| MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR |
 Stan Gerson, MD
Director, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center
Director, UH Seidman Cancer Center
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21st Century Cures Act: Comments on the Collins NEJM editorial
Please have a look at the editorial, "The 21st Century Cures Act - A View from the NIH," in the
New England Journal of Medicine (
N Engl J Med 2017; 376:111-113).
Now that the 21st Century Cures Act has passed and Francis Collins has been asked to stay on at National Institutes of Health (NIH), and despite the opposition of Health and Human Services secretary designate Tom Price, this bill should have a significant positive impact on our research, clinical investigation, and cancer care activities across our center.
The bill offers important support for appropriations specifically to the National Cancer Institute for the Cancer Moonshot initiative that weighs more heavily than any other designated program - $1.8B over the next seven years.
The data sharing and privacy clarifications will encourage us to develop more efficient and consistent approaches to data storage so that more researchers can assemble and use data after publication.
This, with the newly formalized
final rule for patient samples, avoided a restriction that would have "required that research involving nonidentified biospecimens be subject to the Common Rule, and that consent would need to be obtained in order to conduct such research." [See: Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects: web; pdf
]
There is a call-out for support for early-stage investigators including newly independent scientists, especially women and those from underrepresented groups.
There will be additional support for the precision medicine initiative, an area we have yet to benefit from, although we should be competitive given our large patient populations.
This is a time to redouble efforts to seek NIH funding, to be creative, collaborative, and to develop innovative approaches to unanswered questions in your research area.
The Cancer Center will continue to be a forum for your ideas and will continue to offer pilot grant support - but you need to develop those next big ideas - and expect support locally and from NIH.
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Non-
AIDS Defining Cancers Pilot Awardees
With support from a supplement to its NCI P30 grant, the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center in coordination with the CWRU/UH Center for AIDS
Research (CFAR) is providing seed funding for the development of cancer research projects focusing on the interface between aging and HIV infection in
Non-AIDS Defining Cancers (NADC).
Congratulations to the following pilot awardees:
 
David Yao, MD, PhD, Medical Oncology Fellow, Div. of Hematology and Oncology, CWRU/UH and
Michael Gibson, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Div. of Hematology and Oncology, CWRU/UH
Tumor Microenvironment of the Head and Neck Cancer in HIV-infected Patients
Ge Jin, PhD
: Associate Professor, Biological Sciences, CWRU
HIV-infected T-cell extracellular vesicles promote head neck cancer progression
Siran Koroukian, PhD
Associate Professor, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, CWRU
Evaluating the excess prevalence of non-AIDS defining cancers and multiple chronic conditions in individuals with HIV
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Harrington Discovery Institute
The Harrington Discovery Institute
at University Hospitals
has announced recipients of the Harrington Scholar-Innovator Awards and the inaugural class of Cleveland Harrington Fellows.
Harrington Scholar-Innovator Awards
The Harrington Scholar-Innovator Awards support breakthrough discoveries of physician-scientists whose research shows promise to advance the standard of care. The selected scholars have access to several rounds of capital (up to a total of $700,000) through their affiliation with the Harrington Discovery Institute to support the transition of their work into the private sector. Scholars are then free to approach investors of their choice to underwrite the commercialization of their work or they can have facilitated access to BioMotiv, the mission-aligned development company that also is part of The Harrington Project. However, there are no obligations on either side.
11 physician-scientists received these awards nationally, and one recipient is from our Center:
 John Letterio, MD
Case Comprehensive Cancer Center; Professor, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine; Division Chief, Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, UH Cleveland Medical Center and UH Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital. Recognized for a promising drug for Alzheimer's disease, stroke and cancer
Harrington Fellows
The new Harrington Fellows Award recognizes promising early- to mid-career physician-scientists in the greater Cleveland medical community and provides $75,000 per year for two years to support their research efforts. Three physician-scientists were selected as Fellows:
 Derek Abbott, MD, PhD, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, Associate Professor and Arline H. and Curtis F. Garvin Professor of Medicine and Co-Director, Medical Scientist Training Program, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Dr. Abbott's research has combined molecular, bioinformatics and proteomic approaches to identify and pharmaceutically target novel inflammatory signaling pathways.
