The goal of this proposal is to mentor and train junior faculty investigators in laboratory and/or clinical translational cancer research. Implementation of this K12 program for the career development of laboratory-based (PhD/DVM/MD) and clinical (MD or MD/PhD) translational scientists in diverse areas of oncology will ensure a cadre of highly-trained individuals who can communicate across disciplines to drive new advancements in how we approach cancer diagnosis and management. This K12 program from The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center (OSUCCC) continues its focus on early drug development, but now also extends to cancer prevention, control and survivorship research. The OSUCCC is clearly dedicated to research education and providing outstanding career development and mentoring opportunities to promising junior faculty. The Divisions of Hematology, Medical Oncology, Radiation Oncology, and Surgical Oncology each have robust programs that are continuously recruiting new junior faculty to facilitate expansion of our cancer program. Recruitment efforts also emphasize the inclusion of women, minorities and underserved groups to increase diversity. This K12 grant fills an important need by extending research education, career development and mentoring to junior faculty interested in establishing academic research careers. It is the only OSUCCC training program dedicated solely to faculty-level career development in cancer research, and thus has no overlap with any of the OSU T32 training grants, which focus on fellows. This strategy ensures continuity in training and provides individuals a structured path to become independent clinical or translational investigators. The quality of this K12 program and its success in training cancer researchers is exemplified by the career trajectories of past trainees, their papers, grants, clinical trials and other scholarly activities that have driven new discoveries. The continued success of this program will be ensured by the overall strength and direction of the OSUCCC, as demonstrated by its recent peer review score of 10 (exceptional), financial support of this K12 program by the OSUCCC and by different Divisions and Departments, and the enormous breadth of expertise and resources available at OSU. This K12 program seeks to train two types of investigators. The first includes MD and/or PhD faculty who have outstanding basic science training and want to pursue laboratory-based investigation related to applied research in experimental therapeutics, cancer prevention, control, and survivorship. The second group includes MD or MD/PhD faculty who want to pursue clinical research in experimental therapeutics and cancer prevention, control, or survivorship. Training plans are tailored to each individual trainee to facilitate their success, with inclusion of a robust evaluation program to assess the effectiveness of the K12. The value of the OSU K12 program is best demonstrated by nearly all of the current and past K12 scholars remaining in academic medicine and moving forward as independent laboratory or clinical investigators.
The overall goal of this renewal proposal, led by John C. Byrd, MD and William E. Carson III, MD, is to mentor and effectively train MD, PhD, DVM and MD/PhD faculty investigators with basic science and/or clinically- oriented approaches to translational research so that they may dedicate their careers to independent clinical cancer research.
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