Program Director/Principal Investigator (Last, first, middle) O'Neill, Brian Patrick, M.D. ABSTRACT Training Grant NS07494 established a new multidisciplinary research training program at Mayo Clinic and Mayo Clinic Cancer Center to develop scientists who would advance and significantly impact the nation's brain tumor agenda. This renewal application builds on that grant's success and requests continuing support for four postdoctoral trainees for each of an additional five years. The addition of new investigators and the award of a brain tumor SPORE provide for an expanded and more intensive training opportunity.
In Aim 1, provide an intensive and tliorough training and researching experience in disciplines relevant to understanding the pathophysiology of primary brain tumors, the T32 will continue as a basic science, laboratory-based, research training experience under the supervision of established investigators. The training will continue to expose trainees to the clinical challenges of these diseases. To address the dearth of translational investigators we adds a second Aim, Selectively expand translational research. There are 14 Senior Faculty all of whom are highly-qualified investigators from basic, translational, and clinical science areas at Mayo Clinic Rochester. They have extensive experience in mentoring pre- and post-doctoral fellows to success, have the necessary core of NIH and other extramural support, and have an Impressive record of joint publications. They are highly interactive, and the program is designed to achieve maximum faculty participation. The faculty is enhanced by two Adjunct Faculty and four Associate Faculty. A new Mayo Foundation Office of Research Postgraduate Affairs provides institutional infrastructure and support to NIH- funded training grants including T32 NS07494. Outstanding applicants with the MD, PhD, MD/PhD, or equivalent degrees, will be aggressively recruited with efforts especially directed toward identifying individuals from underrepresented populations. Trainees will be committed to a minimum of two years of full time research to prepare them to compete successfully in academic research. Each trainee will be expected to complete a required Core Curriculum that provides the optimal training, education, and career development environment.
Compared with other more common systemic tumors, primary brain tumors are responsible for disproportionate morbidity and mortality because of their disabling impact on cognition, memory, language, mobility, and adaptive skills. Primary brain tumors are now the leading cause of death from solid cancer in children and the leading cause of cancer death in adolescents and young adults in the United States. Although each brain tumor has the potential to produce critical neurologic impairment, glioblastoma multiform (GBM), the most common primary brain tumor of adults, is also lethal. Since GBMs often strike patients in early and mid-adult life they result in a significant reduction in life expectancy and lost productivity and they impact the nation's public health. Whether the payer is public or private, diagnosis and treatment, including supportive care in the terminal stages of disease, extracts enormous health care expenditures. A concerted research effort over the past two decades has determined many of the underlying chromosomal, molecular genetics and biologic alterations in human brain tumors but there are still considerable gaps in our knowledge about the molecular etiology involved in these tumors. More importantly, little of what is known has been translated into clinical practice to relieve the burden of disease from our patients and their families.
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