Opportunities for Scientific Engagement with Program Directors

Nas Kuhn, Ph.D. Division of Cancer Biology

New Grantee Workshop March 18, 2015

http://dcb.nci.nih.gov/

Roles of the NCI Program Directors (PDs)

I. Inform NCI and NIH leadership of notable research advances

II. Plan scientific workshopsIII. Organize sessions at scientific conferencesIV. Draft funding opportunity announcementsV. Manage large programs and working groups

NCI PDs have several roles in addition to stewardship of grants

I. Inform NCI and NIH leadership of notable research advances

• NCI Congressional Budget Justification or response to Congressional inquiry

• Internal journal clubs and seminars• Share knowledge on research advances with NCI

and NIH colleagueso Strategic planningo Set prioritieso Coordinate research across different fieldso Identify gaps in researcho Identify areas of potential synergy between

groups or scientific areas

Information on scientific achievements may be used by an NCI PD in a variety of contexts

II. Plan scientific workshops

• Intent of NCI PD to plan workshopso Gain knowledge on the status of the fieldo Identify where gaps existo Determine if NCI coordination or resources are

neededo Convene investigators from disparate disciplines

as needed • As an investigator, you may play

various roles at NCI workshopso Participanto Discussanto Speakero Co-chair

NCI sponsors scientific workshops on topics that appear to be emerging areas of interest or areas that might need coordination

II. Plan scientific workshopsNCI Division of Cancer Biology Workshops in 2014

1. Applying Chromatin Biology to Understand Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (February 18-19, 2014)

2. Biomimetic Tissue Engineered Systems for Advancing Cancer Research (February 26, 2014)

3. Unfolded Protein Response in Cancer Development and Progression Workshop (June 5-6, 2014)

4. Early Stage Investigators in Cancer System Biology Steering Committee Meeting (September 4-5, 2014)

5. RNA Editing, Epitransciptomics and Processing in Cancer Progression Workshop (September 10, 2014)

6. UN Cell Modulus Workshop (September 11, 2014)7. Prospective Outlook of Mechanics in Oncology (September 11-12, 2014)8. Mitochondrial Information Transfer (Mito IT) Strategic Workshop (September 23-

24, 2014)9. NCI-Basic and Translational Applications of Mouse Models: A Workshop on

Reliable Guidance for Model Selection (September 24-25, 2014)10. BD2K Game Developers Think Tank Workshop (December 8-9, 2014)

III. Organize sessions at scientific conferences

• NCI PDs are often involved in co-organizing sessions at scientific conferences

o Grantsmanshipo Introduce NCI programs and funding opportunitieso Convene investigators from disparate disciplines

‒ e.g., engage cancer researchers with engineers and physicists

III. Organize sessions at scientific conferences: A few examples in 2014

• AACR 2014 – NIH Grants Session: Changes in Review,

Funding, and Funding Opportunities at the NCI

Suresh Mohla (NCI)• ASCB Special Interest Subgroups

2014 – The dynamic interface between cancer cells and their physical environmentMike Espey (NCI) and Dan Sacket (NICHD)

• ASME Nanoengineering for Medicine and Biology2014 – Bioengineering for medical diagnostics,

therapeutics, and imagingLarry Nagahara (NCI) and Nas Kuhn (NCI)

IV. Draft funding opportunity announcements (FOAs): Selected list of FOAs

• Physical Sciences – Oncology Networko PAR-15-021: U01 Projects and PAR-14-169: U54 Centers

• Oncology Models Forumo PAR-14-240: R01 Collaborative projects

• New Approaches to Synthetic Lethality for Mutant KRas-Dependent Cancers

o PAR-14-314: U01 Projects

• Collaborative Research in Integrative Cancer Biologyo PAR-13-184: U01 Collaborative projects

• Early-Stage Development of Informatics Technologyo PAR-12-288: U01 Projects

http://dcb.nci.nih.gov/ http://grants.nih.gov/

Targeted FOAs are drafted because PDs have identified a gap and a potential opportunity to move

the field forward by soliciting targeted research

V. Manage large programs and working groups: A few examples

• Integrative Cancer Biology Program (ICBP)• 12 Centers for Cancer Systems Biology (CCSB) and 8

Collaborative projects

• Tumor Microenvironment Network (TMEN)• 11 TMEN Centers and 10 Collaborative projects

• Oncology Models Forum (OMF)• 1 Resource-related research project and pending projects

• Physical Sciences-Oncology Network (PS-ON)• Pending Physical Sciences-Oncology Centers and Projects

Consortia are often formed when a new community is needed to come together, share resources, expertise, where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts

V. Manage large programs and working groups: A few more examples

• Informatics Technology for Cancer Research (ITCR) • 13 Projects and 10 resource centers

• Barrett’s Esophagus Translational Research Network (BETRNet)

• 3 Research centers and 1 coordinating center

• NCI Provocative Questions (PQ)• 173 Projects

• NIH Common Fund Programs• 4D nucleome • Big data to knowledge • Bioinformatics and

computational biology • Epigenomics • Extracellular RNA communication • Library of integrated network-based cellular signatures • Single cell analysis

PDs collaborate across the NCI and the NIH to manage large programs

Summary: Many opportunities exist for scientific engagement with NCI PDs

I. Inform NCI and NIH leadership of notable research advances

II. Plan scientific workshopsIII. Organize sessions at scientific conferencesIV. Draft funding initiativesV. Manage large programs and working groups

http://dcb.nci.nih.gov/

Thank you!