Buffett Cancer Center Supplement to Strengthen Research, Training, and Outreach

University Of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha NE

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

Project Summary The Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center (also known as the Buffett Cancer Center) is the only National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer center in Nebraska. The Buffett Cancer Center is a matrix cancer center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and its affiliated healthcare network, Nebraska Medicine. The mission of the Buffett Cancer Center is to promote innovative translational cancer research, excellence in cancer education and training, and outstanding patient-centered cancer care to reduce the burden of cancer and cancer health disparities across Nebraska and beyond. Due to its specific demographics, Nebraska needs capabilities in cancer research training and cancer disparities research targeted to the American Indian, Hispanic, rural, and financially disadvantaged populations, which in Nebraska are groups that substantially overlap. The Buffett Cancer Center (and the University of Nebraska as a whole) encourages the entry of members of these groups into health careers by pathway programs for middle school, high school, and college students. However, there is a growing necessity for strategies to bridge the continuation of these underrepresented minority students further into graduate/professional programs and faculty positions. Therefore, consistent with the mission of the Buffett Cancer Center and the goals of the NCI, this administrative supplement extension will specifically address the need for cancer research training at the level of predoctoral, postdoctoral, and early investigator scholars, with a focus on scholars with American Indian, Hispanic, rural, and/or financially disadvantaged backgrounds. Our objective is to use focused strategies to enhance the development of these scholars, thereby facilitating their readiness for successful careers in cancer research and care and their ability to alleviate cancer disparities, and to assess the results of our approach. Our Specific Aims for this supplement extension are as follows: (1) to sustain the guidance of diverse scholars into cancer research pathways, (2) to maintain advancement of diverse scholars through NCI workforce opportunities, and (3) to evaluate and disseminate the outcomes of this Training Navigator Program. The Buffett Cancer Center is fully committed to attain progress in these Aims during the supplement period and to sustain these efforts beyond the supplement extension’s conclusion.