The purpose of the Developmental Research Program is to promote the exploration of innovative ideas intranslational research in lung cancer through the funding of pilot projects. Each year new pilot projectapplications are sought by the Developmental Research Committee, which is chaired by Dr. Bunn. Currentcommittee members include Drs. Drabkin, Heasley, Franklin, Hirsch, Baron, and Keith. A request forapplication announcement is distributed to faculty at all consortium institutions of the University of ColoradoComprehensive Cancer Center (UCDHSC, CU-Boulder, Colorado State University, National Jewish Medicaland Research Center, and The Children's Hospital). On average, 11 applications are received each year.The committee scores each application on its novelty, its likelihood of impacting the lung cancer burdenthrough translational research, on its scientific merit, and on the qualifications of the investigators. The useof SPORE resources and the inclusion of collaborations with existing SPORE projects is also taken intoconsideration. Generally two applications are funded each year at a level of $50,000 each. Half of thesupport comes from SPORE funds and half comes from institutional funds. In some instances we haveprovided partial funding for worthy projects that could get started with more limited support. During therecent funding cycle we supported a total of 12 pilot projects. These projects and their outcomes aresummarized in the following report. The success of our Developmental Research Program is demonstratedby the progression of a number of recent pilot projects into full SPORE projects. In this competitive renewal,Project 3 originated as a pilot project. As well, progress on the pilot projects of Dr. Heasley, of Dr. Meyerand of Drs. Solomon, Hansen and Duncan have been incorporated into the aims of Projects 2, 3 and 4,respectively. Pilot projects held by Drs. Nemenoff, Heasley, and Malkinson have led to current NCI R01s;the pilot project of Dr. Su has led to an NIH R21; and the pilot projects of Drs. Espinosa and Schiemann areincorporated into their NCI R01s. The research results from projects held by Drs. Franklin and Varella-Garcia were used to renew the NCI EDRN grant in 2005. As well, the Genetic Epidemiology Lung CancerConsortium (GELCC) and the Lung Cancer Biomarkers & Chemoprevention Consortium (LCBCC) studieswere also outcomes of SPORE pilot projects. Several other important lung cancer grants have been fundedby other institutes and are described in this report.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 435 publications
