SURGICAL ONCOLOGISTS AS SCIENTISTS (SOAS) TRAINING PROGRAM

CURRENTLY ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS.

THE DEADLINE TO APPLY IS APRIL 15, 2024.

The overall goal of the proposed SOAS Training Program for Surgical Oncologists As Scientists—is to provide research training for surgical residents committed to a career in academic surgical oncology. The SOAS program will consist of three main training areas: 1) laboratory-based translational cancer research; 2) biospecimen banking in our College of American Pathologists (CAP)-certified biorepository; and 3) innovation and entrepreneurship. It is open to categorical surgical residents currently in training in an accredited surgical residency (MDs only, non-designated preliminary surgery residents are excluded) and the training consists of 2 years of mentored research (clinical or laboratory). SOAS is training the next generation of cancer surgeons as translational scientists, collaborators to non-clinician scientists, and future leaders in the biology of the tumor microenvironment (TME), biobanking, and innovation & entrepreneurship. Trainees will creatively focus on turning cancer-related problems into translational research opportunities that lead to clinically relevant solutions for oncology patients that thereby create both societal value and tangible economic worth.

Please direct inquiries Amy Spilkin PhD at aspilkin@health.ucsd.edu.

INTRODUCTION

This NCI-supported T32 training program is run jointly through the Department of Surgery and the NCI-Designated Moores Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). The overall goal of the SOAS Training Program—for Surgical Oncologists As Scientists—is to provide research training for surgical residents committed to a career in academic surgical oncology. The SOAS program consists of three main training areas: 1) laboratory-based translational cancer research; 2) biospecimen banking in our College of American Pathologists (CAP)-certified biorepository; and 3) innovation and entrepreneurship.

The specific objectives of the SOAS program are:

To train the next generation of surgeon-scientists with cutting-edge and in-depth knowledge in the tumor microenvironment (TME);
To introduce key features of Biobanking and Innovative/Entrepreneurial thinking;
To endow surgeon-scientists with critical scientific skills they will need to succeed in academic surgical oncology;
To accomplish all the above in a nurturing, carefully mentored learning environment exemplified by rigorous standards of excellence.

ACADEMIC ENVIRONMENT

UC San Diego is among the premier research institutions in the world. We have achieved international prominence for our research programs, partly because of the outstanding quality of the scientific environment at our campus, and partly because of the stellar quality of our people. We continue to attract and retain a preeminent cadre of scientists, clinicians, clinician-scientists, post-graduate trainees, and students that rank among the finest in the world. And we are well funded, at $1.76 billion dollars in research funding per year—our 10^th consecutive year of funding > $1 billion. Accordingly, the 2023 edition of U.S. News & World Report’s Best Global Universities ranked UC San Diego the 28^th best university overall (i.e., public or private) in the world. Similarly, Forbes ranked UC San Diego as the 3^rd best public college in the U.S. in 2023. The consensus is clear: UC San Diego ranks among the most elite and best-funded scientific research institutions in the world.

THE REBECCA AND JOHN MOORES CANCER CENTER

The UC San Diego Cancer Center was founded in 1978. Its growth has been fostered by the rich fabric of intellectual and entrepreneurial prowess for which San Diego has become famous. The Cancer Center has an administrative structure of seven Research Programs and 12 Shared Resources. The clinical faculty of the Center provides state-of-the-art cancer care within the context of a major clinical trials and translation research program. The Cancer Center sponsors multiple seminars, journal clubs, colloquia and meetings in which research progress is discussed. In 2006, the Center opened a 270,000 sq. ft. multipurpose building that houses all of the cancer outpatient clinical services and provides a large amount of laboratory research space. This facility brings together–both physically and programmatically–laboratory-based scientists, epidemiologists and clinical oncologists to effectively foster translational cancer research.

