We request partial funding for the Midwest Tumor Microenvironment Meeting to be held at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, KS on May 18-20, 2020. The meeting was inaugurated in 2015 and is the only meeting on tumor microenvironment in the Midwest region. This meeting has established itself as a highly valued contribution to the interdisciplinary scientific field of the tumor microenvironment, with focus on the role of immune system and the stroma in cancer growth and progression. The 2020 conference co-organizers are Shrikant Anant, Ph.D. and Sufi M. Thomas, Ph.D. The meeting will convene 18 speakers and up to 200 participants. A special effort will be made to recruit minority participants. The meeting will also provide a forum for trainees and scientists who are in early stages of their career to present their data and network with others in the field. Dr. David Tuveson from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, an expert in exploring the fundamental biology of malignancy and thereby identify new diagnostic and treatment strategies will present his recent work on patient-derived organoid models. In addition, Dr. Theresa Whiteside from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, who investigates the role of the immune function in tumorigenesis will present her recent work on stroma- derived exosomes and their role in tumorigenesis in her keynote address. Topics for presentation will be multi- disciplinary including novel technologies to study issues related to tumor-stroma interactions, as well as the various cellular and extracellular matrix factors affecting tumorigenesis. In addition to invited speakers, trainees and young investigators will have the opportunity to present in oral presentation sessions. In addition, there will be two poster sessions, which will allow all participants to contribute to the meeting. Opportunities will especially be given to your investigators, women, and minorities to interact with the presenting faculty and representatives from the National Cancer Institute Tumor Microenvironment Program. Funding through this R13 mechanism is requested to defray the cost of participating in the meeting for young investigators and trainees. We expect that researchers dealing with various aspects of the tumor microenvironment will cultivate new collaborations and the trainees will identify new mentors as a result of the networking opportunity from this meeting.
It is becoming increasingly apparent that tumor growth and response to therapy and preventive modalities are significantly affected by the surrounding stroma. The meeting in Kansas City, KS will bring together clinical and laboratory-based scientists and trainees across the Midwest states to discuss their research progress, and the critical challenges and emerging opportunities in the field. The primary objective is to support trainee and junior faculty participation and to foster collaborations between trainees, new clinical/basic investigators and established scientists.
