Developmental Research Program

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Recognizing that developmental research funds are an integral part of the SPORE, we commit approximately $150,000 per year to these endeavors. This represents a significant portion of the Prostate SPORE budget and reflects the continued commitment to the development of innovative translational research in prostate cancer. The focus of the Developmental Research Program (DRP) is to provide investigators the resources to generate preliminary data for the submission of an R01 grant application or an equivalent proposal. Investigators from outside the field of prostate cancer are encouraged to apply through campus-wide announcements as well as through personal interactions with the SPORE investigators. We developed a stepwise proposal solicitation and review process for pilot projects utilizing an NIH-type PHS 398 format that has been streamlined for rapid turnaround of research proposals and which recognizes that these projects may have little preliminary data. Since 1995, we have invested $3.9 million in our DRP, funding a total of 89 investigators though 77 pilot projects, 63 seed grants and 35 summer student projects. These awards have led to over $40 million in subsequent SPORE and non-SPORE peer-reviewed funding and over 136 published manuscripts. During this current grant cycle, we funded 9 pilot projects ($50K each) that led to over $9.7 million in subsequent peer-reviewed grant funding and 22 publications. Drs. Elisabeth Heath (Karmanos Cancer Institute, KCI) and Evan Keller (U- M) will serve as Co-Directors for the DRP. Dr. Heath is a Professor of Oncology and Medicine, at Wayne State University and Director of Prostate Cancer Research KCI. She is the Principal Investigator of the DOD-funded Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials Consortium where KCI is the leading site for overall patient and minority accrual in prostate cancer clinical trials. She has mentored numerous undergraduate students, medical students, cancer biology graduate students, and junior faculty members and will serve as a clinical expert. Dr. Keller is a Professor of Urology and Pathology, at UM, Co-Director of the Urologic Oncology program of the UM Rogel Cancer Center, directs an NIH-funded Program Project on Prostate Cancer Bone Metastasis and is Co-Director of the Single Cell Analysis Core and will serve as basic science expert. In this proposal, the DRP will be jointly supported by U-M and KCI. U-M will contribute $50,000 plus funds to cover effort for the U-M Co-Director. KCI will contribute $50,000 to support either a DRP or CEP award for a KCI investigator as well as funds to cover the KCI Co-Director. We are requesting the remaining $50,000 from NCI.