MCC is an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC) founded in 1978. It is one of only 51 such CCCs currently in existence in the U.S. In 2023, US News and World Reports ranked MCC #20 in the nation, as well as UC San Diego Health in US News and World Reports' Best Hospitals Honor Roll, recognizing 22 of the nation’s highest performing hospitals. Diane Simeone, MD, herself a surgeon-scientist and SOAS Mentor, was recently named the new Director of MCC starting this spring. MCC is also closely affiliated with the Salk Institute (8 minutes west of MCC) and with Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (8 minutes north of MCC). These latter institutes are 2 of only 7 NCI-designated Basic Laboratory Cancer Centers in the country.

More than 400 new patients enter clinical treatment protocols annualy at the Cancer Center. This includes NCI Cooperative Group trials (CALGB, NSABP, RTOG and GOG) as well as investigator-initiated trials. More than 50% of the patients are entered on institutionally generated protocols. There are 3 inpatient teaching hospitals, each of which offers a set of unique characteristics: These include the UC San Diego Medical Center (UCSDMC) in the Hillcrest region of San Diego, the VA Medical Center (VAMC) in La Jolla, and Jacobs Medical Center in La Jolla. UCSDMC is a 403-bed primary, secondary and tertiary care university hospital. The inpatient hospital population is equally divided between male and female patients. There is a 10-bed NIH-funded Clinical Research Center at which complex phase I and phase II protocols, including pharmacokinetic studies, are performed. A GCRC satellite facility operates in the new Moores Cancer Center facility adjacent to the Thornton Hospital. The VAMC has 238 beds, occupied primarily by men. There is a large cohort of patients who receive primary care under the auspices of the VA (approximately 25,000, of which 600 carry a diagnosis of AIDS), and a large number of both inpatient and outpatient consultations in Hematology-Oncology are requested. Jacobs Medical Center has 245 beds and is a UCSD hospital. The blood and marrow transplant program (BMT) is housed at Jacobs Medical Center, and offers exposure to both autologous and allogeneic transplant procedures. Research facilities include the Cancer Center, Clinical Sciences Building, Center for Molecular Genetics, Center for Molecular Medicine, Leichtag Biomedical Research Building and the Veterans Administration Medical Center on the La Jolla campus.

Innovation and Entrepreneurship

UC San Diego is world renowned for its innovation and entrepreneurship and continues to creatively produce both innovation and new startups at a high rate. The University of California system has been granted more full patents (570) than any other university system in the world. In addition, the UCSD Office of Innovation and Commercialization holds the largest portfolio of inventions of the 10 campuses in the UC system and has managed more than 2,500 inventions.

The city of San Diego boasts the #3 biotechnology hub in the world, behind only the greater Cambridge-Boston and San Francisco regions. As a result, San Diego provides an ideal environment for advancing innovations into successful startups, and then to products. This is where academia, biomedical research, top-notch health care providers, venture capital and private equity firms, angel investors, and entrepreneurship reside in close proximity, thus nurturing the abounding innovation. In fact, San Diego’s “Biotech Beach” is home to more than 400 mature-stage biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, many of which have been founded by former graduate students, postdoctoral trainees, and faculty of UC San Diego. As a direct result of discoveries and innovation that specifically occurred at UC San Diego, more than 1,000 startup companies have been created, which have directly supported over 100,000 new jobs in the region. It is precisely this rich environment for innovation that the SOAS Training Program aims to capitalize upon.

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

The SOAS Program provides a 2 year period of training in developmental therapeutics for post-doctoral scientists and physician-scientists at the Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health. The focus is on the development of novel therapeutics of all types combined with identification of biomarkers that allow individualization of treatment. The mission is to train investigators in each of the major steps in the development of a novel cancer therapeutic so as to position these individuals to play leading roles in academic institutions and industry in translating laboratory-based discoveries into safe and effective cancer therapeutic agents.

