Lloyd Sherman Scholars Program

In 2014 the Center for Excellence in Youth Education (CEYE) launched the Lloyd Sherman Scholars Biotechnology program, a science enrichment program developed to address the underrepresentation of young men of color entering post-secondary and graduate degree programs in STEM. The program provides biomedical research science experience to high school-aged students who are economically disadvantaged and identify as underrepresented minority, and are attending the Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics (MCSM), a neighboring East Harlem high school. This 2-year Program involves preparatory courses in Research Methods and Introduction to Cancer Biology (Year 1) and mentored summer lab experience by TCI faculty in their research laboratories (Year 2).

Summer Virtual Cancer Research Education and Oncology Week

Summer Virtual Cancer Research Education was recently launched during the COVID-19 pandemic for Sherman Scholars (2020).

Oncology Week is hosted for students enrolled in the CEYE Medical and Scientific Exploration Program (MSEP) (2021). This program is organized and led by Dan Hasson, PhD, Assistant Professor, Oncological Sciences and Dermatology and Co-Director of the TCI Bioinformatics Core for Next Generation Sequencing (BiNGS). This week long online forum, provides participants with an exposure to a broad spectrum of ongoing multidisciplinary cancer research, from basic to community engaged research to advance equity and reduce disparities. During the week, students have the opportunity to learn about cool tools to image cancer cells, to better understand how they misbehave; unique tiny animal models, including the fly and the zebra fish, to advance therapeutic discovery;  gain insight into the genetics of cancer and how we can manipulate genes to our advantage; and the process and power to improve health through the use of clinical trials.

TCI Scientists and clinical investigators from diverse backgrounds and scientific disciplines, share unique perspectives on how they deconstruct and tackle the problem of cancer, never loosing site of the ultimate goal to improve the outlook of patients who suffer from disease.  Awesome introductions are authored and presented by Students from the program, for each of the speakers! A shout out as well to the CEYE Leadership under the direction of Kenya Townsend and to our able Teaching Assistants, led by Elisha Pinker.

In partnership with the CEYE, under the direction of Kenya Townsend, we hope to encourage this amazing group of high school students, to engage in future laboratory-based cancer research opportunities.

Summer Course in Bioinformatics

This summer (2021) the TCI Bioinformatics for Next Generation Sequencing core (BiNGS), hosted the final project for high school students enrolled in the Center for Excellence in Youth Education HSMSE bioinformatics summer program. During the two-week project students had to apply bioinformatics tools to analyze expression data of breast cancer patients, and make meaningful scientific conclusions. Small working groups were closely mentored by graduate students and postdocs. In their outstanding final presentations, students presented their findings and suggested future directions for breast cancer research.

TCI members interested in engaging an enthusiastic student in their lab for a year-long or summer placement are invited to contact Dr. Gabrilove or Dr. Hasson.

The TCI has developed unique programs for both medical and pre-doctoral graduate students with the intended goal of preparing the next generation of cancer-focused physician-investigators and translational basic scientists.

TCI Summer Scholars Program

The TCI Summer Scholars Program provides summer research stipends for medical students at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai to conduct original cancer research in clinical, translational, basic, epidemiological, or health services disciplines. The fellowships are for medical students completing their first year who have not yet had extensive research experience. The intent is that the students’ research, under the tutelage of a faculty member, will lead to a scholarly research year between the students’ third and fourth years, setting the foundation for a future career in cancer research. The student’s potential for a research career, including the pursuit of an extended research project, as well as the mentor’s enthusiasm to support the student in such an endeavor, are important components of the application for this fellowship award. We recently published about this program here.

Applications open in early winter and candidates are selected by early spring.

Clinical and Translational Cancer Researchers

The TCI has taken advantage of Mount Sinai’s Patient-Oriented Research Training and Leadership (PORTAL) program that offers talented medical students the chance to earn a dual MD and Masters of Science in Clinical Research within 5 years.

Medical Scientist Training Program 

The TCI has played a pivotal mentorship role in our NIH-funded (40 yrs.) MD/PhD Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP).

Cancer Interest Group

The TCI Education Career and Development Committee (ECDC) has fostered a relationship with medical student interest groups.  Janice Gabrilove is the mentor for the Oncology Interest Group. As mentors, these TCI members facilitate forums that expose students to cancer research opportunities and give them insight into cancer career avenues.  Through the ECDC, these interest groups are provided with update-to-date lists of potential TCI cancer research mentors, from which to consider cancer research opportunities.

Cancer Biology Training Program

From 2012-2018, the Cancer Biology T32 pre-doctoral training program (T32CA078207), is currently in its 18^th year of continuous funding.  In support of the training program, the TCI funds one additional training slot per year. In an effort to enhance exposure to trainees to aspects of cancer biology relevant to human disease, the TCI has initiated a Translational Oncology Seminar Series and an annual off-site cancer biology retreat.

Clinical Encounters Program for Cancer Biology

The TCI Clinical Encounter program is specifically designed for PhD students in the cancer biology training program to gain insight and motivation from interactions with patients; learn to communicate about their research in lay-friendly language, and gain a better understanding of clinical disease manifestations and treatment plans.  Students are matched with a clinician mentor, based on disease interest, observe a clinician-guided patient encounter, and participate in a faculty-facilitated post-encounter debriefing.  Educational objectives include an emphasis on the impact of recent scientific discovery on diagnosis, disease classification, and treatment; and identification of areas of unmet need related to biomarkers, diagnostics, therapeutics, and cancer incidence and mortality affecting our community.

