This training program emphasizes bench to bedside research encompassing state-of-the-art areas of cancer research. Along with training in the fundamentals of cancer research and sound scientific theory, students and post-doctoral fellows will be trained in many fundamental areas of cancer research. Opportunities for trainees to be exposed to more clinical aspects of Cancer have been incorporated into our training program. The problem of cancer in the 21st century remains a national priority, and as such, offers a substantive long-term career opportunity for the training of pre-doctoral and post-doctoral students. The goals of our training program are to not only train top-quality scientists capable of conducting independent cancer research, but also to foster the intellectual, technical, and communication skills required to succeed in the academic or industrial arenas of today and in the future. We provide our trainees an understanding of the basic, public health, and clinical problems of human cancer. The ability of this training grant to bridge an existing outstanding foundation of Faculty in Basic Science with our Cancer Biology and Therapy Programs in the Harold Simmons NCI Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, distinguishes it from a standardized general graduate and post- graduate educational program. We have 35 committed Faculty Trainers representing 20 different Departments and Centers at UT Southwestern. We have assembled a dedicated group of Steering Committee members, along with administrative intellectual and financial support from the Director of the Cancer Center. We have an integrated plan for the proposed Cancer Training Program for both pre-doctoral and post-doctoral trainees that details all key steps in cancer education and training, including biomedical ethics, the responsible conduct of science, rigor and reproducibility, biostatistics, bioinformatics, and data sharing. We have a program specific plan for recruiting and retaining a geographically broad range of pre-doctoral and post- doctoral applicants as well as underrepresented diversity trainees. We have expanded and implemented our cancer didactic and journal oriented courses, both basic and translational. Our training grant eligible pre-doctoral and post-doctoral applicant pool has almost doubled during the last 5 years.
This T32 renewal application describes a comprehensive recruitment, training and retention program that combines a strong basic science curriculum with a strong translational cancer focus that distinguishes it from other training programs. Our goals are to train top-quality scientists capable of conducting independent cancer research; foster the intellectual, technical and communication skills required to succeed in the academic or industrial arenas of today and in the future; and to provide an understanding of the basic, public health, and clinical problems of human cancer. During the first 10 years of this training program ~50% of all appointees have been diversity trainees, UT Southwestern has become a NCI Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, we have increased our cancer related funding almost 5-fold, and we have doubled our student and post-doctoral T32 eligible trainees.
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