Priority Setting Stage

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Priority-Setting Stage Pilot Project #1 (Drs. Davidson and Hsieh) is fully conceived, planned and staffed. Consequently this project will be implemented immediately upon funding. Pilot project #2 will be selected during Year 1 by a Priority-setting process described as follows. We have selected an Internal Advisory Committee comprised of 6 cancer investigators: The two Lead Pis plus 2 additional members from each institution: Morehouse School of Medicine Alec J. Davidson, PhD is an assistant professor in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, and a member of the Neuroscience Institute and Circadian Rhythms and Sleep Disorders Program. Dr. Davidson has been pursuing research on the relationship between circadian clocks and cancer for 4 years, and is currently PI of an R21 grant from NCI to investigate this issue in a rat model of hepatocellular carcinoma. He is the MSM Lead-Pi of this grant application. Sandra Harris-Hooker, PhD is the Vice President and Associate Dean for Sponsored Research Administration at MSM, and the Director of the Minority Biomedical Research Support Program at Morehouse School of Medicine, a program dedicated to the development of future biomedical research scholars. With professional training in Cell Biology, and postgraduate emphasis in Cardiovascular Pathology, Dr. Harris- Hooker has worked in the area of vascular cell biology for over 20 years, studying endothelial dysfunctions involved in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. While her primary research area is vascular biology, she is also interested in ways by which to enhance the integration of basic, clinical and population-based research in order to address disparities in health. Dr. Harris-Hooker has been on the MSM faculty since 1983. Daniel Blumenthal, MD, MPH, is Chairman of the Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine and Principal Investigator of the Morehouse School of Medicine Prevention Research Center (PRC). The mission of the PRC is to advance scientific knowledge in the field of prevention of disease in African American and other minority communities and to disseminate new information and strategies of prevention. Specifically, Dr. Blumenthal is PI of the Cancer Prevention and Control Research network within the PRC, whose mission it is to accelerate the adoption of evidence-based cancer prevention and control in minority communities. Winship Cancer Institute / Emory University Leland W. K. Chung, PhD, is an internationally recognized basic and translational prostate cancer scientist with substantial experience in coordinating multi-dimensional research projects and is currently the PI of a NCI funded prostate cancer program project grant (P01). Dr. Chung is a Professor of Urology, Biochemistry, and Hematology & Oncology, Director of the Molecular Urology and Therapeutics Program, and Director of the Prostate Cancer Program, WCI. Dr. Chung is the WCI Lead-Pi of this grant application. Dr. Chung's research has continuously received funding from the National Institutes of Health and National Cancer Institute over the past 30 years. He currently serves as the Principal Investigator of one NCI Program Projects entitled "Prostate cancer bone metastasis: biology and targeting" (Total: $6,016,114), a DoD Synergy Consortium targeting prostate cancer lethal phenotypes (Total: $9,999,999), two DoD Idea Awards grants entitled "Beta-2 microglobulin: a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of human prostate cancer bone metastasis" (Total: $573,750) and "Molecular imaging with quantum dots probing EMT and prostate cancer metastasis in live animals" (Total $573,750), and two industrial grants entitled "CNTO95: targeting prostate cancer bone metastasis" (Total $100,000), "Assessment of the co-targeting potential of prostate cancer metastasis" (Total $100,000); Dr. Chung currently serves as a Co-Investigator for an NCI sponsored Cancer Nanotechnology Center grant (Total: $7,239,413, PI: Shuming Nie), a P20 grant ($2,653,181, PI: Shuming Nie), and an R01 grant ($7,094,005, PI: Shuming Nie). Otis W. Brawley, MD, is professor of hematology, oncology, and medicine at the Emory University School of Medicine and Professor of Epidemiology at the Emory Rollins School of Public Health. He also serves as associate director of the Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University. In addition, Dr. Brawley is chief of hematology and oncology services and the medical director of the Georgia Cancer Coalition Center of Excellence at Grady Memorial Hospital. From 1995 to April 2001, he served as Assistant Director of the Office of Special Populations Research at the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Brawley was previously a senior in the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control at the National Cancer Institute where he was one of a group instrumental in the development and launching of the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial. This 18,000-man trial is looking at screening and epidemiologic issues in prostate cancer as well as the potential for prevention of benign prostatic hyperplasia and prostate cancer. He also served as Chief of the NCI Intramural Prostate Cancer Clinic from 1993-1995. Dr. Brawley's research interests include the screening, epidemiology, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of hormonal cancer. He has additional interests in the design of clinical trials, inclusion of minorities in trials and the availability of state-of-the-art health care to the socioeconomically disadvantaged. His work concerning racial differences in patterns of medical care and the similar outcomes among racial and ethnic groups when there is equal treatment is widely cited in medical and lay literature. He is the recipient of numerous awards and was recently named a Georgia Cancer Coalition Eminent Scholar. Jin-Tang Dong, PhD, is currently an Associate Professor of Oncology, Urology, and Genetics and Molecular Biology at Emory University School of Medicine. His research has primarily focused on two areas of cancer biology - cancer gene identification and molecular understanding of two cancer molecules identified in his laboratory (ATBF1 and KLF5). He has published more than 50 research papers and trained more than 20 people of varying levels in cancer biology. He participates regularly in grant reviewing for NIH and US Army breast cancer and prostate cancer programs. Selection of Pilot Project 2 During the first quarter of Year 1, Drs. Davidson and Chung will write a Request for Applications that will be distributed by broadcast email and fliers within WCI and MSM. Potential applicants will be asked to conceive of projects that are bidirectionally collaborative (benefiting both institutions), of high scientific value, and investigate an area of cancer biology that might yield insight regarding racial and ethnic health disparities (preferably prostate cancer). This includes the cellular, molecular or systems biology of cancers that are more diagnosed, or more deadly among minority populations. Successful applications must conform to the stipulations published in PAR-07-230, the announcement for this parent application. Any applications from trainees or faculty that have not yet successfully obtained any independent research funding will require a career development plan. The administrative core will collect and duplicate (or electronically distribute) the applications as needed for review. If applications are not responsive to the RFA they will be returned to applicants with that indication. After the application deadline, the IAC will be provided with the responsive applications, and asked to assign them priority ranks based on the criteria of: scientific merit, the strength of the collaboration (must be mutually beneficial), the potential of the project to generate publishable data and a competitive independent grant application, and the training potential for trainees and junior faculty. If the committee lacks the scientific expertise to evaluate applications for specific projects/programs, ad hoc reviewers either from within or outside the partnering institutions may be added to the IAC. Once scores have been assigned the IAC will then meet briefly to confer on their scores and decide which project to fund. If pilot project budgets are significantly less than the $120,000 maximum, the committee may choose to fund more than one project. In addition to reviewing and prioritizing new pilot projects/programs, the IAC will also evaluate ongoing pilot projects/programs and advise the Pis from both partnering components as to the general activities of the partnership and how they may contribute effectively to achieving high-priority goals and objectives. In exchange for their yearly service, committee members (but not the Lead Pis) and ad hoc reviewers (if necessary) will be compensated as consultants ($300 per year) as part of the budget for the administrative core.