? TUMOR INITIATION AND MAINTENANCE PROGRAM The overall goals of the Tumor Initiation and Maintenance (TIM) Program are to identify the cells that give rise to tumors and the signals that allow these cells to expand uncontrollably, and to use this information to develop more effective approaches to treating human cancer. The TIM Program was established in 2013, when the Cancer Center was reorganized, with NCI's approval, to enhance interaction and collaboration among members. Led by Dr. Wechsler-Reya, the Program consists of 16 faculty and five adjunct faculty. Members of the TIM Program have a wide range of cancer-relevant interests related to the development and growth of tumor cells. Themes include: Self-renewal and Differentiation, Proliferation Signaling, and Genomic and Epigenomic Regulation. Areas of shared interest include control of self-renewal and differentiation in normal development and cancer, regulation of proliferative signals in cancer, and genomic and epigenomic regulation of tumorigenesis. The program has a strong cancer focus, with particular emphasis on brain, breast, pancreatic, and prostate cancers as well as leukemia and melanoma. Program members interact closely with one another and other Cancer Center members, resulting in numerous collaborative grants and joint publications. During the past funding cycle, TIM members were awarded 274 grants, of which 100 (36%) were collaborative. Grant funding for the past year was $4.7M in direct costs, of which $1.7 (35%) was from NCI. Members also published 229 cancer relevant papers in the last funding period, of which 16% were collaborative (5% intra-programmatic and 11% inter-programmatic). In the coming years, the TIM Program will seek to recruit new faculty, particularly in the areas of cancer stem cell biology, functional genomics, and computational biology. In addition, Program members will focus on translational research to move findings from basic cancer biology toward the clinic.
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