Translational Research Training in Cancer Etiology and Prevention

描述（由申请人提供）：鉴于严重缺乏能够进行综合研究，将基础知识从实验室转化为临床和社区环境，以改善癌症预防和控制的研究科学家，本研究培训计划的目的是在匹兹堡大学癌症研究所的跨学科研究和教学环境中提供综合培训。受训人员将接受培训，了解环境暴露、遗传和其他生理因素在人类癌症发生和发展中的作用。培训项目包括临床试验研究、转化研究、基于人群的癌症观察和介入研究等不同方向的跨学科培训课程。学员将在一个多学科团队中与经验丰富的导师一起工作，开展从人群中的机械实验和观察研究到随机干预研究的研究，以测试化学和免疫预防剂对人类癌症保护的功效。指导的研究将在研究设计、方法发展、研究方案实施、数据收集、分析和解释以及手稿准备和发表方面为学员提供直接的研究经验。学员还将学习如何将临床前实验和/或观察性研究的发现转化为癌症预防的随机干预研究。这个项目的独特训练将培养下一代科学家

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Given the severe shortfall of research scientists who are capable of conducting comprehensive studies that can translate fundamental knowledge from the bench to the clinical and the community settings for the improvement of cancer prevention and control, the purpose of this research training program is to provide integrated training in an inter-disciplinary research and teaching setting at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. Trainees will be trained in understanding the role of environmental exposures and genetic and other physiological factors in the development and progression of cancer in humans. The training program involves cross-disciplinary training courses in different tracks in the Clinical Trial Research, the Translational Research, and the Population-Based Observational and Interventional Research on cancer. Trainees will work with experienced mentors in a multiple disciplinary team conducting researches from mechanistic experiments and observational studies in populations to randomized intervention studies to test the efficacy of chemo- and immuno-preventive agents on cancer protection in humans. The mentored research will provide direct research experience to trainees in study design, methodological development, implementation of research protocol, data collection, analysis and interpretation, and manuscript preparation and publication. Trainees also will learn how to translate discoveries from pre-clinical experimental and/or observational studies into randomized intervention studies for cancer prevention. The unique training of this program will train next generation of scientists who can lead the cutting-edge translational research on cancer etiology and prevention. This training program is a joint effort of 19 preceptors who are conducting active research projects all with independent research funding in University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI). These faculties are from the following research programs including Cancer Epidemiology, Prevention and Control; Biobehavioral Medicine in Oncology; Cancer Immunology; Cancer Bioinformatics; and Molecular Therapeutics and Drug Discovery. UPCI, a top-ranked Comprehensive Cancer Center with $92 million direct research funding in 2013, will provide trainees with cutting-edge translational research training. We propose this research training program will support two post-doctoral fellows in year 1 and 4 post-doctoral trainees in each of years 2-5. According to recent data on applicants to participating programs, we expect to have a relatively large pool of candidates who will apply to this training program given the excellence in research and training of the participating mentors and the proposed multiple disciplinary training. The progress and success of the training program will be evaluated annually by a panel of experts in directing NCI-funded training program. The career development and research activities of trainees will be closely followed up and tracked during the 10 years post-training.