HU-UCPI Cancer Education/Career Development Partnership

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant) Despite an excess cancer burden in the African-American population, there remains a relative paucity of African American cancer researchers; a trend that is evident at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) in addition to many cancer centers nationwide. Hampton University (HU) is a historically Black university located in Hampton, Virginia with over 600 students majoring in the Biological Sciences, yet there has been little emphasis in the curriculum on cancer biology. A partnership between UPCI and Hampton will combine the strengths of both institutions to establish cancer biology teaching and laboratory work in the Hampton curriculum, to facilitate the exposure of HU students to UPCI faculty and programs, to develop core faculty expertise in cancer biology at Hampton and to enhance UPCI accessibility to minority populations. To accomplish these goals, this partnership will realize the following specific aims: (1) To plan and implement a cooperative curriculum that will enable HU students to design and conduct experiments related to cancer, to understand basic concepts of cancer biology, and to critique primary literature in the cancer field. This will entail projects directed at all HU biology undergraduates as well as the establishment of a Cancer Fellows track, which will include summer research rotations by Cancer Fellows at UPCI. (2) To augment resources at UPCI to effectively interact with and educate minorities in Western Pennsylvania about cancer. This will include a joint project to upgrade the UPCI website to optimize its content and facilitate accessibility by African-Americans. (3) Optimize the ability of faculty to successfully teach cancer biology and to undertake cancer-related projects. A customized curriculum will be developed at UPCI to enhance the skills of HU summer visiting Faculty in teaching cancer biology and developing experimental and didactic teaching models. Faculty from both institutions will benefit from increased expertise in joint curriculum development, development of creative long distance teaching models, grant writing workshops and bioinformatics software training. Through these aims the partnership between Hampton University and UPCI will establish innovative programs designed to augment cancer research training and education opportunities at HU, and to enhance educational initiatives at UPCI.