/ ABSTACT The UAB CCC is the only NCI designated comprehensive cancer center in the states of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas, states with higher cancer mortality and significant minority, mostly African American populations. The Cancer Center is in its 44th year of NCI funding and continues its major contributions to translational therapeutics and cancer disparity research with a focus on training minority investigators. The UAB CCC has 242 members who come from 30 departments in 9 UAB schools, Southern Research, and HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology. The members are supported by $92,055,777 in annual direct extramural funding. The UAB CCC is organized into six research programs, two each in basic, translational, and prevention and control ? Inflammation, Immunology & Immunotherapeutics; Cancer Cell Biology; Experimental Therapeutics; Neuro-Oncology; Cancer Chemoprevention; and Cancer Control & Population Sciences. Members published 1,684 cancer focused, peer reviewed publications between 2011 and 2015 of which 24% were intra-programmatic, 16% inter-programmatic, and 53% inter-institutional. These members are supported by eleven shared facilities ? Biostatistics & Bioinformatics, Comprehensive Genomics, High Resolution Imaging, Human Imaging, Mass Spectrometry/2D Proteomics, Microbiome/Gnotobiotic, Preclinical Imaging, Recruitment & Retention, Structural Biology, Tissue Procurement, and Transgenic Animals as well as the developing Pharmacometrics Shared Facility. We have established a Phase I Clinical Trials Program, opened an Advanced Imaging Facility, advanced targets through the Alabama Drug Discovery Alliance, created the UAB Health System Cancer Community Network, and are now a consortium with HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology. In addition to these achievements, we have created an Institute for Cancer Outcomes and Survivorship, and established a critical mass of investigators in energy balance and cancer. We have also expanded our minority training programs that since 2005 have trained 59 scholars resulting in 306 publications, 67 grant submissions with 30 funded, and have had a major impact at Morehouse School of Medicine and Tuskegee University. We have recruited 47 investigators to multiple programs in the Cancer Center since 2010. Strategic plans developed in 2011 with crosscutting themes of Translational Therapeutics, Systems Biomedicine, and Energetics and Cancer continue to be highly relevant today. For the future, we will continue to emphasize translational and cancer disparity research with an emphasis on personalized/genomic medicine, energy balance and cancer, outcomes and survivorship, and early phase clinical trials.
OVERALL COMPONENT PROJECT NARRATIVE The UAB CCC has made a significant contribution to public health that is particularly relevant to the populations served by this Cancer Center who are located in the heart of the Deep South. Our research programs, in addition to their important contributions to translational science, have focused on the unique problems seen in African American populations that include higher incidences and mortality rates from certain cancers, lower age appropriate screening rates, greater obesity from poor diets and less physical activity, greater tobacco use, and lack of access to care.
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