Medical Student Haarisudhan Sureshkumar, who is mentored by University of Illinois Cancer Center member Michael Heiferman, MD, has earned a Medical Student Award from the Melanoma Research Foundation (MRF).
The award, $3,000 for one year, seeks to promote research opportunities for medical students early in their careers by funding clinical or laboratory-based research projects focused on better understanding the prevention, early detection and behaviors that impact melanoma risk, biology and treatment.
Sureshkumar will use the award to investigate the impact of social determinants of health and geographic barriers on the presentation of uveal melanoma. He is a third-year University of Illinois College of Medicine student at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). Heiferman, his mentor, is Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology in the College of Medicine and a vitreoretinal surgeon and ocular oncologist at UI Health.