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NIH internship inspires student’s career interest in “new world” of cancer treatment

Janeth Marquez Rubio (BioMedEngr’25) always wanted to make a difference in the medical field.

Little did she know that journey would take her to the National Institutes of Health, one of the world’s leading research centers, where she spent a summer helping advance a promising new approach to treat cancer.

During her NIH internship, Marquez Rubio worked with radiopharmaceuticals, a growing new class of drugs designed to deliver precise doses of radiation directly to cancer cells.

Unlike traditional radiation therapy that targets broad regions of the body, radiopharmaceutical therapy provides highly targeted doses of radioactive material — in this specific research case, Actinum-225 — that bind to cancer cells and destroy them.

“I didn’t know anything about radiopharmaceuticals,” Marquez Rubio said. “Learning about this new world of drugs and realizing how it could someday cure cancer was fascinating.”

Mentored by NIH medical physicist Roberto Maass-Moreno, she focused on the challenges of bioimaging and dosimetry — determining how to measure and deliver the right dose of radiopharmaceuticals for clinical trials — and compiled data for an upcoming clinical trial.

“We know you can’t use a one-size-fits-all method for doses,” she said. “Being able to measure the effects of the drug accurately is key for future clinical trials.”

Early experimental results showed improvement in cancer cells after treatment with radiopharmaceuticals and Actinum-225, giving scientists hope that this method could one day transform the future of radiation oncology.

Working alongside leading researchers and physicians gave Marquez Rubio a rare glimpse of research up close.

“It would be incredible to conduct clinical trials on the very radiopharmaceuticals I worked with,” Marquez Rubio said. “This internship has inspired me to one day work at the NIH again, so that is the hope.”

Marquez Rubio got her initial research experience in Assistant Professor Rob MacCurdy’s Matter Assembly Computational Lab in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering. There, she explored microfluidics — how fluids behave at tiny scales — and co-authored a paper she later presented at an international conference, an experience she says was pivotal in building her confidence.

“Having those incredible research experiences as an undergraduate student made me prepared and competitive,” she said.

91��ý’s biomedical engineering degree allowed Marquez Rubio to take courses in both mechanical and electrical engineering, helping her draw connections with bioimaging tools like CT and SPECT machines during her internship.

Her interest in radiopharmaceuticals is growing as she pursues her accelerated master’s. She chose the topic for multiple assignments and noted how some of her professors wanted to learn more about it, given how new it is in medicine.

“As a first-generation student, I still couldn’t believe I conducted research at the NIH that could one day cure cancer.”