Director, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center

Last week, the School of Medicine held a series of four live, virtual health care forums as a run-up to this week’s presidential debate at our Health Education Campus. Attendance was good for all four forums, the discussions were lively and those who attended asked the moderators and panelists some terrific questions.

Each forum addressed critical topics facing global health care today. Collectively, the forums provided us an opportunity to demonstrate the world-class powerhouse that is Cleveland’s medical community. We discussed how our collaborative hospital and public health efforts are managing COVID-19 locally; how tax dollars are at work helping to advance medical research toward breakthrough discoveries; how we are driving to secure public health for underserved populations in our communities; and how critical investments in biotech have helped us adapt to the current pandemic and prepare us for the next crisis.

If you missed the live forums, you can watch them on our YouTube channel. View the playlist of all four forums here.

Or link below to watch the forums individually:

After watching, we believe you will discover all the things that make our community such a robust leader in health care, one of the very best on the planet.

Associate Director for Basic Research,

Case Comprehensive Cancer Center

Like the leaves changing in fall, the start of a new semester signals the return of the Cancer Center Seminar Series (CCSS). The Program Leaders have engaged an exceptional and diverse slate of speakers from cancer centers spanning the country who will discuss the clinical, translational, population, and basic science of cancer. Although the pandemic mandates a virtual format, I am pleased to say that the seminar series remains a vibrant forum for the sharing of ideas and new discoveries. Attendance has flourished with this new model and I encourage you to “drop in” from your office or home every Friday at 12:00 pm EST. We also continue to host mini-retreats with every external speaker prior to the seminar and all members of the Center are invited to attend. You will hear updates from your colleagues as well as input from the speaker. If you wish to access the mini-retreats noted on the weekly fliers, please reach out to Kelsey Kirsch (kxk666@case.edu) for a Zoom invite.

Upcoming highlights include:

We hope you will join us for the seminars with your colleagues and look forward to some very insightful discussions!

From The Daily: Mouth lesions are among the main early indicators of oral cancer, but determining whether a sore is actually malignant typically involves painful, costly biopsies. Case Western Reserve researchers think they have a better idea—and the National Institutes of Health has given them $420,000 to advance it.

Highly collaborative in nature, the project teams researchers from the university’s schools of dental medicine, medicine and engineering. Their concept combines imaging and algorithmic technologies to assess whether or not a lesion’s cells are malignant.

"The idea is to quickly, easily, non-invasively and cost-effectively determine if a suspicious lesion is cancerous, or in other cases, to screen individuals on a regular basis to see if their lesion has progressed to cancer," said dental faculty member Aaron Weinberg, DMD, PhD, the project’s principal investigator.

Dr. Weinberg, a member of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center's Cancer Prevention Control & Population Research Program, is joined in the research by Umut Gurkan, PhD, the Warren E. Rupp Associate Professor at the Case School of Engineering; Anant Madabhushi, PhD, the F. Alex Nason Professor II of Biomedical Engineering and director of the Center for Computational Imaging and Personalized Diagnostics; and Rod Rezaee, MD associate professor in the Department of Otolaryngology at the School of Medicine and University Hospitals.

On the cover of issue 38 of Oncotarget, you'll see a figure summarizing the time and cost for drug development published in a recent article from researchers at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center and Atrium Health. Their study is the first to analyze the current pancreatic cancer clinical trial landscape to better understand the pipeline of new therapies for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), the most aggressive of the common cancers (Katayama, Oncotarget, 2020).

The team, led by Jordan Winter, MD, includes Erryk Katayama, Jonathan Hue, MD, David Bajor, MD, Lee Ocuin, MD, John Ammori, MD and Jeffrey Hardacre, MD. Researchers noted, "there have been no paradigm-shifting advances beyond combination chemotherapy in the pancreatic cancer field over the past two decades. This contrasts with many other common cancers, which have benefited from impactful targeted therapies," signaling, "an urgent need to develop novel and effective treatments." The study's findings lay the groundwork for discussions of resource allocation with the intent to accelerate innovation that improves patient outcomes.

