Developmental Core

8. Developmental Core The following sections describe our major developmental activities over the next five years. 8.a. Faculty Recruitment Establishing Priorities for Faculty Recruitment: Early in our U54 Planning Process, we formed a Task Force to begin to map out topics that we would include in our Transdisciplinary Health Disparities Research Focus. The Task Force on Transdisciplinary Health Disparities Research that met in the summer and fall of 2006 included: ¿ Timothy Ahles, MSKCC Psychiatry ¿ David Lounsbury, MSKCC Behavioral Sciences ¿ Mary Alpaugh, CCNY Biology ¿ Sara Olson, MSKCC Epidemiology ¿ Carol Brown, MSKCC Gynecological Oncology ¿ Lucas Parra, CCNY Biomedical Engineering ¿ Jack Burkhalter, MSKCC Behavioral Sciences ¿ Bruce Rapkin, MSKCC Behavioral Sciences ¿ Karen Hubbard, CCNY Biology ¿ Manish Shah, MSKCC Gastroenterology ¿ Edward Keller, CCNY Media and ¿ Ann Marie Yali, CCNY Psychology Communication Arts ¿ Anne Zauber, MSKCC Epidemiology ¿ Yuelin Li, MSKCC Psychiatry and Biostatistics This Task Force generated themes described below. Each of these themes was identified as an area of priority by investigators at one or both institutions. In some instances, we do not have faculty partners identified who are working in a given area at both institutions. However, through regular symposia and on-going planning, we will develop recommendations for continuing development in each of these areas: Community-Based Intervention and Dissemination Research Neurocognitive Impacts of Cancer Therapeutics Participatory Research and the Identification of Biomarkers and Genetic Risks Increasing the Diversity of Patients on Cancer Clinical Trials Biopsychosocial Research on Stress Mathematical Modeling and Simulation of Psychosocial and Behavioral Interventions U54 Implementation and Faculty Search U54 Funds Allocated for Cancer Biology Professor 8.b. Proposed Pilot Projects Six pilot research proposals (Projects 2-7) are included after this narrative. These projects are highly responsive to Partnership objectives as well as future directions. Fu and Giancotti propose a basic study to examine adhesion and extravasation of mammary tumors, a line of research that will help to explain mechanisms of metastasis (Project 4). Two of the projects have strong potential for clinical relevance: Pezzano and Sant'Angelo's study of the potential for thymic epithelial progenitors to reconstitute of thymic function after HSCT (Project 6) and Wang and Jiang's work on screening anti-cancer agents Project 7). Two additional pilot projects emphasize the untapped potential to address cancer health disparities in that community-based primary care practices. Ostroff and Lubetkin examine whether patient navigators can enhance and extend providers' efforts to encourage patients to quit smoking (Project 5). Weiss and Binz-Sharf want to provide primary care doctors with knowledge and skills to help their patients understand and consider therapeutic clinical trials after a cancer diagnosis (Project 3). Hubbard, Ahles and Ragnauth's study grew out of our Task Force on Transdisciplinary Research, to examine genetic damage associated with chemotherapy induced cognitive decline (Project 2). Two of these pilot teams (Fu/Giancotti and Pezzano/Sant'Angelo) have long standing collaborations. Both teams have been successful in obtaining outside support based on their Us6 pilots. These pilots are different from these teams' earlier work, and logical next steps in productive lines of research. 8.c. Proposed Full Project Our full project (Project i) grows out of the productive collaboration of our two senior investigators: Avrom Caplan and Neal Rosen. This team proposes a study to examine the use of Hsp9O molecular chaperone inhibitors to promote cancer cell death. Their project supports the Partnership's objective to carry out translational research in cell biology to support advances in cancer treatment. 8.d. Proposed Resource/Infrastructure Development Training and Education Outreach