TCI Clinical Encounter Program

Translational Immunology T32 training Program

This recently awarded training program, Co-Led by TCI Member Sergio Lira, MD/PhD (Cancer Immunology) and Peter Heeger, MD, is designed for both pre-doctoral and postdoctoral trainees in the field of translational Immunology including cancer immunotherapeutics. Two of the first 4 students funded through this mechanism include:

Our postdoctoral education and training efforts have been tailored to advance the careers of talented basic, population and behavioral science cancer researchers as well as clinical fellows in training. Both NCI and TCI funded training efforts are in place. The Cancer Biology T32 as previously described (provide link), has nurtured the career advancement of 19 postdoctoral research fellows during the period from 2012-2018, resulting in 227 publications in high impact journals. The newly awarded T32 in Cancer Prevention & Control (CPC)  offers opportunities for behavioral, population-based and clinical scientists to develop in-depth knowledge and skills in health equity and disparities of care, with a focus on priority populations (elderly, low income, racial/ethnic minorities, multiple co-morbidities) including World Trade Center First Responders.  A recently awarded Translational Immunology Training Program T32 offers novel research opportunities including a focus on immunotherapeutics. In addition to NCI-funded training awards, the TCI funds a Basic and Clinical Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Liver Cancer that promotes focused research in liver cancer, a disease that disproportionately affects the East Harlem community within the TCI catchment.

Advancing MD Physician-Scientist Cancer Research Careers 

TCI is also home to 10 competitive ACGME/SSO-accredited clinical training programs including:

• Breast Surgery
• Gynecologic Oncology
• Head & Neck Oncology/Microvascular Reconstructive Surgery
• Hematology & Medical Oncology
• Hematopathology
• Hospice and Palliative Medicine
• Integrated Geriatric and Palliative Care
• Micrographic Surgery and Dermatologic Oncology
• Neuro-Oncology Fellowships
• Radiation Oncology Residency
• Surgical Oncology

Additional specialized Non-ACGME fellowships include:

• Bone Marrow Transplantation
• Breast Imaging
• Breast Pathology
• Liver Cancer

STTEP-UP for Research:  Sinai Team-based Translational Education Program: The URM Propeller

This program is designed to enable highly motivated under-represented minority (URM) trainees in residency, subspecialty fellowship training, or postdoctoral laboratory positions within our healthcare system to become innovative leaders and entrepreneurs in clinical and translational research (provide link).

 The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences offers our trainees a range of additional opportunities

The TCI offers numerous research seminars, Disease-specific Focus Groups, and Tumor Boards. Examples include:

• TCI Seminar Series
• TCI Diversity Series
• TCI Postdoctoral Seminars
• TCI Frontiers in Oncology Seminar Series
• Translational Oncology Seminar Series
• Hematology and Medical Oncology Grand Rounds
• Clinical Trials Science Meeting
• Molecular Tumor Board

Please visit the Mount Sinai Health System Calendar for a list of most TCI events.

In addition to these educational forums, and access to graduate school courses and degree-granting programs the TCI offers:

• NCI R25 Training Program for Cancer Care Providers
• ACS T39 funded Master’s level Training Grant in Clinical Oncology Social Work
• Annual Liver Cancer Symposium
• Annual International Cancer Immunotherapy course

To create a venue for cross-disciplinary and experiential team science education and entrepreneurship, the TCI has supported the Mount Sinai Health Hackathon to foster the development of new healthcare innovations. 

The ECDC committee provides a forum to harness the wealth of scientific and mentoring capabilities of the TCI faculty and positively impact and advance the research potential of promising students, as well as emerging cancer investigators.  The committee is charged with identifying important gaps in knowledge of the broader TCI research community in regard to specific malignant disease pathogenesis and disparities related to our community and to develop novel curricular activities to address these needs.

Three ECDC subcommittees provide strategic guidance and recommendations concerning specific constituents within the community of TCI trainees, and inform the mission, policies, program development, and targeted investments of the ECDC.

Members:

Nina Bickell, MD, MPH

James Ferrara, MD

Janice Gabrilove, MD

Doris Germain, PhD

Lisa Gaynes

Jenny Lin, MD, MPH

Umut Ozbeck, PhD

Richard Bakst, MD

Eileen Scigliano, MD

Alison Snow, PhD, MSW

Augusto Villanueva, PhD

Karen Wilson, MD, MPH

The ECDC Subcommittee on Diversity provides recommendations to best advocate for and foster the recruitment and retention of talented, underrepresented minority cancer researchers and promote evidence-based knowledge about cancer disparities among TCI investigators. The committee is charged with:

• Championing a diverse cancer research biomedical workforce, reflecting the ethnic and racial demographics of our community
• Partnering with and leveraging institutional efforts and expertise specifically designed to diversify the cancer research biomedical workforce
• Collaborating with Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) and the Cancer Prevention and Control (CPC) Institutional National Research Service Award (T32) to educate cancer researchers about the impact of race and ethnicity as relevant variables in malignant disease and disparities of care
• Advancing recruitment and retention of talented underrepresented minority (URM) investigators through exposure to accomplished role models in cancer research
• Operating the TCI Diversity Seminar Series focused on health disparities and research

Members:

Brian Brown, PhD

Jerry Chipuk, PhD

Janice Gabrilove, MD

Cathie Pfleger, PhD

Cardinale Smith, MD, PhD

The ECDC subcommittee on Cancer Biology PhD candidates in Biomedical Science facilitates the delineation of needed educational enhancement activities to further advance career development of Cancer Biology PhD candidates. The ECDC Research Advisory Subcommittee charged with advancing career development of physician scientist cancer researchers.
Members:

Stuart Aaronson, MD
Doris Germain, PhD
James Manfredi, PhD
Matthew O’Connell, PhD