Cancer Research Career Enhancement and Related Activities

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Cancer Research Career Enhancement and Related Activities Project Summary Both innovation and implementation of cancer solutions requires development of a highly trained cancer- focused workforce. To promote this objective, the PCCR tightly integrates sponsorship of a diverse array of educational and professional development activities within its broad portfolio of research objectives. The institutional home of PCCR, Purdue, presents an outstanding opportunity to further grow this cancer workforce. Purdue is a leading R1 institution with an exceptional diversity of research expertise and a deep commitment to its education mission. Purdue sponsors numerous programs that explicitly promote education and training. It similarly supports many programs that promote professional development at all training levels, from undergraduate to faculty. These programs, however, are typically not framed in a cancer-relevant context. In order to have the greatest impact on the cancer workforce of the future, an overarching goal of the PCCR with regards to education and professional development is to provide a cancer focus to existing Purdue-sponsored activities that would not exist in the absence of the Center and thereby leverage these activities for a cancer- relevant purpose. Similarly, by promoting cancer-relevant aspects of these educational and professional development programs, the PCCR promotes opportunities available in the cancer research field that many of the outstanding faculty, students and staff at Purdue would otherwise be unfamiliar with and, thereby, recruits these individuals to the fight against cancer. In short, the PCCR both promotes its own programs and coordinates with various Purdue academic and administrative units to explicitly leverage Purdue's abundant institutional resources in order to have the largest impact on cancer-focused education and professional development. Initiatives addressing education and professional development are grouped into four themes: 1) Building a cancer-focused community of practice to facilitate interdisciplinary training that exploits the diversity of research expertise at Purdue; 2) Promoting faculty development and helping to recruit top-tier basic scientists into cancer- related research; 3) Promoting graduate student education and training by designing PCCR-sponsored activities such that graduate student education and professional development are built into the experience; and 4) Promoting undergraduate opportunities and thereby shape career paths and intentions of Purdue's extensive undergraduate population. Specific examples of PCCR activities/programs include: 1) a bioinformatics training program that targets graduate students; 2) a Continuing Umbrella of Research Experience (CURE)-funded summer research program for graduate students who are underrepresented minorities; 3) a program for faculty and postdocs in the physical sciences that promotes cancer-related research and embeds them in a clinical setting; 4) training of graduate students to use PCCR-sponsored shared resources; and 5) interdisciplinary training for graduate students and faculty via a cancer journal club. By intentionally embracing training within its discovery mission, the PCCR is fostering both the innovations of today and the innovators of tomorrow.