? CANCER RESEARCH TRAINING AND EDUCATION COORDINATION The Center for Cancer Mentoring, Education, Leadership, and Oncology-related Training (CAMELOT) serves as the centralized hub for the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center (OSUCCC) fostering cancer research and education, and disseminating those opportunities. CAMELOT?s efforts begin at the high school level, continue through undergraduate and graduate training, and then extend through post-doctoral training and into early faculty development and mentoring. CAMELOT is directed by Dr. Lawrence Kirschner, the OSUCCC Associate Director of Training and Education. He is assisted by Drs. Deepa Sampath, Elizabeth Klein, and Rosa Lapalombella. CAMELOT coordinates training and education programs through: 1) direct programs (e.g., for high school, Pelotonia fellows, external undergraduate student summer rotations including students from Ohio Historically Black Universities and Colleges); 2) integrating College of Medicine (COM) programs with OSUCCC activities and opening them to trainees and junior faculty outside the COM; 3) supporting grant submissions by junior faculty; and 4) supporting training grant submissions. The Pelotonia Fellowship Program (PFP), a major commitment by the OSUCCC to fellowship training, has been in existence for 10 years, and provides stipends and research support to fellows from the undergraduate to the postdoctoral fellowship level. OSUCCC provides $2-3M/year to support the PFP. During the current grant cycle, 251 pre- and postdoctoral fellowships awarded, of which 155 had mentors who were OSUCCC members from all five of the OSUCCC research programs and 10 of the 15 OSU Colleges. More than 90% of these trainees are currently active as cancer researchers. New programs developed by CAMELOT include two cancer research-focused pipeline programs, one for local underrepresented minority high school students and another for current OSU undergraduates.
The Specific Aims are to: 1) provide integration and coordination of training opportunities for cancer research across the OSUCCC and university ecosystem, and region, including high schools and colleges; 2) enhance formalized programming for cancer-based mentoring including both peer-to-peer and senior-to-junior mentoring; and, 3) develop an integrated system to enable assessment and outcome tracking for trainees at all levels of engagement with the OSUCCC (grants, papers, academic positions, etc.) to foster continuous quality improvement in educational and career development activities. The OSUCCC is planning robust faculty recruitment around strategic research priorities that will create new opportunities for education and training. To accommodate this, a bigger pipeline for training is planned in the next funding cycle. The OSUCCC will: 1) expand graduate and postgraduate training slots and programs for high school students; 2) establish the Young Cancer Investigator Faculty Academy that focuses on OSUCCC wet-lab researchers to support development of independent research programs; 3) establish a uniform tracking system for trainees; and 4) foster submissions of R25 and T32 training grants, including supplements.
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