Training in Tumor Virology

Principal Investigator: Robertson, Erle S. Program summary Approximately 20% of all human cancers are associated with viruses that function as biological cofactors driving these cancers. Some of these viruses may have a direct role in mediating these cancers as in the case of HIV-related cancers, which includes Kaposi’s sarcoma, pleural effusion lymphomas and lymphoproliferative disease. There is also an increase in the number of HPV- related patients for example in the immunocompromised patients who are on HAART therapy and in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas. The Tumor Virology Training Program at the University of Pennsylvania serves as the central forum for facilitating interactions among investigators involved in cancer-related viral research on the Penn campus which provides a more directed training for trainees. Program members have expertise in EBV, KSHV, HPV, HCV, HIV and other retroviruses. The biomedical community at Penn would like to continue the momentum of this training program in Tumor Virology for training predoctoral and postdoctoral students. There are 21 trainers in this program all of whom are committed to training pre and postdoctoral fellows for biomedical research careers. The faculty have well-funded NIH programs supported by different NIH funding mechanisms, and other Government and private foundation funding. The training program seeks to continue support of 2 predoctoral and 4 postdoctoral students, annually, for each of the 5 years of funding. The number of trainees in labs of the trainers of this program has been consistently increasing and we anticipate this trend continuing in the coming years. Thus, we would like to have available slots for the continued increase in the number of predoctoral and postdoctoral candidates available to the program. Viral related cancers are expected to increase as the technology for identifying these agents improves. We continue to provide an atmosphere of collaboration between clinical and basic scientists for our trainees who will have the opportunity to formulate ideas which will lead to basic and translational studies initiating and maintaining a cohesive group in tumor virology. The increased incidence of viral associated cancers, the commitment of the trainers and the institution with a well-organized training program will continue to provide an outstanding training environment for pre- and postdoctoral candidates in tumor virology.