The training program has a single track for both PhD and MD scientists. Irrespective of whether an individual’s past training and expertise is most relevant to an early (e.g., target identification/validation) or late (e.g., Phase I – III clinical trials) step in drug development, there is a core body of knowledge about the process of drug development that must be mastered by any person aiming to become a leader in cancer therapeutics. The training program has three components: 1) the completion of formal didactic courses that cover key tools and skills needed in the drug development process; 2) the conduct of a drug development research project under the direction of a faculty mentor; and, 3) participation in lecture series including presentations from UCSD faculty and speakers from pharmaceutical companies developing cancer therapeutics and diagnostics. Trainees are expected to attend Cancer Center and other institutional seminars, workshops and journal clubs and attend the annual American Association for Cancer Research or equivalent national meeting. Clinically trained fellows will not have clinical responsibilities beyond what may be required by their individual training program. Clinical fellows will be offered the opportunity, on a voluntary basis, to have a half-day clinic in their subspecialty each week.

HANDS ON RESEARCH TRAINING

Fellows will conduct a project of their choice continuously during the 2 year period under the mentorship of a CT² faculty member. The project may be focused on any of the following steps in the drug discovery process:

Target identification, validation, function
Drug design or synthesis
Development or application of informatics or computational tools related to therapeutics development
Development or use of novel animal models for pre-clinical testing
Development or use of molecular or imaging diagnostic tools that can guide drug development
Identification of lead compounds and investigation of structure activity relationships
Cellular pharmacology and testing of in vitro activity in cell line models
Pharmacogenomics and genetic determinants of drug sensitivity and toxicity
Development of analytical tools for drug measurement in biological fluids
Efficacy in animal tumor models
Pharmacokinetics in animal models
Preclinical non-GLP toxicology and toxicogenetics
Identification of biomarkers that quantify or predict drug effect
Design and execution of Phase I clinical trials of novel agents
Design and execution of human pharmacokinetic trials
Design and execution of Phase II clinical trials of novel agents
Design and execution of Phase III clinical trials

In addition to providing individualized guidance to the trainee, the Mentor is a source of advice for the development of the individual’s career path. Within the first 3 months, each trainee will prepare a 5-page project plan, to be reviewed by the CT² Executive Committee. The final plan will serve as the basis for assessing progress and performance throughout the 2 year period. There will be two formal reviews of each trainee’s progress during the training period, in month 8 and month 20, consisting of a presentation of research progress and feedback from the Executive Committee for the educational benefit of the trainee.

DIDACTIC TRAINING

Tumor Microenvironment

Successful surgeon-scientist trainees will benefit from a comprehensive understanding of the modes of therapeutic anti-cancer actions in either “wet” lab and/or computational “dry” lab training settings.

CREST Coursework
CT² trainees are required to complete 5 courses offered through the Clinical Research Enhancement through Supplemental Training (CREST) program, designed to be delivered over the 2-year training period (included Biostatistics, Patient-Oriented Research, and Ethics). A different module is offered in each quarter; each module consists of 10 weekly, 2 hour periods of instruction in the late afternoon or early evening. The modules cover basic principles of cancer drug developmental therapeutics, biostatistics, data management and informatics, clinical trial design and execution, regulatory affairs, patient oriented research and epidemiology. A Certificate in Clinical Research and/or a Masters Degree in Advanced Studies in Clinical Research, are also available upon completion of this introductory curriculum with minor additions.

Ethics Requirement
Trainees are required to take one program-approved Ethics course offered during the Fall, Winter and Spring quarters through the Research Ethics Program. This course satisfies the NIH requirement for instruction in the responsible conduct of research. Topics include roles and responsibilities of researchers, data collection and ownership, issues relating to use of animal and human subjects, scientific and grant writing, code of ethics for authors, reviewers and editors and conflicts of interest.

