Cancer Research Training and Education Coordination

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CANCER RESEARCH TRAINING AND EDUCATION COORDINATION PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Cancer Research Training and Education Coordination (CRTEC) is overseen by Edward Nelson, MD, Associate Director for Cancer Research Training & Education, who coordinates and supports research education and training activities within the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center (CFCCC) and throughout the University of California, Irvine (UCI) in keeping with the matrixed structure of the Cancer Center. The mission of the CFCCC is to Discover, Teach, and Heal within the broad discipline of cancer medicine and to reduce the burden of cancer through research, education, patient care and community outreach within our Catchment Area. The activities of the CRTEC support cancer research exposure, education and career development across the spectrum of high school students, undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral associates, medical students, clinical fellows, faculty, clinicians, and community healthcare professionals. The goal of CRTEC is to strengthen CFCCC and UCI as the preeminent resource: i) to provide rigorous training in, and conduct of, cancer research; ii) to provide career enhancement activities that prepare all trainees for productive careers as cancer researchers and/or healthcare professionals; and iii) to support a community of cancer care professionals in providing quality care as partners in alleviating the burden of cancer in our Catchment Area. The CRTEC component leverages and coordinates CFCCC, UCI, and extramurally-supported activities for these purposes. Specific activities reside within discrete elements of the CFCCC such as Community Outreach and Engagement, the three CFCCC Research programs, the Stern Center for Cancer Clinical Trials & Research, and CRTEC itself. CRTEC cultivates the pipeline of potential cancer researchers, promotes the advancement of junior and established researchers in basic, translational, clinical, and population cancer science, and specifically seeks to utilize the ethnic and socioeconomic diversity of UCI and our Catchment Area to support the cancer research career development of under-represented populations. By engaging, inspiring, and training gender and ethnically diverse cancer researchers, CRTEC positions CFCCC to better address the lack of diversity in the biomedical workforce. Through the Cancer Research Training & Education Committee chaired by Nelson, CRTEC leverages pilot grant programs (both internally- and externally-supported) and an extensive mentorship network, including unique components developed at UCI and the CFCCC, to advance the careers of the next generation of cancer researchers. As the UCI College of Health Sciences (COHS) continues to expand with four schools and five institutes and centers of health, CRTEC will take advantage of the COHS mission to provide integrated healthcare to foster and develop unique transdisciplinary cancer research career enhancement programs and further establish CFCCC and UCI as a significant contributor to the pipeline of clinical/translational investigators.