Cancer Research Education, Advancement, Training and Empowerment (CREATE) in the Pacific

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This proposal will establish a training program called “Cancer Research Education, Advancement, Training and Empowerment” (CREATE) at the University of Hawai`i Cancer Center (UHCC). The program addresses the over-arching goal to enhance the training of a workforce to meet biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research needs to lower cancer incidence and mortality in the Pacific. CREATE takes advantage of the excellent research opportunities arising from the distinctive population and environment in Hawai`i and the Pacific with strong multi-disciplinary collaborations at the University of Hawai`i and its collaborations with the University of Guam. Research training in our multiethnic population with persons of Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, Japanese, Filipino, Chinese, Korean, and European ancestry is important to address cancer health disparities due to ethnicity and low socio-economic status while the unique biologic resources and natural compounds found nowhere else in the world will prepare the next generation of researchers for drug discovery and mechanistic cancer research to create new cancer treatments. Besides the 10-week hands-on experience at UHCC, CREATE will include a curriculum of multi-disciplinary seminars, workshops, and career development sessions. Success of the program will be evaluated through several indicators, e.g., proportion of participants in biomedical graduate programs and research careers, based on long-term tracking by surveys, email, social media, and personal contacts. The goal of CREATE to offer distinctive training experiences in cancer biology and in population sciences will be achieved through the implementation of the following aims: 1. Provide hands-on summer research experiences and a multi-disciplinary curriculum to undergraduate students residing in the Islands of Hawai`i and the Pacific to reinforce their intent to graduate with a science degree and to consider a career to address health disparities and contribute to drug discovery. 2. Offer first-year graduate students living in Hawai`i and the Pacific in cancer-related fields of study the opportunity to gain a 1-semester research experience in a multiethnic environment or unique cancer biology labs with the goal to enhance their skills to address causes, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of cancer and to improve competitiveness in their future careers in cancer-related research. The program builds upon the many years of success of UHCC's Summer Internship Program that has provided research experiences to more than 220 students over the last 10 years and was previously funded by a CURE supplement to the P30 Cancer Center Support Grant and by philanthropic funds. The large pool of potential participants will represent the distinct ethnic composition of students from Hawai`i and Guam. In summary, CREATE will offer students in Hawai`i and the Pacific a unique research experience in population sciences or cancer biology that will enable them to pursue successful careers in cancer prevention and control.