I manage the mass spectrometry laboratory of the Analytical Biochemistry Shared Resource, Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, which has emerged as one of the leading academic mass spectrometry laboratories in the U.S. The laboratory is effectively an extension of the Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention Program (CCP) of the Masonic Cancer Center, providing critical analytical services to the members of the program who account for a large majority of the analysis performed in the facility. The scientific goals of the CCP are to understand the chemical and molecular mechanisms of carcinogenesis and use this knowledge to develop and evaluate practical methods for cancer prevention. There are currently 14 NCI-funded projects by CCP members who use the mass spectrometry facility. The integration of the Analytical Biochemistry Shared Resource and the CCP is such that the mass spectrometry laboratory staff, through extensive training and consultation with group members and collaboration with principal investigators, functions as the analytical component of many of the research groups. I am an integral part of the CCP through extensive consultation and collaboration with the members regarding their mass spectrometry-based analyses, as well as working very closely with their research groups. I have daily interactions with the investigators and routinely attend laboratory group meetings, contribute to writing manuscripts, and participate in the Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention Seminar Series and the Translational Biomarkers Working Group. The need for my consultation and collaboration with members of the CCP regarding advanced analytical measurement, as well as day-to-day training and oversight of members of their research groups, has been steadily growing with the increasing analytical capabilities of the laboratory and the increasing dependency of the users on mass spectrometric analysis to advance their research. In addition, there is an ongoing need to continue to advance the analytical capabilities of the facility as the field of biomedical mass spectrometry continues to grow and the research goals of the program members evolve. An external source of financial support would give me the independence and freedom to focus my efforts on providing the NCI-funded members of the CCP, as well as other members of the Masonic Cancer Center, with the support they need to harness the advanced analytical capabilities of the mass spectrometry laboratory.
This project will provide researchers studying carcinogenesis and chemoprevention with advanced analytical tools to advance their research goals. It will help them to advance the understand of how cancer is initiated and use this information to develop strategies for cancer prevention and/or treatment of cancer.
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