiking, Indie rock, NFL football

stella kahl
Team: Data Science
See MoreMajor: Biomedical Engineering
Minor:
Joined: Spring 2023
Research Focus: Streamlining, automating, and optimizing rare cell stratification methods for advanced scientific discovery
Scholarships and Fellowships:
Involvements on Campus:
Talk to me about:
CURE Events
The CURE Symposium
The CURE Symposium is held twice a year in order to give CURE students an opportunity to present their work. Faculty, mentors, friends, and family are invited to attend this wonderful event showcasing the hard work of our CURE students.
Night at the Lab
Night at the Lab is held once a year. This event is put on entirely by undergraduates and invites cancer patients, researchers, clinicians, and community members to explore the type of work we do in the lab. Presentations by undergraduates, Drs. Peter Kuhn and Jim Hicks, collaborators, and patient advocates give attendees an in depth view of the current state of cancer care. We hope to see you at the next one!
Senior Presentations
At the end of every school year, our graduating seniors finish off their lab career with a presentation encompassing their college lives, both in and outside of the lab. We celebrate the end of late-night lab thoughts and all the hard work our seniors have put in throughout their time with us.
Conferences and Publications
Conferences
April 2023 – American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
- Lily Bai presented her poster, Longitudinal tracking of circulating rare events in the liquid biopsy stage III-IV NSCLC patients during treatment
- Emmeline Lin presented her poster, Liquid biopsy to detect biomarkers in early-stage surgically-resected pancreatic cancer
- Salmaan Sayeed presented his poster, Circulating rare events inform disease progression in patients with upper tract urothelial carcinoma undergoing surgery
- Carli Kaleta and Dean Tessone presented poster, Single cell characterization of circulating plasma cells and BCMA levels in patients with multiple myeloma
April 2023 – West Coast Biological Sciences Undergraduate Research Conference (WCBSURC)
- Audrey Limb presented her poster, Liquid biopsy as a method to detect biomarkers in early-stage surgically-resected pancreatic cancer
- Amelia Marvit presented her poster, Liquid biopsy to monitor HER2 CAR-T therapy for breast to brain metastases
- Sankalp Mrutyunjaya presented his poster, Predicting survival outcomes for patients with bladder cancer and upper tract urothelial carcinoma
- Divya Suresh presented her poster, Characterization of cellular and acellular analytes from the liquid biopsy of pancreatic cancer patients during endoscopy ultrasound
April 2023 – USC Undergraduate Symposium
- Carla Collier presented her poster, Monitoring treatment response in HNSCC and NSCLC patients using liquid biopsy
- Amelia Marvit presented her poster, Liquid biopsy to monitor HER2 CAR-T therapy for breast to brain metastases
- Sankalp Mrutyunjaya presented his poster, Predicting survival outcomes for patients with bladder cancer and upper tract urothelial carcinoma
- Anya Shah presented her poster, Liquid biopsy as a companion diagnostic method for lung cancer
- Andrew Udov presented his poster, Longitudinal circulating rare cell analysis of CAR-T therapy within metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer patients
- Brandon Ye presented his poster, Substantiating predictive models for metastatic relapse in newly diagnosed upper tract urothelial carcinoma patients utilizing a multi-cancer machine learning approach
May 2022 – Los Angeles Bioscience Ecosystem Summit (LABEST) 2022
- Lily Bai, Junior majoring in Human Biology and Global Medicine, presented her poster, Longitudinal tracking of circulating rare events in liquid biopsy of stage III-IV NSCLC patients during treatment
April 2022 – American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
- Sachin Narayan, Senior majoring in Global Health, presented his poster, Circulating tumor cell kinetics and rare cell morphology monitor disease progression in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer
April 2022 – West Coast Biological Sciences Undergraduate Research Conference (WCBSURC)
- Emmeline Lin, Junior majoring in Human Biology, won Outstanding Poster Presentation for her poster, Liquid biopsy as a method to detect biomarkers in early-stage surgically-resected pancreatic cancer
- Lily Bai, Junior majoring in Human Biology and Global Medicine, won 1st place in Session 3 for her poster, Longitudinal tracking of circulating rare events in liquid biopsy of stage III-IV NSCLC patients during treatment
- Salmaan Sayeed, Junior majoring in Neuroscience, presented his poster, Characterization of cellular and acellular analytes from pre-cystectomy liquid biopsies in patients newly diagnosed with primary bladder cancer
Publications
Seo J, Kumar M, Mason J, Blackhall F, Matsumoto N, Dive C, Hicks J, Kuhn P, Shishido S. Plasticity of circulating tumor cells in small cell lung cancer. Sci Rep. 13, 11775 (2023).
