Developmental Funds

PROJECT SUMMARY – Developmental Funds During the current project period, the Abramson Cancer Center (ACC) used Developmental Funds to support innovative new research through a robust Pilot Project Program, to support our Staff Investigators, to support our Developing Shared Resources, and to support new and talented faculty recruits. These funds stimulated research in areas of strategic importance to the ACC. This support is essential to the ACC's ability to execute its responsibilities in stimulating transdisciplinary and translational research and to encourage research in areas of priority to both the ACC and the NCI. Pilot awards are issued based on a long-standing, well- established peer-review process involving senior and junior ACC members from multiple Programs, departments, and disciplines. This process is similar to the peer-review process used by the NCI. During the current project period plus the last two years of the previous project period, 34 pilot projects were awarded. Fifteen new externally funded grants were awarded to pilot recipients (totaling $14.3M in direct costs) and another three external grants are pending review. Additionally, this work was disseminated to peers through 31 manuscripts in high-impact journals including Nature, Nature Medicine, JAMA, Cancer Discovery, and J Clin Onc. Other noteworthy outcomes from our pilots include performance of nine interventional clinical trials and launching of a Translational Center of Excellence in Cardio-Oncology and the Population Science Center of Excellence in lung cancer screening. Developmental Funds during the current cycle supported three Staff Investigators and two Developing Shared Resources (one in Circulating Tumor Material and one in Cancer Metabolism). Both Developing Shared Resources supported multiple high-impact publications (including papers in Nature, Cell, JCI, and PNAS), and services are now incorporated into full Shared Resources in this renewal application. Finally, Developmental Funds were used to aid in the recruitment of three talented faculty members (Dr. Kathrin Bernt, Pediatric Oncology; Dr. Kara Maxwell, Cancer Control; and Dr. Robert Maki, who arrived at Penn in 2020). In the coming cycle, we are requesting Developmental Funds to continue our Pilot Project Program, to provide support for two Staff Investigators, and to continue our recruitment of faculty-level scientists in areas of strategic need.