Dr. Gustavo Leone and Antoney Ferrey

In the autumn of 2005, the Organization of Hispanic Faculty and Staff (OHFS) and the Hispanic Oversight Committee (HOC) hosted a beginning-of-the-year social. The social aimed to provide an opportunity for Ohio State Hispanic/Latin@ faculty and staff to get together in a relaxed setting before classes start.

A mix of faculty, staff, students and parents attended the social, which was held at the Faculty Club. One of the attendees was first year student Antoney Ferrey. Antoney, a student in the Department of Biology, attended the social with the goal of getting acquainted with key Hispanic/Latin@ faculty and staff at the university. Antoney hopes to become a doctor, so he was particularly interested in meeting faculty in the medical sciences. Antoney met Dr. Gustavo Leone, an assistant professor in the Human Cancer Genetic Program at Ohio State University’s Comprehensive Cancer Center.

This random meeting and conversation led to an opportunity for Antoney to become involved in Dr. Leone’s research group. The research group focuses on understanding how cancer works. Antoney explained that he really appreciates the opportunity to work on research. “It has been really interesting to see what you are learning in the classroom in a realistic setting,” said Antoney.

Dr. Leone’s research goal is to understand cancer. In order to do this, the research team focuses its attention on studying two classes of genes: tumor suppressors, which are the genes that prevent cancer and oncogenes, which are genes that increase the chance that a normal cell develops into a tumor cell, which can possibly result in cancer.

Dr. Leone’s research group is made out of 20 undergraduate students, four graduate students, 10 postdoctoral researchers and four laboratory technicians. “Undergraduate students work with senior graduate students or post docs. Antoney is working with a senior graduate student. His interests are in development (embryos, fetuses and pregnancies) and he just started doing research,” explained Dr. Leone.

As part of the undergraduates’ tasks, they have to conduct a presentation on the progress of their research every last Sunday of the month. Because Antoney is a shy person, Dr. Leone was impressed by Antoney’s presentation. “Antoney gave one of the best talks that I have heard in a long time. He was really into it, and he used the precise language and terminology,” stated Dr. Leone.

Dr. Leone’s lab is rumored to be one of the toughest labs in the Human Cancer Genetic Program. Despite this, students are always interested in taking part in the research. “The research that I run is hard work, but somehow there must be benefits because students keep coming back,” said Dr. Leone. One of the benefits of working with Dr. Leone is that students can apply for scholarships. “Seventy percent of the students in the lab I run get the scholarships that they apply for. For example, recently one of my undergraduate students got a Fulbright award to study in Madrid, working with the National Cancer Institute in Madrid,“ stated Dr. Leone.

Antoney began his research during his first year as an undergraduate at Ohio State. Doing research early in a student’s academic experience studies is beneficial for every student, explained Dr. Leone. Dr. Leone used Antoney as an example. “The biggest benefit for Antoney is that he is doing research in a direct way. If he is thinking about doing research as a career, he may find out that he loves it or hates it,” said Dr. Leone.

Antoney shared his plan for the future. He stated, “I would like to do research in the field of medicine. I really enjoy being in the lab and working on problems that can benefit the medical field in the future.”