Grant Submission and Preparing a Budget

This course will prepare SOAS Trainees to navigate the grant submission process at UCSD, and will specifically inform Trainees on drafting budgets using Excel, and writing budget justifications. This will consist of a single 2-hour presentation

AAS Fundamentals of Surgical Research Course

Trainees will be required to attend a one-day workshop meeting offered annually each Fall by the Association for Academic Surgery (AAS) in the first year of their SOAS training. This course covers many practical areas of research vital to Trainees’ success, including how to write hypotheses, study design, creating and managing a database, delivering effective scientific presentations, big data and informatics, how to build a research career, time management skills, and more.

AAS/SUS Surgical Investigator’s Course: The Grant Writing Workshop

In their second year, Trainees will be required to attend a two-day workshop meeting offered annually in the Winter by the AAS and Society of University Surgeons (SUS). This Workshop will be focused on how to write an NIH grant. Trainees will be expected to draft a K08 or R01 grant proposal for review by a Mock Study Section. We view this course as providing not just essential training, but exposure to critical professional and academic connections.

Seminar Series in the Tumor Microenvironment

We have a monthly Seminar Series that focuses on the Tumor Microenvironment. This series, called the Seminar Series in the Tumor Microenvironment will feature monthly (10 per year) lectures given by UC San Diego investigators who are active in aspects of the TME field. We have subdivided the TME field into subsections that represent what we consider to be key subtopics that come under the more general rubric of the TME: 1) cancer stem cells; 2) cancer associated fibroblasts & tumor stroma; 3) immune cells; 4) vasculature & nerves; and 5) paracrine signaling and metabolism.

Seminar Series: “How I Built This”

The title of this Seminar Series—borrowed from the NPR Podcast by award-winning host, Guy Raz—is self-explanatory. We train surgeon-scientists in recognizing innovation where they find it, and thinking about what it might take to commercialize their innovation. These lectures will be given by ELAs and other UCSD Faculty who have extensive experience in commercialization activities the emerged directly from their research activities. These are the Investigators who successfully accomplished (or are accomplishing) the main goal of “Bench-to-Bedside” research.

Industry/Academia Translational Oncology Symposium

This required annual one-day symposium brings together Trainees and MCC faculty with major private sector thought leaders and decision makers, where they discuss innovative translational oncology developments, and critically, potential new collaborations.

Biobanking training course.

Taught by UCSD faculty, this course will: provide the theoretical, practical, and regulatory background to understand biobank operations; encourage bilateral exchange of knowledge and skills across different groups involved in human biospecimen procurement, storage, and distribution for pre-clinical and clinical research; lead to understanding of the basics in working in animal models involving human tissues, such as human cell lines, PDXs and PDOs.

UC Intellectual Property Essentials for Academic Researchers

This is an online course that takes approximately 1-hour to complete, and covers the basics of patent filing.

Essentials of Entrepreneurship and Innovation

The UCSD Office of Innovation and Commercialization will sponsor this course for our Trainees. The course consists of six 1.5-hour sessions each covering a different aspect of the journey to creating a new venture, such as Introduction to Design Thinking; Business Modeling; Customer Discovery and Development; Financing Your Startup; Building Your Team; Intellectual Property; Social Innovation; Storytelling; Pitching Your Idea

CAREER PREPARATION

After completion of this Fellowship, trainees will be equipped with a broad range of skills vital to careers as independent investigators in Academia or leaders in the pharmaceutical industry. Under the direction of a faculty Mentor, the trainee is expected acquire critical investigative skills in his/her focused area of research. In addition, the trainee will acquire practical experience within the field of surgical oncology, biobanking, and innovation.

FELLOWSHIP STIPEND AND BENEFITS

Your SOAS stipend level will be determined by the number of full years of training that you have completed since receiving your terminal/professional degree. The stipend is based on the NIH stipend scale and is not determined by the SOAS program or UC San Diego. You are eligible for a stipend increase following successful completion of your first 12 months of appointment.

The benefits of the program include HMO medical, dental and vision insurance coverage for yourself and your dependents.

LABORATORY SUPPLIES

The mentor in whose laboratory you will be working will provide research equipment, supplies and lab space for your entire training period during which you will be executing your research project.

