Frontiers in Stem Cells in Cancer(FriSC2)

 描述(由申请者提供)：我们寻求R25“癌症研究教育计划”的续期资助，以维持和加强名为“癌症干细胞前沿”(FriSC2)的短期、强化实验室和教学年度高级课程。FriSC2专为有竞争力的科学家和内科科学家设计，专门为主要服务于代表不足的少数族裔(URM)学生的机构提供创新的、复杂的癌症教育。重要的是，癌症干细胞领域继续快速增长，由URM科学家领导的实验室太少，新的URM学员太少。为了确保下一代癌症研究人员有高级培训机会，我们寻求5年的赞助，于2016年、2018年和2020年在莫尔豪斯医学院开设FriSC2课程，并于2017年和2019年在庞塞健康科学大学开设FriSC2课程。FriSC2由来自匹兹堡的杰拉尔德·沙滕、庞塞的伊达利兹·弗洛雷斯、莫尔豪斯的温斯顿·汤普森和同样来自皮特的卡尔文·西姆利担任总董事，并由外部科学咨询委员会监督。FRSC2提供充满活力的高级培训课程，包括每天关于新兴概念的讲座，随后是为期一周的深入讨论、实验室研究、技术密集讲习班和非正式研讨会。这一高级课程为16名竞争激烈的学员提供了“动手”培训(申请者咨询与被录取的候选人之比为4.4：1)。在接受正式培训的学员中，33%的人认为自己是非洲裔美国人，30%的人认为是西班牙裔美国人；61%的人是女性，61%的人来自城市管理机构。虽然第一批学员只学了4年，但初步结果表明，他们在癌症研究职业生涯中取得了进展，研究了各种相关和重要的主题。提出了四个具体目标：1.提供癌症和干细胞研究所需方法的概念教育和实验培训。2.为学员提供具体机会，与我们的高级和初级教员合作实施职业规划工具--包括个人发展计划以及点对点和个性化辅导--以促进职业发展并探索职业替代方案。3.教育参与者多能干细胞和癌症干细胞研究的伦理、法律和社会影响，以及此类研究发生的监管环境，以便学生以最道德和负责任的方式开始自己的研究计划，避免不必要的陷阱和延误。4.提供不偏不倚的、量化的、独立的机制，全面和纵向地跟踪受训人员的职业生涯，以确保该计划是一项明智、具有成本效益的投资。因此，更新这些培训课程的目的是提供一系列由著名癌症研究领袖讲授的日常讨论和动手实验室研究，导致在细胞、分子和遗传方法方面进行全面、复杂的研究战略和最先进方法的培训，以推进癌症干细胞的前沿。在这样做的过程中，我们将继续加强和扩大最有前途的科学家的研究生涯，并敏感地确保NCI员工队伍的完全多样性。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We seek renewal of R25 "Cancer Research Education Program" sponsorship to sustain and enhance advanced short-term, intensive laboratory and didactic annual courses entitled Frontiers in Stem Cells in Cancer (FriSC2). Designed for competitive scientists and physician-scientists, FriSC2 provides innovative, sophisticated cancer education exclusively at institutions serving primarily under-represented minority (URM) students. Importantly, the cancer stem cell field continues to grow swiftly, and there are too few laboratories led by URM scientists and too few new URM trainees. To ensure that the next generation of cancer researchers has advanced training opportunities, we seek 5 years of sponsorship to offer FriSC2 courses at Morehouse School of Medicine in 2016, 2018, and 2020 and Ponce Health Sciences University in 2017 and 2019. FriSC2 is under the overall directorship of Gerald Schatten from Pittsburgh, along with Idhaliz Flores from Ponce, Winston Thompson from Morehouse, and Calvin Simerly, also from Pitt and is overseen by an external scientific advisory committee. FriSC2 offers dynamic advanced training courses consisting of daily lectures on emerging concepts, followed by extended discussion, laboratory research, technologically intense workshops and informal seminars over week-long periods. This advanced instruction provides "hands-on" training for 16 highly competitive participants (the ratio of applicant inquiries to accepted candidates is >4.4: 1). Of the 64 participants formally trained, 33% identify as African American and 30% as Hispanic American; 61% are women, and 61% are from URM institutions. While the first trainees are only 4 years out of the course, early results show that they are progressing in cancer research careers, investigating a variety of relevant and important topics. Four specific aims are proposed: 1. Provide conceptual education and experimental training in the methods necessary for investigations of cancer and stem cells. 2. Provide participants with specific opportunities to implement career planning tools in collaboration with our senior and junior faculty-including individual development plans and peer-to-peer and personalized coaching-to foster career development and to explore career alternatives. 3. Educate participants on the ethical, legal and social implications of pluripotent and cancer stem cell research and the regulatory landscape in which such research occurs so that students begin their own research programs in the most ethical and responsible manner and avoid needless pitfalls and delays. 4. Provide unbiased, quantitative, independent mechanisms to track trainees' careers, comprehensively and longitudinally, to ensure that the program constitutes a wise, cost-effective investment. The purpose of renewing these training courses, then, is to provide a series of daily discussions and hands-on laboratory research taught by renowned cancer research leaders, resulting in comprehensive, sophisticated training in research strategies and state-of-the-art methods in cellular, molecular and genetic approaches for advancing the Frontiers in Stem Cells in Cancer. In so doing, we will continue to enhance and expand the research careers of the most promising scientists, with sensitivity to ensuring full diversity in the NCI workforce.