LOWVELO Trainee Symposium

a trainee gestures to her poster while talking to several people who look on

The LOWVELO Trainee Symposium is a day-long event that celebrates our cancer trainees' research and career development, allowing a broad range of trainees to present their research in oral and poster format after going through a peer-reviewed selection process. 

This year, two $1,000 Hollings Cancer Equity Scholarship awards will be announced — one to a non-clinical trainee and one to a medical student, both of whom have shown excellence in cancer equity research. 

2024 LOWVELO Trainee Symposium

"Creating a Career in Cancer Research"
Friday, October 4, 2024
8 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Charleston Gaillard Center
95 Calhoun St.
Charleston, SC 29401

Register to attend

Keynote speakers

James Allison headshot

James Allison, Ph.D.

gold Nobel Prize medallion

Dr. James Allison earned the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which he shared with Dr. Tasuku Honjo, "for their discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation." He is the Chair of the Department of Immunology and Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Research at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Padmanee Sharma headshot

Padmanee Sharma, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Padmanee Sharma is the T.C. and Jeanette Hsu Endowed Chair in Cell Biology and Co-Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. She is a nationally and internationally renowned physician scientist who is a pioneer in the field of immune checkpoint therapy.

Submit an abstract

We strongly encourage all trainees to apply for consideration as an oral or poster presenter. If you are interested in presenting your research at this year’s symposium, please submit an abstract using the following guidelines by Friday, August 2, 2024. If you presented orally last year, you are only eligible to submit for a poster abstract.

Abstracts should have the following format:

  • Trainee name
  • Mentor name
  • Trainee type (e.g. high school, undergraduate, graduate, postdoc, early career faculty)
  • Title of research project
  • Abstract (250 words maximum): Briefly describe the Introduction, Methods, Results, Conclusion
  • Filename header (e.g. Microsoft Word, PDF): last name, first name – level (e.g. Smith,Jane-postdoc)

Please email the completed file to Melanie Jefferson at sweatma@musc.edu.

a young woman in the audience listens intently to the speaker at the lowvelo training symposium on cancer research

Past keynote speakers

2023 LOWVELO Symposium

portrait of Luisel Ricks-Santi

Luisel Ricks-Santi, Ph.D.

Dr. Luisel Ricks-Santi is a cancer genomics researcher and population scientist. She serves as associate director for diversity, equity and inclusion at the University of Florida Cancer Center.

portrait of Robert Winn

Robert Winn, M.D.

Dr. Robert Winn is director and Lipman Chair in Oncology at VCU Massey Cancer Center and senior associate dean for cancer innovation and professor of pulmonary disease and critical care medicine, VCU School of Medicine.

2022 LOWVELO Symposium

Dr. William Kaelin

William G. Kaelin, Jr., M.D.

Dr. William G. Kaelin, Jr., is an investigator at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. In 2019, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology along with Peter Ratcliffe and Gregg Semenza.

Dr. Edith Mitchell

Edith P. Mitchell, M.D.

Dr. Edith P. Mitchell is program leader for gastrointestinal oncology at Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center and serves as the leader of the Jefferson Cancer Network's GI Cancer Working Group.