HOUSING

Housing is not included in the SOAS award. Appointed trainees are encouraged to arrange for housing immediately upon acceptance, as housing is in high demand in areas close to the La Jolla campus. Faculty and staff housing information can be accessed at offcampushousing.ucsd.edu. The UC San Diego La Jolla Del Sol Office (Phone: (858) 587-1221 E-mail: ljds@ucsd.edu) compiles a market comparison report which provides information regarding off-campus apartment complexes in the UTC area of La Jolla. This report can be accessed through UC San Diego Housing.

PROGRAM FACULTY

1) Jason Sicklick, MD is the Co-PD/MPI (contact) of this proposed SOAS Training Program (see detailed description in Section B.1.a). The Sicklick lab studies gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST), an orphan disease with approximately 5,000-6,000 new cases in the US annually. He has active NCI R01 funding to explore the commonalities and differences across TKI-treated and genomically diverse GIST cancer stem cells, which represent a novel target for overcoming disease persistence and TKI-resistance. Recently, his laboratory has begun studying endometrial cancer in collaboration with gynecologic oncology colleagues.

2) Yuan Chen, PhD is a Co-PD/MPI of the SOAS Training Program (see detailed description in Section B.1.a). The long-term objective of her research program is to address novel mechanisms that can be targeted for developing innovative treatments for cancer. Her research focus for two decades has been on ubiquitin-like (Ubl) modifications, specifically investigating small ubiquitin-like modifications (SUMOylation). Her significant contributions to the field include determining the molecular mechanism of SUMO conjugation process and elucidating the way in which E3 ligases direct the specificity of the SUMO paralogs. Her laboratory identified the only SUMO-interacting motif (SUMO receptor) that mediates all SUMO-dependent signaling events. She also led the field in revealing how SUMOylation promotes c-Myc-dependent tumorigenesis and the role of the SUMO activating enzyme in cancer cell stemness.

3) Sunil Advani, MD is a Professor of Radiation Medicine and Applied Sciences, a radiation oncologist, and co-leader of the Moores Cancer CCSG Cancer Biology and Signaling Program. He is a physician-scientist and serves as Associate Director of Clinical and Translational Research at MCC. His R37-funded laboratory has performed key pre-clinical studies that have formed the basis for translation to Phase 1 clinical trials that combine radiotherapy with tumor targeted systemic therapies, including oncolytic viruses and antibody drug conjugates. He holds several patents on discovery of novel radiosensitizers and has published over thirty peer-reviewed articles, including work in Nature Medicine and Cancer Research.

4) Joseph Califano, MD is a Professor of Surgery, the Director of Moores Cancer Center, holds the Iris and Matthew Strauss Chancellor’s Endowed Chair in Head & Neck Surgery, and is Director of the Hanna and Mark Gleiberman Head & Neck Cancer Center. Dr. Califano is an internationally recognized surgeon-scientist, directs an NIH-funded laboratory investigating the molecular basis of head and neck cancer, and has published over 300 articles on both the clinical and basic aspects of cancer. He has translated discoveries from his laboratory into the clinic, including detection of HPV-related cancers. He currently serves on the NCI Head and Neck Steering Committee, Council of the American Head and Neck Society and on the NCCN Board of Directors.

5) John Carethers, MD is the Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences and Distinguished Professor of Medicine at UCSD. He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences. His research program has been supported by multiple R01 and U01 grants for many years. He formerly led the gastroenterology T32 at UCSD (T32 DK007202), and has had an extensive history of successfully training academic physicians and surgeons. His research focuses on disparities in colorectal cancer related to genetics and outcomes, basic mechanisms of DNA mismatch repair, the role of inflammation and DNA mismatch repair regulation, and the role of EMAST and MSH3 dysfunction in colorectal cancer metastasis.

