A total of $500,000 per year in Developmental Funds is requested in this application for: 1) Pilot Projects; 2) New Investigators / Recruitment, and 3) Developing Shared Resources. Developmental Funds represent the financial foundation of growth and development of the Center. The CCSG is leveraged with other institutional sources to create a total investment pool toward new scientists, resources and science. During the past grant period, a total of $4,596,819 were invested in pilot projects, new investigators and shared resources. Of this amount, $1,417,500 came from CCSG Developmental Funds, and $3,179,319 was provided from other Cancer Center funds. The current return on investment is $10,953,939; a 138% R01. Of the $1,417,500 in CCSG funds, $668.000 was invested in pilot projects. Extramural grants obtained as a result of those pilot projects amount to $5,069,686; a 6-fold return. Extramural grants obtained by those recipients, although not necessarily directly resulting from pilot project data, amount to $25,641,499. CCSG funds invested in Recruitment/New Investigators amount to $672.500 (plus $2,302,349 in other funds). That CCSG investment has returned $7,134,253, an R01 of 961%. While the future investments are described, and should be viewed in relation to the overall strategic plans of the Center, equally important are the systems employed to identify needs and the decision-making process that is in place regarding funding allocations. Recruitment and new investigator pursuits generally follows a structured analysis that includes: 1) input from program and senior leaders and; 2) identifying the priority level and available financial resources. For example, the 2004 Strategic Plan concludes that a greater number of clinical scientists are needed; those both grounded in clinical research and those with joint laboratory and clinical interests. The Plan notes the intention to further expand and link the Cancer Center with the physical sciences, including informatics and engineering. Discussions followed with program and senior leadership, then to discussion and negotiation with academic department chairs in order to determine the departmental positions and resources available for such appointments. This was followed by formation of a search committee. Such was the path followed for the recruitments of Tony Reid, MD, PhD, Gregory Daniels, MD, PhD and Catriona Jamieson, MD, PhD, the promising new translational research scientists that have joined the Moores Cancer Center. Pilot projects are employed to actualize other parts of the plan for the Center; i.e., mentoring our more junior clinical scientists and developing translational research projects with clinical endpoints. These objectives come to life with two recently implemented pilot project competitions - the Mentored Translational Research Award program and the Collaborative Translational Research Award program, fully described below. The programs are announced annually to the Cancer Center membership at six month intervals, with robust competition and selection in NIH multi-tiered review fashion. Pilot project funding from the CCSG is also matched by other funds in the Cancer Center. Joint recruitment between the Center and the Department of Bioengineering, including the allocation of an FTE, is ongoing for an accomplished cancer bioengineering scientist. Through the use of campus start-up funding and 3 assigned FTEs, Nicholas Schork, PhD, a UCSD professor of psychiatry specializing in bioinformatics, was recruited in 2005 as a new investigator and leader of our bioinformatics program. No CCSG funds were required for his recruitment, although the CCSG may be allocated to the further growth of this key area. Developing technologies and shared resources is ongoing with new scientific directions, needs assessment through periodic member surveys, and leadership determination of optimal support services. Over this past project period we have invested in technologies targeted at improved analysis of genomics data. Future services have been given serious consideration by Cancer Center members and leaders alike, with proposed CCSG allocations for three developing facilities closely mirroring the programmatic priorities of the Center.
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