2022 PublicationsQi E, Courcoubetis G, Liljegren E, Herrera E, Nguyen N, Nadri M, Ghandehari S, Kazemian E, Reckamp K, Merin N, Merchant A, Mason J, Figueiredo J, Shishido S, Kuhn P. Investigation of liquid biopsy analytes in peripheral blood of individuals after SARS-CoV-2 infection. eBioMedicine. 2023, Vol 90, 104519.
Ndacayisaba L, Rappard K, Shishido S, Setayesh S, Tang G, Lin P, Matsumoto N, Hsu C, Nevarez R, Ruiz C, Naghdloo A, Yang E, Kelly K, Hicks J, Mason J, Orlowski R, Manasanch E, Kuhn P. Characterization of BCMA expression in circulating rare single cells of patients with plasma cell neoplasms. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23(21), 13427.
Narayan S, Courcoubetis G, Mason J, Naghdloo A, Kolencik D, Patterson S, Kuhn P, Shishido S. Defining a liquid biopsy profile of circulating tumor cells and oncosomes in metastatic colorectal cancer for clinical utility. Cancers 2022, 14(19), 4891.
Setayesh S, Hart O, Naghdloo A, Higa N, Nieva J, Lu J, Hwang S, Wilkinson K, Kidd M, Anderson A, Velasco C, Kolatkar A, Matsumoto N, Nevarez R, Hicks J, Mason J, Shishido S, Kuhn P. Multianalyte Liquid Biopsy to Aid the Diagnostic Workup of Breast Cancer. npj Breast Cancer. 8, 112 (2022).
Ndacayisaba L, Rappard K, Shishido S, Ruiz C, Matsumoto N, Navarez R, Tang G, Lin P, Setayesh S, Naghdloo A, Hsu C, Maney C, Symer D, Bethel K, Kelly K, Merchant A, Orlowski R, Hicks J, Mason J, Manasanch E, Kuhn P. Enrichment-Free Single-Cell Detection and Morphogenomic Profiling of Myeloma Patient Samples to Delineate Circulating Rare Plasma Cell Clones. Current Oncology, 2022, 29, 2954-2972
Shishido S, Ghoreifi A, Sayeed S, Courcoubetis G, Huang A, Ye B, Mrutyunjaya S, Gill I, Kuhn P, Mason J, Djaladat H. Liquid Biopsy Landscape in Patients with Primary Upper Tract Urothelial Carcinoma. Cancers, 2022, 14(12), 3007.
Shishido S, Sayeed S, Courcoubetis G, Djaladat H, Miranda G, Pienta K, Nieva J, Hansel D, Desai M, Gill I, Kuhn P, Mason J. Characterization of cellular and acelluar analytes from pre-cystectomy liquid biopsies in patients newly diagnosed with primary bladder cancer. Cancers 2022; 14(3), 758
Kolencik D, Narayan S, Thiele JA, McKinley D, Gerdtsson A, Welter L, Hosek P, Ostasov P, Vycital O, Bruha J, Fiala O, Sorejs O, Liska V, Pitule P, Kuhn P, Shishido S. Circulating tumor cell kinetics and morphology from the liquid biopsy predict disease progression in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer following resection. Cancers 2022, 14(3), 642
Chai S, Matsumoto N, Storgard R, Peng C, Aparicio A, Ormseth B, Rappard K, Cunningham K, Kolatkar A, Nevarez R, Tu K, Hsu C, Malihi P, Corn P, Zurita A, Hicks J, Kuhn P, Ruiz C. Platelet-coated circulating tumor cells are a predictive biomarker in patients with metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer. Molecular Cancer Research 2021, 19(12), 2036-2045.
Fellowships/Awards
Congratulations to our outstanding students!