6) Hannah Carter, PhD is an Associate Professor of Medicine (Division of Medical Genetics) at UCSD who has been supported by DP5, U01, and R01 grants for the last decade. After receiving a prestigious Early Independence Award from the NIH (DP5), she went on to obtain a series of additional grants to support her research focusing on computationally modeling how DNA mutations in tumor genomes impact intracellular biological processes and cellular behaviors, and how these cellular level changes cause cancer. Along with Drs. Mesirov and Tamayo, she is one of three world-class computational biologists, who are agnostic as to the site and type of a tumor.

7) Cosimo Commisso, PhD is Director and Associate Professor of the Cell and Molecular Biology of Cancer Program at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Research Institute, and Adjunct Associate Professor of Surgery at UCSD. His R01-funded research is focused on biological discoveries that have the potential to lead to novel therapeutic strategies for cancer. Of particular interest to his laboratory is macropinocytosis, a fluid-phase form of bulk endocytic uptake, which his group has linked to cancer cell metabolism in Ras-mutated cancers.

8) Brian Eliceiri, PhD is an R01-funded Professor of Surgery. Dr. Eliceiri’s research focuses on the discovery of novel biological pathways regulating inflammation and remodeling of the TME and wound healing. A central part of this research program has been the training of surgeon-scientists in parallel with PhD post-doctoral scientists. In partnerships with clinical faculty colleagues with expertise in of neuroinflammation, tissue repair, and cancer research, he has trained residents from the General Surgery Program at UCSD as well as the nearby US Navy Balboa Hospital. As evidence of his collaborative nature, Dr. Eliceiri has led several successful multi-PI S10 technology programs. Recently, his group was awarded a grant for an advanced flow cytometer for the analysis of small extracellular vesicles (EVs). The deployment of novel technologies to surgeon-scientists in training is thus a central component of his training program.

9) Diana Hargreaves, PhD is an Associate Professor of Molecular Biology at UCSD and faculty at the Salk Institute. Her research is supported by multiple R01s and an R35, and she has published her findings in Nature, Cell, Nature Communications, Immunity, J Exp Med, and Nature Genetics. She is interested in epigenetic regulation mediated by the BAF chromatin remodeling complex. The goal of the Hargreaves lab is to use a combination of biochemical and epigenomic assays to understand the function of these complexes during normal cellular differentiation and the mechanistic basis for cancers (e.g., biliary tract, colon, uterine, ovarian cancers) caused by mutations in BAF complex subunits.

10) Wolfgang Junger, PhD is Professor of Surgery at UCSD, and has been amply supported by R01 grants from the NIH for many years. Prior to being recruited back to UCSD earlier this year, Dr. Junger was based at Harvard Medical School where he was PI of a T32. His lab studies the molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in these inflammatory and immunosuppressive responses with the ultimate goal to develop strategies to prevent post-traumatic complications, with a particular emphasis on neutrophil chemotaxis and purinergic signaling mechanisms.

11) Tatiana Kisseleva, MD is a Professor of Surgery (as mentioned in B.1.b). Dr. Kisseleva is a non-clinical scientist, but fully trained as a surgeon. Her research interests, funded by four R01s and a U01, include the cellular origin of cells contributing to fibrosis in the liver microenvironment. She is also Co-Director of the Preclinical Models Core in the UC San Diego Digestive Diseases Research Center. This core provides access to animal models of GI and liver disease for preclinical studies and assists in characterizing disease activity. Dr. Kisseleva’s research focuses on the identification of new targets for anti-fibrotic therapy. They have shown that hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) are the major source of myofibroblasts in response to toxic liver injury, and described the mechanism of their epigenetic regulation of during development and regression of liver fibrosis¹⁷. We investigated the contribution of activated Portal Fibroblasts (aPFs) to cholestatic liver fibrosis, and identified specific markers which distinguish aPFs from other myofibroblasts in the liver¹⁸. Our most recent work is focused on the role of IL-17 signaling in progression of fibrosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)¹⁹. Dr. Kisseleva has an extensive mentoring background, has published more than 140 papers [including recent work in PNAS (IF 11.2)], and has one patent (US Patent #10,233,240).