 Alex Huang, MD, PhD, Co-leader, Hematopoitic and Immune Cancer Biology Program, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center; Associate Professor, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine; Program Director, Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, UH Cleveland Medical Center. Dr. Huang's research is focused on understanding cancer immunology and defining the cellular and molecular immunological principles governing tumor immunity to advance the application of cancer immunotherapy.
 Nima Sharifi, MD, Co-leader, GU Malignancies Program, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center; Kendrick Family Endowed Chair for Prostate Cancer Research, Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute; Co-Director of the Prostate Cancer Research Center of Excellence, Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Sharifi's research is centered on investigating metabolic and molecular mechanisms of hormone therapy resistance in prostate cancer and the development of new treatment strategies.
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Barnholtz-Sloan Appointed as Professor of Brain Tumor Research
Congratulations to Jill Barnholtz-Sloan, PhD, on her appointement as the Sally S. Morley Designated Professor
of Brain Tumor Research. Barnholtz-Sloan will be honored at 4:30p today with a ceremony and reception in the Wolstein Research Building. We hope you will attend and show your support.
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| 1st Annual Cancer Disparities Symposium: Building Bridges to Address Cancer Disparities
March, 17, 2017 | Cleveland, OH
The Case Comprehensive Cancer Center is excited to announce the
inaugural Cancer Disparities Symposium: Building Bridges to Address Cancer Disparities. Understanding and addressing cancer disparities is complex and multi-faceted, and requires attention across the translational spectrum. This half-day event will showcase cutting-edge research, with a focus on reducing and eliminating disparities in cancer, going from bench-to-bedside-to-community and back. This important symposium will also feature two keynote addresses, including a key leader in our community, and an internationally-recognized cancer disparities researcher. We will promote the exchange of ideas and collaborative opportunities among scientists, clinicians, government, and community representatives.
Please save the date! More information to follow.
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Join Our Team!
Registration is now open for VeloSano Bike to Cure, July 21-23, 2017!
The Case Comprehensive Cancer Center has been honored to participate in the VeloSano Bike to Cure for the past two years, and is planning for an even stronger team in 2017! We would love to double our team size this year.
Visit our team page to
register to ride with us!
The Case CCC will
waive registration fees for the first 40 registrants who join our team by March 1st
.
Email Team Captain Caroline El Sanadi at
[email protected]
for the waiver code.
If you don't want to ride but still want to show your support, please consider being a virtual rider or volunteering with our cheer station.
Remember, 100% of money raised through VeloSano goes to cancer research!
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The Cancer Letter - Jan 13, 2017
NCI would be fine with having companies pose research questions for potential studies, with the institute essentially acting as a matchmaker.
"It is an interesting and important opportunity that should diminish the challenges of access to new agents for investigator-initiated studies and encourage more flexibility for combination drug trials that have been difficult when they combine agents from multiple suppliers," said Stanton Gerson, president of the Association of American Cancer Institutes and director of Case Comprehensive Cancer Center and Case Western Reserve University and Seidman Cancer Center at the University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center. "It does not provide support other than drug access, but this is an important first step."
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Columbus Dispatch - Jan 11, 2017
Though vaccinating against HPV is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and countless cancer centers and health-care providers, most children in the United States have not been vaccinated against HPV...Simplifying the process likely will increase participation and move the nation toward the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service's goal of having 80 percent of young people vaccinated by 2020, said Dr. Li Li, Associate Director for Prevention Research at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center.
"This is one of the few preventable cancers," he said. "There's a very unique opportunity for us nationwide to get together to put this forward."
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CWRUMed360- Jan 11, 2017
The future of cancer research is grounded in collaboration.
Stanton L. Gerson, MD is director of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, director of the UH Seidman Cancer Center, and professor of medicine and oncology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.
