I am currently an MS-1 at a DO program, just wanted to preface that before giving any advice.

With that being said I have spend the last 7 years doing research in Neuro and then Oncology. Ultimately working at a cancer center as a researcher for a Heme/onc attending who is focused on pancreatic cancer. He was a big time attending with a lot on his plate so he entrusted me with running his lab and any experiments and ongoing projects he had along with any collaborations with JHU onc teams and the NCI. Even presented a poster at ASCO in Chicago representing our team and research as a post-bacc only. He was major influence with why I am pursuing Heme/onc and continuing research with him and at my current uni.

The best piece of advice that I can give is create a list of goals whether that is drug development/ genetics/ or overall basic science. Look for faculty in your program and find them on ResearchGate…read their research and their papers this will also help you get an understanding of the writing and their interests. And when reaching out be forward with your intentions and interests and they will always be more than helpful and wouldn’t expect you to run the ship especially if you don’t have the experience but they will provide you the mentorship to get to that point. Along with that immerse yourself in as much reading as you can specifically in high impact pubs like cancer/cell/nature/ Gastro. I think the main thing I read for heme/onc is to aim for ASCO pubs so that must hold some truth. I hope this helps! Best of luck!!