12) Andrew Lowy, MD is a Professor of Surgery as mentioned above in B.1.b. His laboratory focuses on understanding the drivers of PDAC progression, as well as identifying and testing new targets for PDAC and appendix cancer therapy using a variety of model systems including 2D and 3D (organoid) culture systems, patient-derived xenografts, and genetically engineered mouse models (GEMMs). Current areas of active work include studies of 1) the MST1R kinase in immunomodulation; 2) novel regulators of actin dynamics; and 3) PDAC stem cell dependencies. Dr. Lowy’s work with his collaborators at UCSD has recently led them to cofound two spinoff companies (focused on RNA binding protein and GPCR directed therapeutics).

13) Jill Mesirov, PhD is an NIH-funded Professor of Medicine, and Associate Vice Chancellor for Computational Health Sciences. Dr. Mesirov is responsible for the overarching strategy for data science and research computing at the UC San Diego School of Medicine. Dr. Mesirov is a computational scientist who has spent many years working in high-performance computing. Her research focuses on cancer genomics, single cell analyses, and applying machine-learning methods to functional data derived from patient tumors. The lab analyzes this molecular data to determine the underlying biological mechanisms of specific tumor subtypes, to stratify patients according to their relative risks of relapse, and to identify candidate compounds for potential treatments. Her group has been responsible for the data analysis component of many disease-specific projects and the development of numerous analysis methodologies, including the first use of Self-Organizing Maps for clustering gene expression data, the first classification algorithm for leukemia subtypes, the Metagene Projection method, Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA), the Molecular Signatures Database (MSigDB), and Bayesian patient stratification models for Precision Medicine. Dr. Mesirov is one of our three computational biologists (with Drs. Tamayo and Carter).

14) Mark Onaitis, MD is a Professor of Surgery and a thoracic surgical oncologist. Dr. Onaitis has published approximately 150 peer-reviewed papers, and his research is funded by an NCI-sponsored R01, as well as a recently completed VA Merit Award. Dr. Onaitis specializes in malignant conditions of the chest, including lung, esophageal, and thymic cancers. His basic science research involves analysis of the cell of origin of lung adenocarcinoma. His laboratory uses transgenic mice to demonstrate that the Type II cell in the lung alveoli is the cell of origin for Kras-induced lung adenocarcinoma.

15) Andrew Sharabi, MD, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Radiation Medicine and Applied Sciences, as well as a member of the Head & Neck and GU Cancer Disease Teams. He is also the Director of the Center for Precision Radiation Medicine (CPRM). He is also the Director of the MCC Radiation Medicine Core Facility and on the Scientific Advisory Board of the San Diego Center for Precision Immunotherapy. A dedicated basic and translational scientist, his research focus is on understanding the fundamental interactions between radiation and the immune system, and on identifying strategies to combine radiation with immunotherapy. Dr. Sharabi is also closely associated with Toragen, Inc., a San Diego-based biotechnology company, focused on developing, repurposing, and commercializing uniquely selective drugs targeting cancers caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV). He studies adaptive immune responses in head & neck cancer and is a Co-I on a prestigious NIH Moonshot U01 grant evaluating neo-antigen T-cell responses in head & neck cancer. He is also the PI of a randomized phase II clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of combining immunotherapy and radiotherapy in early-stage lung cancer.

