DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): 2016 AUA UROLOGIC ONCOLOGY RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM ""FORGING NEW PATHS IN RESEARCH TO ADVANCE UROLOGIC ONCOLOGY"" This application requests support to convene a full-day symposium during the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA) to be held on May 6-10, 2016 from 8am to 5pm in San Diego, California during the AUA Annual Meeting. This symposium will continue our highly successful series, the ""Urologic Oncology Research Symposium,"" which has been held annually since 2013. The topic for 2016 is ""Forging New Paths in Research to Advance Urologic Oncology,"" and will be devoted to featuring new translational research being conducted at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPOREs) for prostate, bladder, and kidney cancer. The support would primarily provide travel awards for approximately 20 early-career investigators to attend the symposium. This symposium will attract leaders in the field, leading urology researchers, clinical urologists, and early career investigators to the AUA Annual Meeting, with the goal of advancing progress in urological oncology research. These interactions are expected to promote a better understanding of urological oncology at a molecular and cellular level, identify and develop new and more effective treatments, and develop potential translational pathways. The information discussed and shared during this meeting is expected to catalyze the translation of laboratory research to practical application. It is also intended to serve as a foru where young investigators have the opportunity to interact with leaders in a host of disciplines related to prostate, bladder and kidney cancer. By learning more about these topics and the future of team science and personalized medicine from the most respected scientists in the world, all attendees will benefit from the state- of-the-art information provided and will become better equipped to formulate novel translational approaches that will lead to novel, impactful and effective treatments. We have planned on an attendance of 600-800. Fourteen speakers have been or will be invited to provide presentations and answer questions in sessions including Genetics/Epigenetics, Immunotherapy, and Targeted Therapies for Personalized Medicine (three of the speaker slots have been reserved for early-career faculty to be selected by SPOREs from their career development programs). In addition, we have invited one Special Topic speaker to present on leveraging SPORE research throughout the urology and urologic research communities. We will recruit a wide variety of clinicians, physician-scientists, and researchers to this symposium, with special emphasis on early-career investigators and groups typically underrepresented in urologic oncology research. The Principal Investigator for this symposium project is Carolyn Best, PhD, the Director of Research for the American Urological Association. The Program Planning Committee Chair is Robert Reiter, MD, the PI of UCLA's Prostate Cancer SPORE program. Planning Committee members include: William Catalona, MD, PI of the Northwestern University Prostate Cancer SPORE; Peter Clark, MD, Professor of Urologic Surgery and Program Director, Department of Urologic Surgery, at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. Dr. Clark is also the Chair of the AUA Research Education, Conferences, and Communications Committee; Philip Kantoff, MD, leader of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center Prostate Cancer Program, and director of the prostate cancer SPORE; Daniel Lin, MD, Professor and Chief of Urologic Oncology and the Bridges Endowed Professor in Prostate Cancer Research at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Dr. Lin is a Co-Project Leader in the Pacific Northwest Prostate Cancer SPORE; Aria Olumi, MD, the AUA Chair of Research, an attending physician at Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Urology, and Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School; and Howard Scher, MD, a medical oncologist, is Chief of the Genitorurinary Oncology Service at the Sidney Kimmel Center for Urologic and Prostate Cancers and D. Wayne Calloway Chair in Urologic Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. A robust plan is in place for publicizing the conference and the support by NCI, should it be granted. " |