The career enhancement of early-career faculty is essential for continued progress and success of the Dana- Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (HCC) Prostate SPORE. Supporting and mentoring the next generation of leaders in basic, clinical, population, and translational prostate cancer research is a top priority for the SPORE. The Career Enhancement Program (CEP) will provide a formalized mechanism to support this mission. Through its activities, the CEP will continue to develop a pipeline of promising talent within HCC, select innovative projects for funding, assist in building collaborations to facilitate clinical translation, provide formalized mentorship to enhance the career development of early career investigators, and provide opportunities to sustain the careers of these individuals in translational prostate cancer while retaining them within HCC. The CEP will also identify investigators who research other cancers seeking to transition into a career in prostate cancer. A key CEP goal is to attract, retain, and nurture young talented researchers with the greatest potential for innovation and sustained contributions to the field.
The CEP is led by Drs. Paul Nguyen (BWH/DFCI), Lorelei Mucci (HSPH), and Adam Feldman (MGH), established prostate cancer investigators who are passionate about mentoring and have successfully mentored numerous trainees and faculty. They have established a formal program for the SPORE CEP to broadly solicit proposals, and target investigators including women and under-represented racial and ethnic groups (UREG). CEP proposals will undergo a fair and transparent review. Awardees will benefit from research funding, access to SPORE infrastructure and cores, exposure and interactions with prostate cancer investigators through SPORE meetings, educational sessions, and through mentoring activities. The SPORE as whole will also benefit from interactions with diverse talent and fresh ideas. We expect that the CEP program will play a central role in the HCC Prostate SPORE and will foster the next generation of leaders in prostate cancer translational research.
