The Career Development Program was designed to train and guide academic physician-scientists, clinicianinvestigators,and laboratory-based researchers who wish to dedicate their efforts to translational research inthe areas of diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of ovarian cancer. To meet this goal, the specific objectivesof the Career Development Program are to: Recruit and train young physician-scientists, clinician-investigators, and laboratory-based researchers tobecome leaders in translational research on ovarian cancer; Provide dedicated time to perform clinically relevant laboratory research and hypothesis-driven clinicaltrials; Provide support for translational research that will generate preliminary data and relevant publicationsfor a full SPORE project or for peer-reviewed funding outside the SPORE mechanism; Mentor effectively those chosen for career development; Offer educational experiences that address the unique needs of the awardees.The SPORE Career Development Awards involve 2 or more years of mentored research in ovarian cancer inwhich the investigators learn through their experience in conducting a research project with the advice of twomentors (one laboratory based and one clinical). Our mentors have been chosen for their expertise andinterest in ovarian cancer from the more than 1000 faculty at M. D. Anderson. The awardees can obtain moreformal training, including courses offered by The University of Texas-Houston Graduate School of BiomedicalSciences in molecular biology, genetics, biostatistics, epidemiology, physiology, and pharmacology. Theawardees can also participate in the M. D. Anderson K30 curriculum for clinical investigators and have theoption to earn an M.S. or Ph.D. in patient-based biological research. The M.S./Ph.D. program includes theseminar class Topics in Translational Research, which all our career development awardees will be required totake. All 10 awardees to date have published their ovarian cancer research, seven have obtained independentfunding, and two have become Co-Pis of full SPORE projects. The awardees have published a total of 63ovarian cancer papers and obtained 16 funded grants, including eight related directly to ovarian cancer.
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