This competitive renewal was originally funded in 2002, and is now completing the fourth year of its second five-year cycle (10th year). This T32 builds upon established clinical and scientific strengths in various oncologic disciplines of the Departments of Surgery and Obstetrics/Gynecology. The partnership of both Departments with UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center provides an integrated infrastructure of collaborative bench science that spans fundamental molecular discovery to move scientific inquiry from bench-to-bedside for applied clinical and translational research. This training environment enhances the intra-collaborative, seamless trans-departmental initiatives available in Tumor Biology and Immunology, Human Genetics, Autoimmunity and Inflammation, Translational Clinical and Outcomes Research. The strategic goals of the research plan have special emphasis on the training of nascent, promising young Surgical-Scientists in their early post-doctoral years and who are in ACGME-approved training programs in Surgery or Gynecologic Oncology. Thus, this T-32 program coordinates the mentorship of promising post- doctoral ACGME resident-candidates who will aspire to academic faculty positions and will strengthen UAB's exceptional mentoring environment. This T-32 grant represents a mechanism for faculty collaboration and synergistic scientific interests among its four SPORE programs at UAB. Programmatically, an effective interdisciplinary research experience is implemented by the obligatory incorporation of the required teaching via mentors and the required course work for individual research plans. Course work in statistics and ethical conduct of research is augmented in this competitive renewal with formal instruction provided by the Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) and the Office of Post-Doctoral Education in grantsmanship, manuscript writing, and translational research. Over the past five years, 22 ACGME resident-trainees in Surgery and Gynecologic Oncology were supported by this T-32 mechanism. Because post-graduate surgical training approaches 7-10 years, and T-32 Trainees conduct research in the early stages of their career, a significant number of trainees still have >5 years of surgical training remaining prior to academic appointment. Therefore, we are just beginning to see the academic success of our program after 10 years of continuous funding. In the past 10 years, there have been 36 trainees that have completed their T-32 training with 70 % of these residents continuing in academic biomedical research and practice / training. Moreover, in the past five years, this T-32 has been gender-balanced and has included 17% under-represented minorities. This T32 has, over the past ten years, provided continual strong commitment to trainees with oversight and encouragement of reciprocal commitment to careers in investigation and academia. This is reflected by those who have completed training with academic faculty positions in other Schools of Medicine within Departments of Surgery, its oncology disciplines, and Obstetrics/Gynecology. Continued funding is therefore requested annually for 6 post-doctoral resident-trainees.

Public Health Relevance

This competitive renewal of the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Institutional Research Training Grant (T32) Research Training Program in Surgical Oncology at UAB will enable interdisciplinary, research in discovery and translational science. The program provides a seamless transition from clinical medicine to integrated, mentorship of the resident-trainee and then back to clinical medicine. This collaborative scientific experience allows a range of research options from fundamental molecular discovery to the most advanced applications of translational clinical research. The training plan for Research Training in Surgica Oncology incorporates an established, dedicated, and experienced basic and clinical faculty. This faculty includes surgical-scientists and senior Ph.D.s who have expertise that further enhances the robust faculty interaction dynamic to provide a comprehensive mentoring environment. The successful track record of our efforts is the best demonstration of effective mentee promotion and surgical oncology carrer development , in all phases of the Program. Over the past five-year funding cycle, this program has been gender-balanced (33% women) and has included 15% under-represented minorities, thus enabling the programmatic commitment to diversity and excellence in a scientifically-balanced oncology training program focused upon Surgical Science. Importantly, the efforts to achieve retention of trainees in academic surgical oncology, its surgical disciplines and gynecological oncology has been outstanding ,with 86% continuing in university clinical and research positions .The current proposal expands and develops our infrastructure and organization, with more than a mere reformulation of past submissions; this renewal application constitutes a fresh redesign of our program with better selection of mentors, a revised curriculum and improved evaluation and monitoring mechanisms.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Type
Institutional National Research Service Award (T32)
Project #
5T32CA091078-14
Application #
8874747
Study Section
Subcommittee I - Transistion to Independence (NCI)
Program Officer
Perkins, Susan N
Project Start
2001-04-01
Project End
2016-06-30
Budget Start
2015-07-01
Budget End
2016-06-30
Support Year
14
Fiscal Year
2015
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Alabama Birmingham
Department
Surgery
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
063690705
City
Birmingham
State
AL
Country
United States
Zip Code
35294
Gao, Rebecca W; Teraphongphom, Nutte; de Boer, Esther et al. (2018) Safety of panitumumab-IRDye800CW and cetuximab-IRDye800CW for fluorescence-guided surgical navigation in head and neck cancers. Theranostics 8:2488-2495
Garner, Evan F; Williams, Adele P; Stafman, Laura L et al. (2018) FTY720 Decreases Tumorigenesis in Group 3 Medulloblastoma Patient-Derived Xenografts. Sci Rep 8:6913
Bownes, Laura V; Stafman, Laura L; Maizlin, Ilan I et al. (2018) Socioeconomic disparities affect survival in malignant ovarian germ cell tumors in AYA population. J Surg Res 222:180-186.e3
Garner, Evan F; Stafman, Laura L; Williams, Adele P et al. (2018) UAB30, a novel RXR agonist, decreases tumorigenesis and leptomeningeal disease in group 3 medulloblastoma patient-derived xenografts. J Neurooncol 140:209-224
Stafman, Laura L; Mruthyunjayappa, Smitha; Waters, Alicia M et al. (2018) Targeting PIM kinase as a therapeutic strategy in human hepatoblastoma. Oncotarget 9:22665-22679
Prince, Andrew C; Moore, Lindsay S; Tipirneni, Kiranya E et al. (2018) Evaluation of optical imaging agents in a fluorescence-guided surgical model of head and neck cancer. Surg Oncol 27:225-230
Stafman, Laura L; Maizlin, Ilan I; Dellinger, Matthew et al. (2018) Disparities in fertility-sparing surgery in adolescent and young women with stage I ovarian dysgerminoma. J Surg Res 224:38-43
Stafman, Laura L; Williams, Adele P; Garner, Evan F et al. (2018) Targeting PIM Kinases Affects Maintenance of CD133 Tumor Cell Population in Hepatoblastoma. Transl Oncol 12:200-208
Gao, Rebecca W; Teraphongphom, Nutte T; van den Berg, Nynke S et al. (2018) Determination of Tumor Margins with Surgical Specimen Mapping Using Near-Infrared Fluorescence. Cancer Res 78:5144-5154
Williams, Adele P; Waters, Alicia M; Stewart, Jerry E et al. (2018) A novel retinoid X receptor agonist, UAB30, inhibits rhabdomyosarcoma cells in vitro. J Surg Res 228:54-62

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