Over the last several years, the pool of physician-scientists in Health Sciences and their participation in training grants has decreased. The major objective of this training grant in Basic Research in Oncology, funded by the NCI for the last 10 years, is to train young individuals at the post-doctoral level who are motivated in the pursuit of an academic career that involves research in the area of malignant diseases in humans. The focus is in particular on the training of future physician-scientists, who are judged essential in the successful translation of basic discoveries from the laboratory to the clinic. Despite a shortage of suitable candidates, 7 among 8 individuals who completed the program over the last 10 years and hold academic positions are physicians. The proposed program involves 27 senior investigators on the faculty of the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California who are members of the NCI funded Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. Their research interests are in the areas of Cancer Genetics, Regulatory Biology, Developmental Therapeutics/Clinical Trials, Cancer Epidemiology/Control and Hematological Malignancies. The research of these faculty members is supported by $26.2 million in NIH funding and all members have a solid experience in training young investigators. For the next 5 years, we anticipate being able to support 3 candidates each year. Recruitment for this training grant will continue to be primarily from 2 subspecialty fellowship programs, in Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) and in Medical Hematology-Oncology at the Health Sciences Campus (HSC) of USC. Over the last 2 years these programs have been able to recruit an increased number of well qualified applicants. The training grant will also extend to other post-doctoral programs at USC and other medical schools. Participants in the training grant will have access to a broad spectrum of educational activities organized at CHLA, and at the HSC campuses, including a required curriculum focused on cancer biology, biostatistics, bioinformatics, and experimentation. Their training will continue to be closely monitored by an advisory committee. Support for this training grant is critical in allowing us to continue to promote physician-scientist careers in pediatric and medical oncology.
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