Career Development Program
The MD Anderson Ovarian SPORE Career Development Program was designed to train and guide academic physician-scientists, clinician-investigators and laboratory-based researchers who wish to dedicate their efforts to translational research in the areas of diagnosis, prevention and treatment of ovarian cancer. To meet this goal, the specific objectives of the Career Development Program are to:
- Recruit and train young physician-scientists, clinician-investigators and laboratory-based researchers to become leaders in translational research on ovarian cancer
- Provide dedicated time to perform clinically relevant laboratory research and hypothesis-driven clinical trials
- Provide support for translational research that will generate preliminary data and relevant publications for a full SPORE project or for peer-reviewed funding outside the SPORE mechanism
- Mentor effectively those chosen for career development
- Offer educational experiences that address the unique needs of the awardees
The SPORE Career Development Awards involve two or more years of mentored research in ovarian cancer in which the investigators learn through their experience in conducting a research project with the advice of two mentors (one laboratory based and one clinical). Our mentors have been chosen for their expertise and interest in ovarian cancer from the more than 1000 faculty at MD Anderson. The awardees can obtain more formal training, including courses offered by The University of Texas-Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in molecular biology, genetics, biostatistics, epidemiology, physiology and pharmacology.
The awardees can also participate in the MD Anderson K30 curriculum for clinical investigators and have the option to earn an M.S. or Ph.D. in patient-based biological research. The M.S./Ph.D. program includes the seminar class Topics in Translational Research, which all our career development awardees will be required to take. All 10 awardees to date have published their ovarian cancer research, seven have obtained independent funding and two have become co-PIs of full SPORE projects. The awardees have published a total of 63 ovarian cancer papers and obtained 16 funded grants, including eight related directly to ovarian cancer.
Please direct questions to Charlotte Clarke at 713-792-7890 or via e-mail at chclarke@mdanderson.org.
Career Development Awards
2007 - 2009
- Michel Gilliet, M.D.
Associate Professor, Immunology
Role of plasmacytoid dendritic cells in the generation and maintenance of T regulatory cells in ovarian cancer - Charles N. Landen, Jr., M.D.
Assistant Professor, Gynecologic Oncology
Characterization and therapeutic targeting of ovarian cancer stem cells
2009 - 2011
- Shannon Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Baylor College of Medicine
Ovarian cancer, endometriosis, and epigenetics - Junghae Suh, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Bioengineering, Rice University
Directed evolution of viral vectors for ovarian cancer treatment