Paul Calabresi Career Development Award for Clinical Oncology (K12) at UC Davis

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Clinical Oncology Research Career Development Program (CDP) at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) will train junior faculty scholars to be independent, patient-oriented cancer researchers. The scholars will conduct translational research to develop laboratory-driven clinical trials designed to optimize novel therapeutic approaches based on the underlying molecular profiles of individual patient tumors or tumor types. The CDP will produce new faculty members from diverse backgrounds who are skilled leaders in team science. UC Davis is well-positioned to train the next generation of clinician scientists in oncology because of its outstanding patient care; long-standing and well-funded infrastructure in clinical-translational investigation (including cancer clinical trials), including our NCI-designated Cancer Center and NCRR-funded Clinical and Translational Science Center (CTSC); experience in laboratory-clinical correlative science; and established inter- and intra-institution consortia, among other resources. Upon successful completion of a three-year, salary-supported core curriculum, Scholars will receive a UC Davis Cancer Center Certificate in Clinical Cancer Research. We will combine key didactic, research, and career development components to produce independent and productive clinical oncology researchers over the course of a three-year program. We will accomplish our goals through the following specific aims: 1) 1) Offer a mentored, competency-based didactic curriculum so Scholars can integrate basic, translational, and clinical science knowledge to discover and/or evaluate more effective treatments for cancer that improve patient outcome; 2) Oversee individualized patient oriented research projects (investigator-initiated clinical trials) customized to the interests and needs of each CDP Scholar; and 3) Provide oversight of CDP Scholar training to ensure the progressive development of a high-quality "end-product": a fully competent interdisciplinary-oriented clinician scientist who can successfully conduct translational cancer clinical trials with investigational new agents or devices. The curriculum for the CDP will be guided by two research tracks in Basic/Translational and Clinical science. Each trainee will gain appropriate, integrated didactic and "hands-on" mentored research training following a plan supervised by two senior, independently funded faculty members (one Basic/Translational mentor and one Clinical mentor) to be able to successfully tackle research questions in one of these tracks. We have incorporated unique venues for training in team science and interdisciplinary research into the curriculum in order to take advantage of the strengths of other training programs at UC Davis, particularly those housed in the CTSC. Our overall goal is to develop successful, independent clinical cancer researchers who will be able to work in teams to develop and test new cancer treatments based upon their understanding of the complex mechanisms underlying cancer biology and how they manifest disease in individual patients as well as in broad populations. Thus, we need to make the clinician well-versed in the language of the laboratory scientist and vice-versa. The long-term success of our multidisciplinary approach to understanding and developing targeted treatments for oncologic disease critically depends upon the training of a new generation of multidisciplinary researchers who possess ideas and skills that go far beyond their initial disciplinary boundaries.