16) Pablo Tamayo, PhD is a Professor in the Division of Medical Genetics at UC San Diego School of Medicine, and Director of the UCSD Center for Cancer Target Discovery and Development (CTD2). He serves as the Head of MCC’s Computational Cancer Analysis Laboratory (CCAL) and is Co-Leader of the California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine UCSD project, Co-Director of the Genomics and Computational Biology Shared Resource (GCBSR), and a Visiting Scientist, Cancer Program, Broad Institute of MIT/Harvard. Dr. Tamayo has >25 years of experience in computational methods, probability and statistics, data analysis, machine learning, computational biology, and cancer research. He has co-authored over 150 papers and technical reports that have been the subject of >40,000 citations. He is the PI or Co-I of numerous NIH grants. During the last two decades, Dr. Tamayo has worked on the study of oncogenes, cancer pathways and targets, molecular signatures of oncogene activation and dependence, and drug response. Besides cancer genomics and computational biology, Dr. Tamayo also has a strong background in machine learning and high-performance computing, and has worked on the development of analysis methods for the functional characterization of cancers including RNAi and CRISPR genetic dependencies. Dr. Tamayo is one of our three computational biologists (along with Drs. Carter and Mesirov).

17) Rebekah White, MD is a Professor of Surgery and a practicing surgical oncologist. She received a K08 award in 2011 that was focused on aptamers (artificial oligonucleotide ligands) for targeted delivery of cargo to PDAC cells. She has since been supported by an R21 for the application of aptamers for biomarker identification as well as multiple R01s. Dr. White has extensive experience with in vitro and in vivo pancreatic cancer models and research using human biospecimens. She has published 110 papers. She has taken advantage of our strong research environment in immunology to study the immune effects of irreversible electroporation (IRE) in PDAC via an NCI-funded R01.

REQUIREMENTS

REVIEW

Trainees will be consistently evaluated throughout their appointment term. Formal reviews may be required at months 8 and 20.

APPLICATION INFORMATION

The Surgical Oncologists as Scientists (SOAS) Program is an NIH-funded training program in cancer therapeutic development. This program accepts MD categorical surgical residents.

Download SOAS Application Form

If you are interested in applying, please contact Amy Spilkin PhD (aspilkin@health.ucsd.edu).

ELIGIBILITY

CITIZENSHIP REQUIREMENTS

SOAS applicants must be United States citizens, noncitizen nationals or have been lawfully admitted for permanent residence by the time of their appointment.

Non-citizen nationals are people, who, although not citizens of the United States, owe permanent allegiance to the United States. They are generally people born in outlying territories of the United States (e.g., American Samoa and Swains Island). Individuals who have been lawfully admitted for permanent residence must have a currently valid Alien Registration Receipt Card (I-551) or other legal verification of such status.

Sorry, but individuals on temporary or student visas are NOT eligible for SOAS support.

PRIOR RUTH L. KIRSCHSTEIN-NRSA SUPPORT

The National Research Service Award (now known as Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award) provides for a maximum of 3 years of post-doctoral funding. Since the SOAS program requires a two-year, NRSA-eligible commitment, eligibility for the program requires that you have had no more than 1 year of prior NRSA post-doctoral support,

FACULTY MENTOR

All SOAS applicants must identify a faculty mentor prior to having their application reviewed by the Executive Committee. Please contact the mentor in whose laboratory you wish to complete your research prior to submitting your application. If you need assistance with finding a mentor, please contact Amy Spilkin (aspilkin@health.ucsd.edu) and she will help match you with a mentor. A letter from your mentor expressing interest in having you join his/her group is required to move your application forward.

APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS

If you would like to be considered for a training position please identify a faculty mentor and submit the following to aspilkin@health.ucsd.edu:

Surgical Oncologists as Scientists application(with faculty mentor identified)
Curriculum Vitae
A one-page personal statement describing your past research or medical experience, why you are interested in the program, and your future goals
Proof of Citizenship
3 formal letters of recommendation (should be PDF version, on letterhead, with signature)
A letter from your chosen mentor (this can substitute for one of the letters of recommendation)

Please send application and other materials via e-mail:

FURTHER INFORMATION

For further information, please contact the SOAS Program Manager, Amy Spilkin PhD, via email at aspilkin@health.ucsd.edu.

CONTACT INFORMATION

For all other inquiries, please e-mail: aspilkin@health.ucsd.edu