? Developmental Core The goal of this Developmental Core is to provide the infrastructure and know-how to recruit and support junior and new investigators to field of HIV-associated cancers and in particular lung cancer. The Core will recruit, fund, monitor progress, provide mentorship and support the presentation of ongoing/completed research projects at three institutions across 3 countries. We will adapt methods and activities that have been used successfully in the Case CCC, which has a Paul Calabresi Career Development Award for Clinical Oncology (K12 Scholars Program) now in its 18th year of funding and the CWRU/UH CFAR to the specific requirements of this U54. Specifically, this initiative will provide pilot grant support for 3 junior faculty from our partner institutions per year (leading to a total of up to 15 faculty in the program) which will be closely linked to mentoring and professional development plans. Innovative aspects of the program will be the development of peer-to-peer mentoring program involving CWRU faculty who visit Uganda regularly, and the extensive use of webinars and web-based communication to run joint review panels, workshops and hold mentoring committee meetings. In the current highly competitive funding environment, the key to success is to provide consistent support as well as specific guidance, when needed, to junior investigators to allow generation of enough preliminary data for a submission of a strong competitive grant application. Our 31-year history of close collaboration, and the climate of mutual respect that we have developed with our Ugandan colleagues (which will be extended to our Tanzanian colleagues), form the basis for this novel and innovative Developmental Core.
- Developmental Core Lung cancer is a major national and international health problem resulting in more cancer deaths than any other cancer. The rates are increasing in the low to middle income countries where the epidemiology, outside the effect of tobacco, is not well understood. HIV-positive patients are increased risk of developing lung cancer. By providing developmental and pilot funds to highly qualified investigators early in their career we can make develop novel ideas and grow the next generation of physician scientists tackling these issues.