Summer 2023
Carla Collier | Dornsife SURF |
Samuel Liu | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Monica Rodriguez | Dornsife SURF |
Andrew Udov | Dornsife SURF |
Brandon Ye | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Lily Bai | Dornsife SOAR |
Christina Chang | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Amy Huang | Dornsife SOAR |
Srikar Kolluru | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Emmett Liljegren | Dornsife SOAR |
Theresa Luo | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Amelia Marvit | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Monica Rodriguez | Dornsife SOAR |
Anya Shah | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Divya Suresh | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Andrew Udov | Dornsife SOAR |
Brandon Ye | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Lily Bai | Dornsife SOAR |
Christina Chang | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Amy Huang | Dornsife SOAR |
Carli Kaleta | Dornsife SOAR |
Srikar Kolluru | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Emmett Liljegren | Dornsife SOAR |
Audrey Limb | Dornsife SOAR |
Emmeline Lin | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Amelia Marvit | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Sankalp Mrutyunjaya | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Monica Rodriguez | Dornsife SOAR |
Salmaan Sayeed | Dornsife SOAR |
Anya Shah | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Divya Suresh | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Andrew Udov | Dornsife SOAR |
Brandon Ye | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Lily Bai | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Christina Chang | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Amy Huang | Trudi Berwin Student Support Fund (BUGS Program) SURF Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Emmett Liljegren | Trudi Berwin Student Support Fund (BUGS Program) SURF Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Emmeline Lin | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Amelia Marvit | 2022 Helen Leslie Milligan Turner Memorial Fellowship |
Andrew Udov | SURF Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Brandon Ye | SURF Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Arushi Agrawal | Order of The Laurel & The Palm |
Vera Hsu | Order of Troy |
Mihir Kumar | Order of The Laurel & The Palm |
Sachin Narayan | Order of The Laurel & The Palm |
Aidan Plant | Order of Troy |
Eric Yang | Order of The Laurel & The Palm |
Lily Bai | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Mihir Kumar | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Audrey Limb | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Emmeline Lin | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Salmaan Sayeed | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Kameron Shahabi | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Jena Tran | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Lily Bai | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Vera Hsu | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Nathan Kristanto | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Mihir Kumar | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Audrey Limb | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Emmeline Lin | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Salmaan Sayeed | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Kameron Shahabi | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Jena Tran | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Eric Yang | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Arushi Agrawal | SURF Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Carla Collier | SURF Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Carli Kaleta | Trudi Berwin Student Support Fellowship |
Nathan Kristanto | Trudi Berwin Student Support Fellowship |
Audrey Limb | SURF Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Emmeline Lin | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Jaden Mullin | SURF Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Salmaan Sayeed | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Olivia Hart | Order of Troy |
Mihir Kumar | Okin Scholarship in Biological Sciences |
Ryan Storgard | University Trustees Award John Petruska Memorial Award |
Arushi Agrawal | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Lily Bai | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Alex Hill | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Amanda Hmelar | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Vera Hsu | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Mihir Kumar | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Audrey Limb | SOAR Dornsife Gupta Family Undergraduate Fellowship |
Emmeline Lin | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Carlisle Maney | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Jaden Mullin | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Aidan Plant | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Rithik Rajani | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Salmaan Sayeed | SOAR Dornsife Stone Undergraduate Fellowship |
Sean Solomon | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Jena Tran | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Maddie Walker | SOAR Dornsife Stone Undergraduate Fellowship |
Arushi Agrawal | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Annie Amacker | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Lily Bai | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Olivia Hart | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Alex Hill | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Mihir Kumar | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Carlisle Maney | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Aidan Plant | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Salmaan Sayeed | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Sean Solomon | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Ryan Storgard | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Dean Tessone | SOAR Dornsife Gillman Fellowship |
Eric Yang | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Arushi Agrawal | SURF Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Andrew Chen | SURF Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Vera Hsu | SURF Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Mihir Kumar | SURF Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Carlisle Maney | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Salmaan Sayeed | SURF Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Sean Solomon | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Dean Tessone | SURF Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Eric Yang | SURF Gupta Family Fellowship |
Kate Cunningham | Order of Troy |
Kate Cunningham | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Eric Yang | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Ryan Storgard | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Carlise Maney | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Arushi Agrawal | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Olivia Hart | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Mihir Kumar | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Daniel Liu | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Vera Hsu | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Sean Solomon | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Kate Cunningham | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Ayeshna Desai | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Ryan Storgard | Provost Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Arushi Agrawal | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Vera Hsu | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |
Isabelle Vu | SOAR Dornsife Undergraduate Fellowship |