Senior enjoys internship at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
with Centre alum/Harvard professor

RELEASED: August 2, 2007

DANVILLE, KY—Nate Blank, a senior chemistry major from Frakes, Ky., is spending his summer in Boston as an intern at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. His job involves computer programming for data analysis and laboratory work with mass spectrometry in the institute's Blais Proteomics Center

Blank is participating in a research internship under Dr. Jarrod Marto, a 1990 Centre graduate and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. The research focuses on analyzing proteins in order to better understand the cellular states that lead to cancer.

Blank and Marto's hope is that this research will lead to the eventual
development of drugs that could prevent cells from becoming cancerous.

"I'm learning so much every day that it's almost overwhelming, and I have Centre chemistry professor Preston Miles to thank for getting me interested in this internship," Blank said.

Miles taught Marto when the latter was a student at Centre in the late 1980s, and when Marto needed an intern for this summer he contacted Miles, who passed the word on to Blank. When Blank realized what a great learning opportunity the internship would be, he communicated his interest to Marto.

"It has been an amazing learning experience," Blank says. "Dr. Marto is great to work with."

Internships are not only possible for Centre students: Under the terms of The Centre Commitment, they're guaranteed. The Centre Commitment promises students who meet the College’s academic and social expectations an internship, study abroad, and graduation in four years, or Centre will provide up to a year of study tuition free.

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