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Video by Ky Marlin and Angela Vasquez

Both directly affected by their family members' battles with breast cancer, Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­ undergraduates Blake Bays and Harris Azhand are getting hands-on, applied experience and one-on-one mentorship as cancer researchers. With Teresa Monkkonen, a biology assistant professor, as their mentor, these biology students are studying the tumor microenvironment to improve potential treatments for aggressive breast cancers. 

Bays is working on one project focused on the links between thirdhand smoke exposure and breast cancer. is residue from mainstream smoke that seeps into dust, fabrics, floors, and walls in homes and vehicles. Thirdhand smoke residue contains chemicals that are re-emitted and can lead to cancer, respiratory conditions and other chronic illnesses. This is particularly concerning for young, crawling children who may directly contact these surfaces more than older children and adults.

Bays believes research is preparing him to be a physician in the future, helping him develop problem-solving skills that he hopes to apply to better serve patients.

Azhand, who recently joined the lab after serving as a teaching assistant for Monkkonen, is focused on the role of autophagy, or cells’ recycling and housekeeping process, in cancer growth and metastasis. He says doing research with pre-clinical models complements what he is learning in his classes and in his second job assisting in an emergency department at a local hospital.

Bays and Azhand were mentees in the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­ Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities Program (SURP). Learn more: