Outreach Core

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CCMI v2.0 Outreach Core Core Leads: Jason Kreisberg and Antoine Forget SUMMARY The CCMI Outreach Core will use a multifaceted approach to promote the use of systems biology in cancer research and clinical translation. We will also devote significant efforts to educating the general public, from children to adults and including patients and patients’ families. The result will be a motivated community of cancer systems biology researchers, an enthusiastic next generation of scientists and clinicians, and a more informed general public open to supporting further systems biology research. First, to build and enrich a strong and diverse community of cancer systems biology researchers in the Bay Area and San Diego, the CCMI v2.0 will play a major role in recruiting new faculty and training junior scientists at UCSF, Stanford and UCSD. We have and will continue to work closely with our institutional leadership to recruit new faculty members with expertise in cancer systems biology, several of whom are integral to the present proposal. We will draw on significant matched institutional support at both UCSF and UCSD to continue what is now a 5-year-long program of Cancer Systems Biology Trainees. This program has enabled us to recruit and support top graduate students and postdoctoral fellows at both UCSF and UCSD. Second, to provide a broad portfolio of educational opportunities in cancer systems biology, we will organize workshops to provide hands-on, expert advice for learning and applying bioinformatics tools and systems biology techniques to cancer research. These events will leverage the operational know-how built and refined in CCMI v1.0, during which we organized 7 symposia and 20 workshops and tutorials. Third, in recognition of the vital role that the scientific community plays in educating lay people and influencing public opinion, the CCMI will support a wide array of public outreach activities. These activities will leverage the strong partnerships we have established with organizations and events of proven track record. These include science festivals such as the Bay Area Science Festival and the San Diego Festival for Science and Engineering, as well as the “Taste for the Cure: A Taste of Science” yearly event which offers educational opportunities to cancer patients. These events will both educate the public and provide members of the CCMI opportunities to share their enthusiasm for science and medicine. Finally, to disseminate information describing our research and training activities, we have built and will continue to maintain a dedicated CCMI web portal. Visitors to the site will be provided with up-to-date information about the major research projects, links to sites for downloading primary data sets and bioinformatics tools, and online forms to register for CCMI events. In addition, we have partnered with the Quantitative Biosciences Institute (QBI) Media & Events team at UCSF to produce content and organize events for researchers and lay audiences.