Pictured, St. Baldrick’s 2018 JABSOM Summer Fellow Mark Brisco
St. Baldrick’s Foundation exists to fill the gap in funding that goes to cancer research in children. Only 4% of federal cancer research funding is solely dedicated to childhood cancer.
By Tina Shelton, JABSOM Communications Director
This summer at the University of Hawaiʻi, Mark Brisco will be working to devise a better way to diagnose cancer in children. But first he will get a severe haircut.
Brisco, who is studying biochemistry at UH Mānoa, is the recipient of the 2018 St. Baldrick’s Summer Fellowship Award, which will allow him to take part in pediatric cancer research at the UH John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM). His mentor will be JABSOM’s Dr. Bruce Shiramizu, Pediatrician and Researcher. And that’s where the haircut comes in.
Dr. Shiramizu is a proud supporter of the annual “Shave-Off” fundraising event orchestrated by St. Baldrick’s to raise money to fight childhood cancer. Along with Dr. Shiramizu (and thousands of other people around the country), Brisco will be submitting his thick locks of hair to a razor. The “Shave-Off” is a festive event, leaving the fundraisers with a shiny bald pate and for a few weeks at least, recognizable proof that they support the cause.
The 2018 St. Baldrick’s Foundation Event in Honolulu is coming up on April 22. Dr. Shiramizu’s Laboratory Team, “Shaven Things,” is seeking donations. You can help fund childhood cancer research through the Shaven Things team website.
Brisco said he is thrilled with the research opportunity that awaits him during his summer Fellowship in Dr. Shriamizu’s lab. “To give a child a fair chance at life for the first time in their lives is a truly unique and momentous opportunity. This experience will not only alter my life course but I hope can alter the life courses of many others through the findings of this research,” said Brisco.
An aspiring medical student, Brisco said his research will center on cancer cell recognition inside the human body, where he hopes to discover a better
technique for recognizing and diagnosing cancer in children.
The UHM medical school is one of 21 institutions receiving $5,000 awards this year to fund the summer fellowship opportunity.