Recruitment of a Bone and Cancer Early Stage Investigator

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DESCRIPTION (Provided by the applicant): The goal of this project is to continue the development of a Core Center in Bone and Cancer at Rush University Medical Center by facilitating the recruitment of a new early stage investigator to a tenure-track faculty position. The Medical Center has a large group of basic and translational researchers focusing on connective tissues, particularly bone, articular cartilage and tendons and ligaments. Two important strategic focus areas for the Medical Center include orthopedics and cancer, as evidenced by a number of building projects, new recruits and the nearly completed recruitment of a cancer director. As a cooperative venture between the Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology and the Department of Orthopedic Surgery, we have recently recruited a senior, NIH funded, faculty member with expertise in cancer biology into our newly established bone and cancer program. Through this grant mechanism, we now propose to expand the bone and cancer program by recruiting a laboratory-based early stage investigator who is committed to a career working with clinicians in the design and implementation of translational cancer research. We have already completed the initial search phase and have interviewed three outstanding candidates. Among these candidates, we have prioritized our ranking based on the "fit" between the candidate's research area and expressed desire to have a strong translational component and our clinical and basic science research strengths. The major mission of the Bone and Cancer is to advance patient treatment through improved understanding of cancer survival and metastasis mechanisms. A great deal is now being learned about the potential importance of cancer stem cells in resistance to treatment and the bone microenvironment in bone metastases. The development of a Bone and Cancer Core Center represents an ideal way to bolster cancer research activity at Rush since the great strengths in skeletal research and clinical orthopedic oncology can be leveraged to provide administrative and scientific support for the proposed activities.