Deborah M. House Fund for Cancer Research Empowers CCIL Student Research

12/4/2025

The Deborah M. House Fund for Cancer Research empowers University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign students with invaluable, real-world experience in the fight against cancer. The fund recently supported Rana Abbed, a third-year Ph.D. student in bioengineering in the lab of Cancer Center at Illinois (CCIL) member Susan Legget. Abbed’s research focuses on breast and ovarian cancer. “I am deeply grateful for the support of the Cancer Center at Illinois, which has allowed me to pursue this work. I’m excited to continue advancing my research with the goal of improving outcomes for women facing ovarian cancer,” commented Abbed.

Written by

The Deborah M. House Fund for Cancer Research empowers University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign students with invaluable, real-world experience in the fight against cancer.

The fund recently supported Rana Abbed, a third-year Ph.D. student in bioengineering in the lab of Cancer Center at Illinois (CCIL) member Susan Leggett. Abbed’s research focuses on breast and ovarian cancer.

&lt;em&gt;Rana Abbed presents her research to Nobel Laureate Phillip Sharp and Cancer Center at Illinois Director Rohit Bhargava.&lt;/em&gt; — *Rana Abbed presents her research to Nobel Laureate Phillip Sharp and Cancer Center at Illinois Director Rohit Bhargava.*

“I am delighted to work with CCIL, not only to support its important cancer research, but also to contribute to the further development of a talented student scientist,” said House.

The scholarship helped facilitate Abbed’s research collaboration with the Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where she partners with gynecologic oncologists Dr. Mary M. Mullen and Dr. Whitney Grither. Together, they address the urgent challenge of ovarian cancer—the most lethal gynecologic cancer—by developing new laboratory models that more accurately reflect how the disease progresses.

“I am deeply grateful for the support of the Cancer Center at Illinois, which has allowed me to pursue this work. I’m excited to continue advancing my research with the goal of improving outcomes for women facing ovarian cancer,” commented Abbed.

This past summer, Abbed concentrated on building a first-of-its-kind 3D experimental model of the peritoneal cavity, the primary route by which ovarian cancer spreads. Using bioengineering techniques and 3D printing, Abbed created scalable models that incorporate patient-derived samples, offering a new way to study cancer progression and test therapies in realistic environments.

Abbed was also one of just 25 students invited to present at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Washington, D.C.—the first-time students were ever included in the program. “That experience reinforced my passion for collaborative, patient-centered research and showed me how meaningful it is to contribute to projects with direct clinical impact,” said Abbed.

For questions about this story or scholarship fund, please contact David Dibble, Senior Director of Advancement at the CCIL (ddibble@illinois.edu).

Share this story

This story was published December 4, 2025.