Melanie Ovalle ’27: Web Developer at Harvard Department of Data Science at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

I worked at the BayesMendel Lab, which focuses on developing methodologies, models, and software related to cancer susceptibility genes and cancer prevention. I contributed to the development of Fam3Pro, a web application that uses family history to estimate the probability of carrying pathogenic variants in up to 22 cancer-related genes and predicts future cancer risk for up to 17 different cancer types. Using my expertise in front-end development, I redesigned the entire user interface to make it more accessible and intuitive for all patients. I was also able to dive into back-end development by collaborating on the migration of the app from R Shiny to React and Node.js. 

This summer experience deepened my passion for advocating digital literacy through web development and emphasized the importance of creating digitally inclusive tools!

Internship funded by Peter Buck Internship Fund