Programs

Career Enhancement Program

The Career Enhancement Program (CEP) provides seed funding to support and foster careers of early-stage scientists interested in translational liver cancer research and to facilitate more established investigators refocusing their research towards this area. CEP funds career-enhancing pilot projects with the potential to generate groundbreaking discoveries that significantly improve liver cancer prevention, early detection, or treatment efficacy. 

Two to four projects are awarded per year (a total of 15-20 projects over 5 years). Criteria for selection include significance, innovation, approach, investigator qualifications, mentoring team and translational potential (including synergy with existing SPORE projects). Priority is given to projects with potential to obtain external funding and/or become main Liver Cancer SPORE projects. CEP awardees have access to SPORE core resources and benefit from the expertise and leadership of SPORE investigators. 

• CEP Aims

  1. Serve as a mechanism to provide seed funding for promising career-enhancing projects.

  2. Identify, recruit, and mentor a pool of promising early-career scientists and physician-scientists.

  3. Facilitate the development and progress of CEP investigators and the transition of their successful projects into competitive applications for peer-reviewed funding.

  4. Support SPORE CEP awardees to ensure scientific advances are translated into improved outcomes for liver cancer patients.

CEP serves as a pipeline to increase the diversity and number of UTSW investigators who translate innovative basic science breakthroughs and technologies to the care of liver cancer patients. Thus, CEP activities will enrich the Liver Cancer SPORE and make a sustainable translational impact toward the goal of reducing liver cancer mortality in Texas and the U.S for many years to come.

Leadership

Suzanne Conzen, M.D.

Professor & Division Chief, Internal Medicine – Hematology/Oncology

 

Elisabeth Martinez, Ph.D.

Associate Director, Cancer Center Culture

Associate Professor, Pharmacology

Hao Zhu, M.D.

Co-Leader, SCCC Development and Cancer Research Program 

Professor, Children's Medical Center Research Institute at UTSW

Developmental Research Program

The Developmental Research Program (DRP) provides seed funding for promising translational projects that can significantly impact liver cancer outcomes. The DRP will fund pilot and/or high-risk/high-impact projects using innovative approaches, with the potential to generate groundbreaking discoveries and including a focus on translation. 

• DRP Aims

  1. Serve as a mechanism to provide seed funding for promising projects.

  2. Identify and recruit a pool of promising scientists and physican-scientists.

  3. Facilitate the development and progress of DRP projects and the transition of successful projects into competitive applications for peer-reviewed funding.

  4. Support SPORE DRP awardees to ensure that scientific advances are translated into improved outcomes for liver cancer patients.

The DRP serves as a pipeline to translate rich and diverse in-house basic science discoveries and innovative technologies to the care of liver cancer patients, and supports the Liver Cancer SPORE to make sustainable translational impact toward the goal of reducing liver cancer mortality in Texas and the U.S.

Leadership

Yujin Hoshida, M.D., Ph.D.

Director, Liver Tumor Translational Research

Professor, Internal Medicine 

 

Daolin Tang, M.D., Ph.D.

Professor, Surgery