This T32 will train 2 oncology fellows per year in """"""""Clinical Translational and Population Science"""""""" at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Trainees will obtain the fundamental competencies via didactics, hands-on research, and preparation of scholarly products needed to begin careers in clinical translational research or population sciences at research-intensive academic centers. Trainees will also be prepared to compete for research funding from a variety of sources, including, if they remain at UNC, the Paul Calabrese K12. Leadership. The program will be directed by Dr. Richard Goldberg, Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology and UNC Hospitals Cancer Center and Associate Directors, Dr Shelton Earp, Director of the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Dr Paul Godley, Associate Professor in Oncology and the School of Public Health. Faculty: There are 39 talented faculty mentors representing clinical, basic, and population research. Mentors have been selected based on research program, funding, and training experience. Resources include an 800 bed tertiary care hospital, an inpatient general clinical research center, extensive research laboratory facilities, and in 2009, the North Carolina Cancer Hospital. Outstanding programs available to trainees include thoracic, genitourinary, dermatologic, and neuro oncology as well as gastrointestinal and breast cancer research programs integrated with SPORE funding. Lineberger Cancer Research programs can be accessed that involve cell biology, immunology, carcinogenesis, molecular therapeutics, virology, genetics, cancer prevention and control and epidemiology. Trainees: Trainees will be selected from a competitive pool of applicants drawn from the adult and pediatric oncology training programs. Applications are reviewed by a steering committee comprising leadership and fellowship directors. Program: Each trainee selected is assigned at least 2 mentors with each mentor representing a different spectrum of research. Trainees will spend 75% of their time attending required K30 courses and optional didactics, developing and conducting their research project(s) under their mentors'supervision, training in Responsible Conduct of Research, and learning how to present their research in talks, posters, manuscripts, and first grant applications. Trainees in both tracks will participate in the Translational Seminar Series which has been especially developed for this program. This multi-year seminar presents the emerging discoveries in oncology organized across 30 topics and is not available elsewhere at UNC. Evaluation of the trainees, faculty and the program as a whole will be done on an annual basis by all of the participants, the steering committee and by the internal and external advisory committees. This training will be unique at UNC and will help ensure that our oncology trainees are prepared to begin research careers that will ultimately improve patient outcomes.
