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Faculty Announced for ASBMT
Transplant Clinical Research Training Course

 

 

A new ASBMT Transplant Clinical Research Training Course will be held for fellows-in-training and junior faculty on July 18-23 in Keystone, Colo.

 

Tuition, travel, housing and meal expenses will be paid by the society for six fellows and four junior faculty.  Participants will be competitively selected.

 

Major funding for the clinical research training course will be provided by Amgen, Merck, PDL BioPharma and Abbott Molecular.

 

The course directors are Daniel Weisdorf, MD, of the University of Minnesota, and Nelson Chao, MD, of Duke University.  They are secretary and a past president, respectively, of ASBMT.

 

Faculty members will be:

·    Chris Bredeson, MD, MSc, Medical College of Wisconsin – clinical trial development, monitoring and data management

·    Dr. Chao – mechanisms of GvHD, graft manipulation, animal models and grant writing/grantsmanship

·   Corey Cutler, MD, MPH, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute – GvHD, new drug studies and translational studies

·     Armand Keating, MD, Princess Margaret Hospital Cancer Center, Toronto – stem cell biology, gene therapy and translational studies

·    Ginna Laport, MD, Stanford University – cancer trials, new agents and multicenter trials

·    Stephanie Lee, MD, MPH, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center – quality of life/late effects

·    Brent Logan, PhD, Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research – statistics

·     Jeffrey Miller, MD, University of Minnesota –  cellular and molecular mechanisms of immunologic anti-cancer therapy

·    Dr. Weisdorf – GvHD clinical and translational trials and complications of transplant

 

The faculty members are expected to share their career stories and anecdotes.  Free time for rest, recreation and creative thinking will be built into the schedule.

 

Course Objectives

 

The concept of a clinical research training course emanated from a Board of Directors strategic planning retreat.  “The board members felt that existing fellowship programs don’t adequately train clinical fellows in the principles of clinical research in blood and marrow transplantation,” said Armand Keating, MD, ASBMT past-president and chair of the committee to develop the training course.  “Training programs for fellows rarely adequately cover the principles of taking basic research findings from the laboratory to the clinic.

 

“Most programs also don’t prepare the best young physicians for academic careers in blood and marrow transplantation.  We expect the ASBMT training course to address those deficiencies and help close the gap,” Dr. Keating said.

 

Curriculum

 

The research training course will include formal presentations and extensive follow-up dialogue and small-group discussion covering:

 

·         research subject eligibility and recruitment

·         clinical trial statistics

·         data management and quality control

·         study endpoints

·         late effects and quality of life

·         clinical pharmacology, including polypharmacy and drug interactions

·         regulatory compliance

·         relationships with pharmaceutical companies and third-party payers

·         opportunities for grants and clinical research training

·         grant writing

·         working with a mentor

·         translational trials

·         working with laboratory investigators

·         research ethics

·         subject safety

 

Each participant will be expected to have a research project that can be developed in discussions with faculty and with peers.

 

Eligibility and Application

 

The deadline for applications is March 12, 2007.  

 

Applicants must be ASBMT members or sponsored by an ASBMT member.  For purposes of this program, “junior faculty” is defined as three years or less teaching in the BMT field.   

 

A 2-5 page letter of application is required, providing the applicant’s background, training, interest in blood and marrow transplantation and clinical research, career goals and an outline of a research project to be further developed during the course. 

 

Details of the proposed research project should be a major portion of the application letter.  The applicant must have a local mentor with whom to work in implementation of the research project after the course. 

 

Applicant selection will be based on curriculum vitae, proposed project, local mentor and, all other things being equal, regional representation. 

 

Send letter of application to:

 

     ASBMT Transplant Clinical Research Training Course
     85 West Algonquin Road, Suite 550

     Arlington Heights, IL  60005


Applicant selections will be announced on or about March 30, 2007.  The training course at the Keystone Conference Center will begin on Wednesday evening, July 18, and conclude at noon on Monday, July 23.