The Mayo Clinic SPORE in Pancreatic Cancer Research will continue to make every effort to maximize the number of innovative and high-quality projects in the Developmental Research Program (DRP). The goal of the DRP is to support innovative, scientifically sound research projects from which findings can be translated into clinically relevant applications that will impact screening, diagnosis, and management of pancreatic cancer. Progress over the past funding period has resulted in support for 15 of 45 DRP applications. These meritorious projects have yielded important new insights about pancreatic cancer and to extramural funding, including contributions to the full translational research projects in this current SPORE application. The DRP will: (1) encourage and solicit innovative translationally-relevant laboratory, population and cfinical study proposals;(2) encourage and support interdisciplinary collaboration in translational research in pancreatic cancer;and (3) generate new hypotheses that can be tested in larger-scale research projects or clinical trials that can impact pancreatic cancer. The DRP will provide up to $50,000 (utilizing funds from both the SPORE grant and institutional resources) to 3 to 5 projects annually. There will be the possibility of a second year of support based on progress. A process has been successfully established to call for applications on an annual basis and to formally peer review submissions utilizing the expertise of the Scientific Advisory Committee and other experienced investigators. Criteria will be based upon scientific merit, originality, qualifications of the key personnel and interactions, and translational potential. It is our experience, and will continue to be anticipated, that support of developmental research projects will result in the generation of new hypotheses that can potentially be addressed in existing SPORE-sponsored projects, or through peer reviewed external grant support. It is the intent of the SPORE leadership to encourage and help the investigators to use the data generated by these projects to design either R01-type grants or Program Project Grant proposals in the next funding period.
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