For my thesis proposal for the Committee on Cancer Biology at University of Chicago in 2013, I proposed a series of in vitro and in vivo experiments to elucidate the cell signaling of Blimp1 (PRDM1) following induction by ionizing radiation (IR). IR exposure durng cancer radiotherapy damages healthy tissue and risks causing radiogenic second cancers as a late side effect of treatment, particularly for pediatric cancers. A previous GWAS study implicated a SNP causing differential expression of Blimp1 and differential induction of Blimp1 expression as an extremely powerful predictor of secondary breast cancer following radiotherapy for pediatric cancers.