Program Integration and Management Abstract: This is the A1 competitive renewal application of a program project that builds on our success in the development of intraoperative photodynamic therapy (PDT) following tumor resection for patients with serosal (peritoneal and pleural) malignancies. We now propose to identify and study PDT-induced local and systemic responses that uniquely interact with the surgical environment to determine local control and long-term outcome. The overall goals of this PPG involve 1) understanding the mechanisms and clinical contribution of pleural photodynamic therapy (pPDT) in patients undergoing radical pleurectomy (RP) and 2) obtaining improved mechanistic understanding of the impact of surgical resection on pPDT efficacy. The integrated PPG structure is absolutely ideal for this type of multidisciplinary team project; thus, the overall goals for the coordination and integration of projects and cores are as follows:
Aim 1 is to provide organizational framework that promotes project integration through the complimentary and interwoven nature of the aims for the projects and cores that supports and encourages extensive sharing of data, tissues and core services.
Aim 2 is to provide organizational framework that minimizes avoidable heterogeneity through the use of complimentary analyses of common clinical samples, integrated studies of standardized animal models, standardized approaches and procedures and quality assurance and training programs.
Aim 3 is to manage projects and resources to maximize the potential impact of the PPG studies through extensive infrastructure and administrative support to coordinate and supervise research efforts and enhance collaboration and communication. This synergistic design allows concurrent, bidirectional bedside-bench translation, where causal/mechanistic relationships can be established for new clinical trial observations and novel mechanisms can be evaluated for clinical relevance on an ongoing, rapidly updating basis.
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