Postdoctoral Training Program in Cancer Epidemiology

描述（由申请人提供）：癌症流行病学和预防领域的重要性已经被过去十年中分子生物学和遗传学的深刻发展所改变和放大。 因此，我们必须培养癌症预防研究人员，他们可以在现在和未来普遍存在的复杂，多学科的环境中发挥作用。 NCI计划公告PAR-00-064解决了增加能够领导实验室，行为和人口科学研究的研究人员数量的需求。 预防医学系和罗伯特H。西北大学的Lurie综合癌症中心为结合教学和体验方法的高级培训提供了广泛的，良好的综合背景。 拟议的培训计划将利用我们机构的现有优势和资源，包括积极的K30和K12计划，NIH资助的临床研究科学硕士（MSCI）奖，NCI资助的乳腺癌培训计划，综合研究生课程的癌症生物学轨道，卵巢癌协调中心早期检测研究网络，以及乳腺癌和前列腺癌的SPORE项目。 西北大学的癌症预防计划包括23名研究人员和每年超过1000万美元的校外资金，用于化学预防，流行病学，行为科学和早期检测方法的研究。 拟议中的奖项将使我们能够为研究员提供津贴/研究支持，并开发核心和跟踪特定课程，用于培训来自以下四种背景之一的新独立调查人员：1. 流行病学博士2. 生物科学博士，3。 MD，4。 行为科学博士 该计划将在2-3年的课程每年招收2名新研究员。 受训者将被要求参加（或通过批准）课程：介绍和中级流行病学和生物统计学，研究伦理学，生物医学写作，分子医学和肿瘤细胞生物学。 此外，研究员将被要求参加一个新的癌症流行病学课程和三个半课程之一，也将在此奖项下开发：癌症筛查，行为和癌症风险，和化学预防。 希望获得MSCI学位的研究员可能有资格获得MSCI学位。 受训者将被要求完成一个多年的癌症预防研究项目，在一个主要的导师，谁将被接受后立即与该计划的研究员相匹配的监督下。 为了确保更广泛的研究经验和接触到多个导师，每个研究员将选择一个二级导师谁将提供一个纵向的作用，他们的研究团队的研究员。 研究员将被要求在完成该计划之前书面和口头提交NIH资助申请，并在癌症中心的方案审查小组任职6个月。 项目领导将由PI和其他3名核心教师组成，他们将指导流行病学/生物标志物，化学预防，早期检测/筛查和行为科学等核心领域的课程开发。 该咨询委员会，这将包括谁在西北指导关键的教学或研究资源的高级教师，将提供每个研究员的计划和进展的定期监测，以及该计划的一般监督。 该计划的最终成功将取决于研究员在学术/研究环境领域的未来贡献。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The field of cancer epidemiology and prevention has been both transformed and magnified in importance by the profound developments in molecular biology and genetics over the past decade. As a result, it is imperative that we train cancer prevention researchers who can function productively in the complex, multidisciplinary environment that prevails now and in the future. The NCI program announcement PAR-00-064 addresses the need to increase the number of investigators capable of leading research that links laboratory, behavioral and population science. The Department of Preventive Medicine and the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern provide an extensive, well-integrated context for advanced training that combines didactic and experiential approaches. The proposed training program will draw upon existing strengths and resources at our institution, including active K30 and K12 programs, an NIH-funded Master of Science in Clinical Investigation (MSCI) award, an NCI-funded Breast Cancer Training Program, the Cancer Biology track of the Integrated Graduate Program, the Ovarian Cancer coordinating center for the Early Detection Research Network, and SPORE Programs in both breast and prostate cancer. The Cancer Prevention Program at Northwestern includes 23 investigators and over $10 million per year in extramural funding devoted to research in chemoprevention, epidemiology, behavioral science and early detection methodology. The proposed award will allow us to provide fellows with stipend/research support and to develop both core and trackspecific curricula for training new independent investigators who come to the program from one of four backgrounds: 1. PhD in epidemiology, 2. PhD in biological science, 3. MD, 4. PhD in behavioral sciences. The program will enroll 2 new fellows per year in a 2-3 year curriculum. Trainees will be required to take (or pass via approval) courses in: introductory and intermediate epidemiology and biostatistics, research ethics, biomedical writing, molecular medicine and tumor cell biology. In addition, fellows will be required to take a new course in cancer epidemiology and 1 of 3 half-courses also to be developed under this award: cancer screening, behavior and cancer risk, and chemoprevention. Fellows who wish may qualify to receive the MSCI degree. Trainees will be required to complete a multi-year cancer prevention research project, under the supervision of a primary mentor, who will be matched with the fellow immediately after acceptance to the Program. To ensure a wider breadth of research experience and exposure to multiple mentors, each fellow will select a secondary mentor who will provide a longitudinal role for the fellow in their research team. Fellows will be required to write and orally present an NIH grant application before completing the program, and to serve for 6 months on protocol review panels within the Cancer Center. The Program Leadership will consist of the PI and 3 other Core Faculty who will direct curriculum development in the core areas of epidemiology/biomarkers, chemoprevention, early detection/screening and behavioral science. The Advisory Committee, which will consist of senior faculty who direct critical teaching or research resources at Northwestern, will provide regular monitoring of the plans and progress of each fellow, as well as general oversight of the Program. The ultimate success of the Program will be determined by the future contributions of the Fellows to the field in the academic/research setting.