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Forbes - Jan 9, 2017
One of the major tenets of Obamacare was to make it affordable for healthy people to get preventive tests, like colonoscopy and mammography to screen for early signs of cancer. But with Senate Republicans and President-elect Donald Trump prioritizing an immediate repeal of the law, formally called the Affordable Care Act (ACA)-and not offering clear alternatives for replacing it-the future of subsidized cancer testing is now in doubt. That's a shame, says Gregory Cooper, Co-leader, Cancer Prevention, Control and Population Research Program at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, a gastroenterologist at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center and lead author of a new study that shows that, at least for mammography, eliminating out-of-pocket expenses has greatly increased the population of people who are inspired to get screened. In fact, in the two years following the implementation of the ACA, the mammography rate increased among Medicare beneficiaries across all economic subgroups, according to Cooper's study, published today in the American Cancer Society's journal, Cancer.
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OncoTherapy Network - Jan 9, 2017
Mikkael A. Sekeres, Deputy Associate Director for Clinical Research and Director, Clinical Trials, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, professor of medicine and the director of the Leukemia Program at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. He frequently writes about healthcare issues on the Well Blog on the
New York Times website. Today we are speaking to Dr. Sekeres about the issue of stringent eligibility criteria of most randomized cancer clinical trials.
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Shared Instrumentation Grant (SIG) Program (S10)
Internal Deadlines: Feb 10, 2017
External Deadline: May 31, 2017
The purpose of this funding opportunity is to continue the
Shared Instrumentation Grant (SIG) Program administered by
Office of Research Infrastructure Programs
(
ORIP
). The objective of the Program is to make available to institutions expensive research instruments that can only be justified on a shared-use basis and that are needed for NIH-supported projects in basic, translational or clinical areas of biomedical and bio-behavioral research. The SIG Program provides funds to purchase or upgrade a single item of expensive, state-of-the-art, specialized, commercially available instrument or an integrated instrumentation system. An integrated instrumentation system is one in which the components, when used in conjunction with one another, perform a function that no single component could provide. The components must be dedicated to the system and not used independently.
Types of supported instruments include, but are not limited to: X-ray diffractometers, mass and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometers, DNA and protein sequencers, biosensors, electron and light microscopes, cell sorters, and biomedical imagers. Applications for "stand alone" computer systems (supercomputers, computer clusters and data storage systems) will only be considered if the instrument is solely dedicated to the research needs of NIH-supported investigators.
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Case-Coulter Translational Research Partnership (CCTRP)
Pre-Proposal Deadline: Mar 1, 2017
This is the second year of the third phase of the Case-Coulter Translational Research Partnership (CCTRP) to support collaborative translational research projects that address unmet or poorly met clinical needs. The CCTRP seeks to reduce the market risk of promising new clinical products arising from the research programs of BME and other Case faculty. Successful projects will thus often focus on the development of prototype products, building relationships with companies, performing clinical feasibility studies, obtaining regulatory approval, and other activities that companies or business experts indicate are the essential last steps before a license can be negotiated or a startup launched. An overarching goal of the program is to foster research and development work likely leading to commercially relevant translational technologies within a three- to five-year horizon. Because the goals of all Coulter projects are to reduce market risk, all proposals are expected to reflect genuine business input, and all projects must include a "business advisor" as an important member of the decision making team.
The funding provided by the CCTRP should be considered as a "cooperative agreement" rather than a "grant". That is, the CCTRP staff, Technology Transfer Office (TTO) staff, and the Oversight Committee (OC) are partners in the project rather than a funding agency. Faculty should (and will be expected to) take advantage of the unique resources provided by the program and to include program staff in all major decisions. Project PI's are expected to provide at least monthly updates on progress towards milestones, and timely quarterly reporting from the BME PI of each project will be a milestone of ALL projects and will factor into decisions about continued funding.
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2017 PCF Young Investigator Awards
Request for Applications
Deadline: Mar 13, 2017
The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) is pleased to announce a request for applications for Young Investigator Awards. PCF Young Investigator Awards will be three (3) years in duration and will provide $75,000 per year. The award funds, which cover direct costs only, may be used flexibly to advance the career and research efforts of the awardee. Every PCF Young Investigator is required to be under the direct supervision of a mentor. Applicants should be within six-years following completion of a professional degree or clinical training such as MD, PhD, MD-PhD, DSc, ScD, DDM, DDS, DMD, MBBS or equivalent and hold the title of Postdoctoral Fellow, Instructor, Research Associate, Assistant Professor, or equivalent. Applicants should have received no more than $200,000 in current direct research funding from all sources including institutional funds. Investigators who have specifically received young investigator research support from the NCI, NIH, or DoD are still qualified and very much encouraged to apply. Young Investigator awardees are required to attend the Annual PCF Scientific Retreat and Young Investigator Day, typically held in October, throughout the duration of their award and beyond.
