Training in Areas Fundamental to Cancer Research

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

This is an application for renewal of grant T32CA009110-42 to support the training of predoctoral trainees and postdoctoral fellows in the conduct of research aimed at understanding the fundamental biochemical, molecular and cellular processes underlying the development and progression of cancer. During the next funding period, we are requesting continued support for seven predoctoral and 3 postdoctoral trainees per year. The administration of this program is centered in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. However, training faculty associated with the program represent 13 different departments across the Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and the Whiting School of Engineering and include faculty affiliated with the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center (SKCCC). The addition of more than 25 new training faculty to the program over the past several years, including 10 new additions with this renewal application, dramatically expands the opportunities available for trainees to receive mentoring and training in productive, well-funded laboratories performing cutting edge cancer research. Major research themes explored by training faculty affiliated with the program include: tumor microenvironment cell division, cell migration and metastasis, cell differentiation, cell death, cellular remodeling and associated regulatory networks, regulation of gene expression, chromosome segregation, DNA repair and genome integrity, protein quality control mechanisms, stem cell biology, inflammation and immune responses, chemical biology and biomarkers and mechanisms of drug resistance. In addition to laboratory research, all trainees are required to participate in cancer training courses offered by the SKCCC, as well as a cancer-focused seminar series, journal club and monthly research colloquium, all designed to build core knowledge, and effective reasoning and communication skills. Additionally, and as one of the most unique aspects of this TP, trainees receive training in the public health aspects of cancer research in areas such as cancer prevention and control. Predoctoral trainees are admitted to the program after demonstrating strong academic abilities and laboratory research potential during their first year of training, and after they have selected a thesis dissertation project and research advisor. Postdoctoral trainees showing strong substantiated interests in cancer research are selected through a competitive review of applications solicited from program training faculty. In this renewal application we aim to strengthen our commitment to providing outstanding training through proposed changes to the curriculum that include enhanced training in rigor, reproducibility and experimental design, quantitative sciences and biostatistics, and development of writing skills. We will also introduce formal training for faculty to develop mentoring skills. We aim to equip trainees with the essential knowledge and skills needed for careers in cancer research, with a unique focus on how this can both inform, and be informed by public health practices.