{"id":154959,"date":"2026-08-27T11:14:42","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T15:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=154959"},"modified":"2026-08-27T11:20:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T15:20:42","slug":"med-student-driven-to-create-hope-through-cancer-research-earns-inaugural-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/med-student-driven-to-create-hope-through-cancer-research-earns-inaugural-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Med Student Driven to Create Hope Through Cancer Research Earns Inaugural Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

UCF medical student Natalya Kramer lost her grandfather to lymphoma, inspiring her to pursue medicine with hopes of caring for cancer patients and their families.<\/p>\n

That dedication and her passion for research recently earned Kramer the inaugural Dean Deborah C. German, M.D. FIRE (Focused Individualized Research Experience) Impact Award, an honor named after the founding dean of UCF\u2019s College of Medicine<\/a> who created the FIRE course, which requires every student to conduct a two-year research project.<\/p>\n

German announced earlier this year<\/a> that she is transitioning from her role and will remain at UCF for a year as an advisor to the president and provost on health affairs. FIRE leaders created the award to honor German\u2019s legacy of scientific discovery as part of medical training, an educational component that makes UCF\u2019s medical school unique nationally.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want our students to develop a spirit of inquiry. I want every UCF physician not to be afraid to seek answers to medicine\u2019s unanswered questions.\u201d \u2014 Deborah German, College of Medicine dean<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cI want our students to develop a spirit of inquiry,\u201d German told Kramer as she presented her with the award. \u201cI want every UCF physician not to be afraid to seek answers to medicine\u2019s unanswered questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

After earning an undergraduate degree the University of South Florida, Kramer decided to attend UCF in part because the FIRE course was one reason she came to UCF.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to combine research with clinical care,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Her FIRE project focused on glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer with a five-year survival rate of only 5% to 7%, according to the Mayo Clinic. Even if surgery, chemotherapy and radiation initially stop the cancer, it usually returns and becomes stronger. Kramer says she wanted to know why.<\/p>\n

With support from her FIRE mentor, Kiminobu Sugaya, head of the College of Medicine\u2019s neuroscience research division, she discovered that extracellular vesicles responsible for cell-to-cell communication may influence non-cancer cells to take on cancer-like properties.<\/p>\n