A new training program developed by experts at the Oregon Health & Science University Knight Cancer Institute will give M.D. and Ph.D. postdoctoral fellows hands-on experience with the process of developing novel therapeutics for patients with cancer.
The funding for the program, more than $1.4 million over five years, was recently granted by the National Cancer Institute, a division of the National Institutes of Health. The grant is awarded through the National Cancer Institute's Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) (T32) program that gives institutions an opportunity to develop or enhance research training opportunities for cancer research.
The new training program will be located in the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute's Center for Experimental Therapeutics, which serves as a central hub for discovering and developing new cancer treatments to improve patient outcomes. The center's co-directors, Shivaani Kummar, M.D., and Sanjay Malhotra, Ph.D., are co-principal investigators of the new NCI grant.
Kummar says the new training program is a "natural extension" of the Center for Experimental Therapeutics.
"We are committed to developing new treatments for cancer and that commitment involves training the next generation of oncology physicians and researchers," said Kummar, professor and head of the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology in the OHSU School of Medicine and co-deputy director for Clinical and Translational Research in the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute. "We want to build the expertise in drug development for these trainees across the whole cancer continuum so they can bring discoveries into the clinic for patients."
Uniquely, the program will bolster collaboration and communication between basic science and clinical science spheres to jointly train both Ph.D. and M.D. postdoctoral fellows. Each trainee will be co-mentored by an M.D. as well as a Ph.D.
Malhotra, the Sheila Edwards-Lienhart Endowed Chair in Cancer Research and a professor of cell,
developmental and cancer biology in the OHSU School of Medicine, said the infrastructure in place at OHSU helped them make a strong case for this award.
"The fact that we have such a robust scientific environment invested in translational science was key to the success of this proposal. Having that critical mass of people with the needed expertise was important," he said. "We're going to leverage this to now train the next generation of M.D. and Ph.D. leaders in oncology research, equipping them with the skills and knowledge necessary to drive innovation in therapeutic development."
The immersive, two-year interprofessional postdoctoral training program will include multidisciplinary research experiences, specialized coursework, and professional skills development designed to train qualified translational scientists. In addition to course work — including drug discovery and development and responsible conduct of research — trainees will participate in clinical rotations and learn early phase trial design and related regulatory requirements.
Grace Gill, Ph.D., and Joseph Shatzel, M.D., closely collaborated with Kummar and Malhotra to co-create the new training program. Gill is an associate professor in the Division of Oncological Sciences in the OHSU School of Medicine and associate director of Cancer Research Training and Education in the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute. Shatzel is an associate professor in the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology and the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the OHSU School of Medicine. He specializes in the care of adults with clotting and bleeding disorders as well as myeloproliferative neoplasms – diseases in which the bone marrow makes too many red blood cells, white blood cells, or platelets – and leads a translational research program focused on drug development in hematology.
"Along with Grace and Joe, we will identify new projects for our trainees, create an individual Career Development Plan and oversee their training. We will bring together a variety of experts to share their expertise, from surgical oncology, radiation oncology, pediatric oncology, and more," Malhotra said.
Kummar said this award represents a significant milestone in advancing training and research in this critical field at OHSU.
"Through this program we want to train the next generation in drug development and translational research, with the goal of improving health outcomes for our patients."
The T32 grant is 1T32CA285265-01A1. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.
