Career Enhancement Program

PROJECT SUMMARY The Career Enhancement Program (CEP) of the Mayo Clinic Breast Cancer SPORE is committed to identifying and mentoring junior faculty with the greatest potential of developing independent programs in translational breast cancer research. This is accomplished through a rigorous review process aimed at identifying the most talented and promising candidates followed by an intensive, rigorous and effective mentoring program. The mentoring program is based on the establishment and optimal functioning of a Multidisciplinary Mentoring Committee led by a senior investigator with the scientific expertise and commitment to developing the next generation of translational breast cancer researchers. The Multidisciplinary Mentoring Committee will be composed of the primary mentor and the complementary clinical and/or basic investigator necessary for a comprehensive mentoring program plus a statistician. It is viewed as crucial to the success of the awardee that the mentoring be ongoing and robust. This will be accomplished by close oversight by the Director of the CEP of the mentoring process and progress of the awardee. Dr. Goetz, the Director of the CEP and SPORE Director, will report to the SPORE Executive Committee. This intensive oversight process was established because of the firm conviction of the SPORE Director that the development of independent investigators and translational breast cancer research is central to the SPORE mission. The explicit expectation is that the awardees will utilize the resources made available to them for the development of independent research programs and acquisition of independent funding in breast cancer research. We are requesting $50,000 per year (direct costs) to support this program. This will be supplemented by $50,000 (direct costs) of Mayo Clinic Cancer Center support. One award of $100,000 per year will be made, which can be used for salary, technician support, and supplies. One awardee will be supported per year and a given awardee can be supported for up to two years providing satisfactory progress is demonstrated. To date the CEP has been successful in that of the 10 awardees, five have successfully competed to become either SPORE Project Co-Leaders in full Projects or Co-Directors of Cores. Additionally, half have been women (three) or minority (two). Further, of the 3 women, 2 have been promoted into leadership positions in the SPORE including Core B Co-Director and Core C Co-Director.