The Developmental Projects Program will sponsor efforts to complement or enhance the variety and depth of sarcoma translational research and will seek to ensure continual renewal of high-quality scientific endeavors in the SARC Sarcoma SPORE. The Program will support short-range studies to establish the results needed to facilitate well-validated, hypothesis-driven translational projects. Although the Developmental Projects Program will fund established investigators, an important goal is to identify and stimulate interest in sarcoma research among groups whose current focus may be different but sufficienfiy related. The Program may also fund projects that contribute to the infrastructure needed to achieve translational goals, such as creafion of suitable fissue resources or development of a new assay to monitor tumor behavior. The Developmental Projects Program is led by Francis Hornicek, an orthopaedic oncologist and co-Director, MGH/DF/HCC Sarcoma Group, whose laboratory evaluates mechanisms of sarcoma drug resistance, and Paul Meltzer, Chief of the Genefics Branch at the Center for Cancer Research, NCI, a pediatric oncologist who examines genomic mechanisms in sarcoma pathogenesis. In addifion, a highly qualified committee of experienced clinician-scientists will participate actively in the selecfion and ongoing review of pilot projects. The committee includes members with expertise in key aspects of sarcoma science and therapeufics, including biology and genetics (Drs. Pollock, Look and J. Fletcher);animal models (Drs. Khanna and Look), developmental therapeufics (Drs. Demetri and Pienta), clinical trials (Drs. Pollock, Pienta, and Demetri), correlafive science (Drs. Khanna and J. Fletcher), sarcoma pathology and molecular diagnosfics(Drs. C. Fletcher, Hamilton, and J. Fletcher), sarcoma genomics (Dr. Meltzer and J. Fletcher), sarcoma drug resistance (Dr. Homicek), and comparative oncology (Dr. Khanna). This committee includes representafives from Brigham and Women's Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Insfitute, Children's Hospital - Boston, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, MD Anderson Cancer Center, University of Michigan, and the National Cancer Insfitute. Nurturing innovations in translafional research is a labor-intensive activity, which must occur in cross-disciplinary fashion, and therefore the Developmental Projects Committee includes representation of pediatric oncology, medical oncology, surgical oncology, orthopaedic oncology, veterinary medicine (comparative oncology), pathology, and basic science. The Developmental Projects Program will provide the depth and flexibility required to maintain innovation in SARC Sarcoma SPORE.
The Developmental Research Program will maximize the SPORE impact by enabling novel translafional sarcoma projects to develop and mature. These developmental projects will add new concepts to the SPORE, and will ensure that the SPORE translatlonal/clinical progress remains vigorous and with a varied portfolio of experimental work to draw upon, for main projects.
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