The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center (OSUCCC) proposes to establish a postdoctoral training program for cancer prevention and control that will prepare fellows to be impactful and independent research scientists in academia, government or industry. This will be done by providing focused transdisciplinary state-of-the-art research training. The overall goal of this training program is to reduce the risk of cancer and improve the lives of cancer patients. The research areas for the postdoctoral fellows may focus on carcinogenesis, behavior, cancer risk and survivorship. The training and research experience can be laboratory-, clinic- or community-based. The transdisciplinary training includes a core curriculum, varied research seminars, and emphasis on dual mentorship with biostatistical/bioinformatics advisors. The participating faculty consist of the 2 program directors and 22 mentors, all of whom have track records for peer- review funding, most participate or have participated in multi-investigator programmatic grants and are almost all experienced senior leaders and hold the rank of Professor. The research areas and scientific disciplines encompassed by the mentors included here are represented by their individual affiliations with four OSUCCC Research Programs, while the faculty come from 6 OSU colleges. The OSUCCC and its research programs have undergone the peer-reviewed Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG) process, and received an ?Exceptional? descriptor (impact score of 10) for its state-of-the-art research, its research environment and the ability to foster transdisciplinary research. Now, the OSUCCC is seeking to expand its training programs with a specific focus on cancer prevention and control, one of our strategic priorities. While this is a new T32 training program, the OSUCCC has a strong track record for postdoctoral training, such as a 39-year history of a T32 general oncology training program that has trained 154 postdoctoral fellows in basic and translational cancer research by a cadre of outstanding NIH-funded participating faculty. While the OSU has numerous T32 training programs, there are only four that have a cancer focus, and these have little to no cancer prevention activities. Thus, there is little overlap with this newly proposed training program, which will have a large applicant pool locally and nationally. This application details a specific recruitment, training and career development plans, along with evaluation methods for the fellows and the overall program. There is strong institutional support and senior leaders from the OSUCCC and several colleges have leadership roles in this application. This new application seeks support for 2 trainees in year 1 and 3 trainees in years 2-5.
Cancer prevention and control research remains a high NCI priority. The proposed training program is intended to contribute to the pipeline of young cancer control and prevention researchers who will become independent scientists.
