Developmental Research Program

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PROGRAM SUMMARY SPORE guidelines mandate diligent efforts to identify and fund pilot projects to explore innovative ideas that may eventually reduce the incidence and morbidity or increase the survival of lung cancer. Both UTSW and UTMDACC have significant records in obtaining and administering development funds via the SPORE and outside funds and have found the SPORE Developmental Research Program to be one of the most valuable and productive of the SPORE components. UTSW has a -25-year track record of administering developmental funds for cancer research. These funds are available through the American Cancer Society (ACS) Institutional Grant IN-142. The ACS funds must be distributed to new investigators in cancer research whose proposed pilot projects are especially worthy and likely to gain national grant support through the peer-review mechanism. At UTMDACC, more than $1,000,000 in development funds is made available yearly from clinical revenues to both clinical and basic science faculty for development projects. In addition, the UTMDACC Co-Pi (Jack Roth) has administered a developmental research program in innovative cancer therapies funded by the W. M. Keck Foundation using an external peer-review mechanism. This additional funding underscores UTMDACC's commitment to translational research and provides additional support for development projects. As part of the UTSW and UTMDACC renewed commitment to the SPORE, an additional $150,000 from Texas Tobacco Settlement Funds and other institutional funds will be made available from UTSW ($50,000) and UTMDACC ($100,000) for Lung Cancer SPORE Developmental Research Projects. The development of innovative research ideas in lung cancer is critically dependent on the availability of flexible funding for pilot projects. The purpose of the SPORE Developmental Research Program is to encourage and develop laboratory research projects that will result in clinically testable hypotheses with potential for reducing lung cancer incidence or morbidity or for increasing survival. Both laboratory and clinical research projects are eligible for funding, provided they are translational in nature. A proportion of the SPORE NCI budget ($100,000 in direct costs, $50,000 to Developmental Projects and $50,000 to Career Development Projects - see Career Development Section) will be allocated yearly to support pilot projects at both UTSW and UTMDACC. These allocations fulfill the SPORE Guideline requirements for budgeting. However, we stress, this will be combined with a yearly UTSW and MDACC institutional commitment of $150,000 (UTSW $50,000 and MD Anderson Cancer Center $100,000) which represent $150,000 for Developmental Projects plues $50,000 from the SPORE.. Thus, the combined UTSW + MDACC total from NCI and Institutional funds for Lung Cancer SPORE Developmental Projects is $200,000. Such funding will be limited to a maximum of $50,000 per year per project, however, most of the awards are for ~$25,000 per project for a total of ~8 Developmental Projects awarded per year. Funding will be for one year and will be renewable for one additional year. While the budget divides the $100,000 in direct costs equally between the two institutions, the SPORE Developmental Program will allocate funding based on merit using the review process described in a later section. These projects may, and often involve collaborations between UTSW and UTMDACC investigators particularly given the use of SPORE resources such as the SPORE Pathology Core B, Biostatistics Core C, and Bioinformatics Core D, which greatly augment the translational capability of the Developmental Awards. These projects may also be awarded to investigators at other institutions. For example Dr. Andrew Ellington on the faculty of UT Austin received a Development award for deriving RNA aptamers specific for lung cancer.