Education/Training and Outreach Activities

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PROJECT SUMMARY (See instructions): The Dartmouth CCNE (DCCNE) Education/Training Program complements the research effort by focusing on the development of a graduate experience, which links together nanotechnology and engineering with cancer biology and immunology. This cross-disciplinary Program uses a cross-departmental organizafion to teach the fundamental scientific bases of materials, imaging systems, therapy technologies, immunology and toxicology, and specifically, their applicafion to cancer nanomedicine. The Program sets quanfifiable, achievable goals in terms of publications, conference attendance and seminars attended, to help set metrics for career development among students, post-docs, and established investigators. The key emphasis is to develop strategic partnerships formed from multidisciplinary teams with complementary expertise sets and then to match the learning goals of the participants to their individual training programs. This is possible because cancer nanotechnology research at Dartmouth occurs in graduate programs that are already delocalized from departments, evident at Thayer School of Engineering and at Dartmouth Medical School. A specific curriculum is proposed; students choose three of six possible areas of study, of which at least one must be each from engineering and medicine. Attention is given to research mentoring and career development The DCCNE will evaluate Program quality and efficiency at defined points on the education/training timeline, and will use the resulting outcomes information to inform ongoing programmatic development. Mechanisms for exchange of trainees among participafing CCNEs is planned through a monthly seminar series featuring speakers from across the country, particulariy from other CCNEs and nanotechnology research hubs. Outreach efforts will include seminars and symposia to disseminate DCCNE research in the wider scientific community, organizafion of and participation in national and regional conferences, and weekly seminars at Dartmouth focused on cancer nanotechnology. The DCCNE will hold an annual half-day forum at the Cancer Center to engage invited presentations in clinical translational research in nanotechnology as well as DCCNE investigators.