Enhancement of Cancer Research at Clark Atlanta University

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Summary Clark Atlanta University (CAU) is a comprehensive, private, urban, coeducational institution of higher education with a predominantly African-American heritage. It offers undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees as well as certificate programs to students of diverse racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. The Center for Cancer Research and Therapeutic Development (CCRTD) was established at CAU in 1999 with direct support from the NIH/RCMI program. CCRTD faculty was derived from the Departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry and School of Education with research interests in cancer biology, drug discovery and behavioral aspects of cancer. In 2004, we decided to build a comprehensive research and educational program which will focus on prostate cancer and its impact in the African-American community. In 2005, the Center was designated as CAU's University-wide Center of Excellence to a) develop a core group of internationally known scientists, that will carry-out highly productive basic research in cancer cell biology and molecular biology and contribute in the development of successful therapeutic strategies to combat cancer., b) train undergraduate and graduate students and post-doctoral fellows in the area of cancer biology and, hence, help develop the future generation of African-American scientists of the highest caliber. And c) establish an educational program to increase awareness for prevention, early detection and treatment of cancers, especially those which disproportionately affect the African-American community. As a consequence of targeted recruitment of faculty and staff over the past 12 years, CCRTD is currently one of the largest centers of its kind in the nation with a unique and comprehensive program to combat prostate cancer. We recruited 9 tenure-track faculty members with established expertise in the area of cell and molecular biology of cancer. They established their research programs at CCRTD which focus on understanding molecular mechanisms in the development and progression of prostate cancer and also on the biological basis of higher incidence and development of more advanced disease at an earlier age in African-American men. In order to provide state-of-the art research infrastructure to carry out cutting-edge cell and molecular biology research, CCRTD has developed research core laboratories to support research activities of faculty, staff and students. These core facilities have undergone significant expansion throughout the past several years. We have also been actively engaged in the research training and education of both undergraduate and graduate students in the area of prostate cancer biology. Our community outreach has established dynamic educational and community based research programs which serve the African-American community in the metro Atlanta and beyond. The current proposal seeks to expand and enhance current research and educational activities at CCRTD and will focus on three specific aims. First aim will expand and enhance current research programs in prostate cancer and professional development by supporting three research projects and developing a pilot project program to support junior faculty, investigators and postdoctoral scientists. The second aim will attempt to restructure and modernize research core facilities by consolidating current 8 core research laboratories into 5 core laboratories to create a more efficient research infrastructure. we will also establish a new animal research core laboratory acquire new equipment to upgrade the current research core laboratories. The purpose of the aim 3 will be to create an integrated infrastructure for development of a comprehensive program for dissemination of information and community engagement which will involve local, national and global communities. We will use our current strengths in professional development programs in basic research area, and in the community outreach and educational programs to create this new infrastructure.