Not unlike any other event planned for this year, VeloSano 7 quickly adapted to a virtual format where team members ultimately had newfound flexibility in their fundraising by choosing to participate in an independent activity.

Many members of Team Case Comprehensive Cancer Center remained committed to mounting their bikes for the cause, while others hiked, walked and even tended to their gardens as they raised funds for cancer research at Cleveland's top-tier hospitals and research institutions.

Online fundraising for VeloSano 7 concluded yesterday, October 1. So far, numbers reflect that the 44 members that make up this year's VeloSano Team Case Comprehensive Cancer Center have raised $24,652 for the 2020 movement, with offline donations and company matches still to be counted. As fundraising for VeloSano 7 comes to an official close, we want to thank all of our dedicated team members, those who have graciously given to the cause and all supporters who have cheered them on! We are so grateful to have your support, on and off our bikes.

The Case Comprehensive Cancer Center (Case CCC) extends congratulations to Mark Cameron, PhD, part of a team of researchers recently awarded $2.3 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study epidemiology, transmission, and immunology of COVID-19 in long-term care facilities.

Dr. Cameron, a member of the Case CCC's Hematopoietic and Immune Cancer Biology Program, along with David Canaday, MD of the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and Stefan Gravenstein, MD, MPH of Brown University hope to better understand how the disease spreads in nursing homes and how to identify its presence earlier in able to optimize interventions that could spare thousands of families of painful losses from the novel coronavirus.

The newly established CWRU Translational Fellow Program (TFP) seeks to train individuals in entrepreneurship and the translation of innovation to benefit humanity by connecting them to programs and workshops around campus while protecting time for entrepreneurial activities.

The pilot year began July 2020, with a second cohort starting November 1st. TFP is therefore seeking applications from individuals interested in a career in technology commercialization, especially (but not limited to) doctoral students or post-docs, to work through the process of developing a technology for commercialization beginning 11/1/2020.

Benefits:

Requirements:

Eligibility:

Questions may be directed to Cheryl Thompson, PhD, Associate Professor and Assistant Dean of Educational Initiatives, School of Medicine, at cheryl@case.edu. The program anticipates funding 2 to 4 fellows in this round.

The NCI has announced a Request for Applications for the Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Fellow Transition (F99/K00) Award for 2020, to support outstanding PhD candidates as they complete their dissertation research training (F99 phase; 1-2 years) and transition to a mentored, cancer-focused postdoctoral career development research positions (K00 phase – up to 4 years).

The F99/K00 award is open to 3rd or 4th year PhD students, including F31 Fellowship applicants and current awardees (note that 3 rd or 4 th year students would have matriculated in 2017 or 2018). International students may also apply. Students Matriculated in a dual-degree program (e.g.) MD/PhD, DO/PhD, DDS/PhD, or DVM/PhD) are not eligible for the F99/K00 program. Projects must be clearly focused on cancer.

To apply for this award, an applicant must be nominated by their institution. As each institution is allocated only one nomination, the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center (Case CCC) requires potential applicants to assemble a pre-application.

Click here to download nomination application instructions. Contact Damian Junk at damian.junk@case.edu for additional information.

With the generous support from VeloSano Bike to Cure, the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center (Case CCC) is again providing funding for Case CCC Trainee Associate Members to perform their “dream experiment.”

The experiment should catalyze highly innovative and impactful projects and help strengthen fellowship and career development grant applications. The intent of the award is to support a single or limited set of innovative experiments, not for general laboratory supplies/projects or maintenance of the trainee’s project.

Up to five (4) projects will be funded at $10,000/award. Research projects must be completed within one (1) year, with funds expended by June 30, 2021.

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation is accepting applications for their Physician-Scientist Training Award.

The four-year award provides a total of $460,000 of support, enabling individuals to pursue research intensively (at least 80% effort) for up to four years, while, if they wish to maintain their clinical skills, continuing to be clinically active (no more than 20% effort).

The program aims are a) to transform these individuals into the highest quality physician-scientists, capable of conducting research that has the potential to transform the diagnosis, treatment and/or prevention of cancer and b) to eliminate the financial disincentive to entering this career path.