8.2.1 ABSTRACT: CARCINOGENESIS AND CHEMOPREVENTION The Garcinogenesis and Chemoprevention program, lead by Stephen Hecht, Ph.D., has 22 members representing 11 departments and seven schools and institutes. As of September 30, 2007, these members lave a total of $9.4 million in peer-reviewed, funded research projects for the current budget period. Since June 2003, their research has resulted in 476 publications, of which 20% were intra-programmatic and 15% were inter-programmatic. The goal of research in the Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention Program is to elucidate mechanisms of carcinogenesis and to use this knowledge to develop and evaluate approaches to cancer prevention. The Program has three major integrated broad research themes;tobacco and cancer, mechanisms of carcinogenesis, and Chemoprevention. The program features translational activities which take laboratory findings to clinical and epidemiologic studies, and then uses laboratory studies to further interpret and refine the relevant hypotheses. The program features a highly collaborative environment, in which members share research approaches, knowledge, methods, and reagents. These interactions are facilitated by the physical proximity of several laboratories as well as by a monthly seminar series which has been continuous since 1998. The tobacco and cancer theme features an internationally recognized collaborative group studying mechanisms of tobacco carcinogenesis and strong inter-programmatic collaborations through the University of Minnesota Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center, particularly in the area of application of tobacco carcinogen biomarkers. The mechanisms of carcinogenesis theme demonstrates exceptionally high productivity in the areas of chemical mechanisms and signal transduction pathways in carcinogenesis. The Chemoprevention theme, evolving from a long history at the University of Minnesota, continues to discover and develop effective agents for cancers of the respiratory tract as well as other cancers. These preclinical findings have been translated into newly funded phase II studies of agents developed in this program. Programmatic interactions, the use of shared resources, faculty recruitment, pilot projects, and matching funds are some of the ways in which the Cancer Center significantly enhances research in this program.
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