Cancer Prevention and Control Postdoctoral Fellowship

Summary | History | Goals | Director | Mentors | Research | Training | Application

The R25 Cancer Prevention and Control Fellowship Program has been funded by the National Cancer Institute since 1998. The program supports 4-6 postdoctoral fellows annually. The primary goal of this training program is to prepare scientists and clinicians to conduct cancer prevention research with interdisciplinary teams. The R25 Cancer Prevention and Control Fellowship Program was developed to train qualified candidates in a diverse experiential environment within the University of Arizona Cancer Prevention and Control Program (CPC) at the Arizona Cancer Center (AZCC). The Fellowship Program is directed by David S. Alberts, M.D., Iman Hakim M.D., Ph.D., and Elena Martinez, Ph.D.

Fellows, selected from a range of primary disciplines that are relevant to cancer prevention and control (CPC), will be grounded in a multidisciplinary approach to cancer prevention and control through formal coursework, seminar series, workshops, conferences, interactions with mentors, and activities that are focused around the fellow’s primary research project. The training program includes clear primary and secondary scientific and academic goals, constructive scientific criticism from top-level mentors, and support for presentation and publication of results.

This unique fellowship program requires that each fellow supported by the program have a mentoring team and a mentoring plan in place to ensure their future success in academic research. The R25 Fellowship Program his is not a traditional training program, but rather requires that each fellow gain exposure and skills in a multidisciplinary approach to cancer prevention (e.g. basic science, epidemiology, behavioral research, clinical trials research, pharmaceutical sciences). This broad-based knowledge is expected to position fellows to be competitive for grant funding and as future leaders in the field of cancer prevention and control. To support the multidisciplinary training of young investigators, the training program requires that fellows engage in a primary research project; take coursework in cancer prevention disciplines in which they may have had minimal exposure during their graduate careers. Fellows are also required to attend the Cancer Prevention and Control seminar series, which exposes them to a wide variety of research topics and disciplines in the field. Additionally, fellows are required to submit their work for presentation and publication, attend scientific and career development meetings, and develop a grant proposal for research funding.

Given the multidisciplinary nature of cancer prevention and control and the variety of required components required by the R25 Cancer Prevention and Control Fellowship Program, mentoring is a key component of the fellowship program. The primary mentor is identified during the application process; primary mentors will have the lead mentoring role throughout the training of R25 fellows. All research, training, and career development activities are overseen by a larger, multidisciplinary mentoring team, which is selected by the fellow over the course of the first six months of training. R25 Program mentors each have extensive training and research experience and offer fellows accepted into the program the necessary direction to successfully complete a mentored research project and as well as to establish a career in cancer prevention and control. The primary mentors in the program all hold the rank of Full Professor and participate as principal investigators on a number of externally funded research projects. In addition to the mentoring team, the R25 program has an Advisory Committee that provides an additional level of mentoring and training oversight. This committee reviews the progress of each fellow on at least a semi-annual basis and provides recommendations and guidance to further support trainees and mentoring teams to ensure the success of each fellow accepted into this program. We expect at completion of this multidisciplinary fellowship program, that all fellows are prepared to proceed to successful and productive careers contributing to decreases in morbidity of and mortality from cancer.

 

 

 

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