UCSD Cancer Center Training Program in Drug Development

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7. PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT This renewal application seeks funding to continue the highly successful Cancer Therapeutics Training (CT2) Program at the Moores Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego. The mission of the CT2 program is to train the PhD and physician-scientists who will become the next generation of leaders in the field of cancer therapeutics and diagnostics in each of the major steps required for successful translation of laboratory-based discoveries into safe and effective therapeutic agents and diagnostic modalities. The CT2 training is designed to position trainees to play key leadership roles in the field of oncology therapeutics. The 27 faculty of the CT2 Program are all Members of the Cancer Center and are based in 10 departments in the School of Medicine, the Scripps Institute of Oceanography or the general campus. Each faculty mentor is an accomplished investigator and educator with a history of training superb post-doctoral fellows. Each has substantial peer-reviewed cancer or cancer-related research funding. All of the participating faculty are conducting translational research and have been selected because of their interest in new cancer therapeutics. This program is extensively integrated into the other cancer related activities of the Cancer Center and of UCSD. The goal is to recruit and retain 8 MD and PhD scientists in this two-year program that will position them for careers in the development of new cancer drugs or the diagnostics needed to guide the use of these drugs in the era of personalized medicine. The training program has 3 components: 1) the completion of formal didactic teaching sessions that cover tools essential to the drug development process; 2) the conduct of a drug or diagnostic development research project under the direction of a faculty mentor; and, 3) required participation in the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research or an equivalent national drug development meeting. Trainees are also expected to participate in Cancer Center and Departmental seminars, research rounds and journal clubs to expand the breadth of their understanding of cancer research, and prepare formal project plans and practice or real grant applications for review by the Executive Committee. Methods are in place to ensure that all trainees are properly instructed in the principles of responsible conduct of research and scientific integrity. Trainees are recruited nationwide and special efforts are made recruit and retain exceptional minority, women and disadvantaged candidates. During its first 10 years of operation the CT2 Program has drawn trainees from major research universities across the country as well as from the Gradate Biomedical Sciences and Surgery, Hematology/Oncology, and Pediatric clinical training programs. This Program has been so successful that the Cancer Center has established a parallel program of additional fellowships in cancer therapeutics funded by donations.