The UCLA Tumor Cell Biology Training Program offers predoctoral and postdoctoral research training focused on a central theme: Signal Transduction and Cancer. All training laboratories lie within a 200 meter radius, this proximity fostering frequent interactions between Program trainees and faculty. The primary driver of global interactions between laboratories of its 30 members and 8 associates is the weekly Tumor Cell Biology Research Conference in which all laboratories, and in particular the trainees, present findings. Interactions also -accrue through monthly research conferences of funded NCI Program Projects on Signal Transduction and on Cancer Gene Therapy, whose principal - investigators are Training Program members. These activities foster collaborative interactions between training laboratories; nearly three-fourths of the Program laboratories have or are engaged in active collaborative research with one or more other Training Program laboratories. The Program draws its faculty from 7 academic and 3 clinical departments and the multidepartmental Molecular Biology Institute. Fifteen Program faculty hold the MD degree and all these have strong training in fundamental science. Eight hold both the MD and PhD degree (or its equivalent from an institution with a Medical Scientist Training Program). Eighty-six percent of faculty are funded by cancer granting agencies with total annual research funding of over $15.0 million. Thirty-three of the 38 faculty hold departmental affiliations that fulfill institutional requirements that qualify them for graduate student mentorship, and 3 of the remaining 5 (all clinicians) have strong training records and have trained graduate students through departmental exemptions. All full members have strong training records, and the Program will rigorously monitor training activities of the eight junior faculty associates whose mentorship qualifications are not yet established. All program trainees enroll for credit or audit a rigorous cell biology course that introduces concepts in cell cycle control and genetic instability, a comprehensive molecular oncology course that features lectures on clinical trials where cancer therapy and detection are approached though aberrant signal transduction phenomena, a nine session cancer histopathology laboratory and the interactive weekly research conference and/or monthly program project-generated research conferences. The Program also sponsors a yearly research symposium in collaboration with the UCLA Tumor Immunology Training Program and the UCLA Comprehensive Cancer Center; this rotates through the topics: signal transduction, gene therapy and tumor immunology. Over 90% of Program trainees receiving their training in the past 10 years (93% respondents) are still active in research with the remaining 4 applying their training in other ways. Three-fourths of the 90% who are active in research are actively engaged in cancer research.
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