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Cancer Center Summer Training for Medical Students
Deadline: Mar 31, 2017
There are 9 openings available, with 5 supported by the Brian Werbel Memorial Fund and 4 by the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Details:
- Completed application and reference letter due by: Friday, March 31, 2017
- Awardees must be conducting cancer research with a Case Comprehensive Cancer Center member. View list of members.
- Those receiving the Brian Werbel Memorial Fund awards must attend the annual golf outing.
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Request for Proposals for Case CCC Funding for Pilot/Phase I Clinical Trials
The Case CCC is encouraging investigators to submit Letters of Intent (LOI) for Early Phase Clinical Research Support (EPCRS) funding. These in-house funds are available for the conduct of early phase clinical trials of relatively short duration. Priority will be given to trials which are developed jointly between UH and CCF with planned accrual at both institutions.
The proposals are being accepted on a rolling basis subject to availability of funds.
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NIH BULLETIN- Notices and Funding Opportunities
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FOLLOW US
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Tues, Jan 24
Cancer Imaging Program Monthly Meeting
12:30p WRB 3-136 |
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Wed, Jan 25
ASH Review
InterContinental Hotel
Hem/Onc Div Res Conf
8a Lerner B-151
Immunology Invited Speaker Seminar Series
Laura Nagy, PhD
Staff, Pathobiology, Cleveland Clinic
12p NC1-202
Genomic Medicine Institute
Neil Friedman, MBChB
Director, Pediatric Neurosciences, Cleveland Clinic
"Pediatric Neurology in the Era of Genomics"
2p Q1-300 Cleveland Clinic |
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Fri, Jan 27
Hem/Onc Fellows
8a Lerner Breen Conf Rm
Taussig Cancer Institute Grand Rounds
8a R3/002-003
Cellular and Molecular Medicine Guest Speaker
Gregory Graf, PhD
Associate Professor, Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Kentucky
"Reverse Cholesterol Transport: Route and Regulation"
10a NC1-202
Cancer Center Seminar Series
12p BRB 105 |
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Mon, Jan 30
GMI Seminar
Lihua Jin
Ting Lab, Genomic Medicine Institute, Cleveland Clinic
"DNA methylation regulates alternative polyadenylation in human cells"
12:30p NE1-205
Cancer Center Research Chalk Talk
1p WRB 3-136 |
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Tues, Jan 31
Special Seminar
Hillard M. Lazarus, MD
Professor, Div. of Hematology and Oncology, CWRU/UH and Editor-in-chief of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Blood Reviews
"How to Get Published"
12:30p BRB 105
RSVP
Cancer Center Research in Progress Seminar
3p WRB 3-136 |
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Wed, Feb 1
Hem/Onc Div Res Conf
8a Lerner B-151 |
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Fri, Feb 3
Hem/Onc Fellows
8a Breen Conf Rm.
TCI Grand Rounds
8a R3/002-003
Cancer Center Seminar Series
12p BRB 105
Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy Group
4p WRB 3-136 |
ADDITIONAL UPCOMING SYMPOSIUMS & EVENTS
1st Annual Cancer Disparities Symposium: Building Bridges to Address Cancer Disparities
Mar 17, 2017
Wolstein Research Bldg
NCCN 22nd Annual Conference: Improving the Quality, Effectiveness, and Efficiency of Cancer Care™
Mar 23-25, 2017
GvHD National Symposium
Oct 13, 2017
Grand Event Center, Columbus, OH
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PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED OPPORTUNITIES
LOI Deadline: Feb 1, 2017
Invited Full Proposal Deadline: Mar 15, 2017
LOI Deadline:
Feb 1, 2017
Deadline:
February 15, 2017
Deadline:
February 22, 2017
Deadline: Open
Deadline: Open
Deadline: Open
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