Administrative Core

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT – ADMINISTRATIVE CORE The Administrative Core (AC) will provide organizational infrastructure for Virginia Commonwealth University - Massey Cancer Center Disparity-relevant Patient-Derived Xenograft Development and Trial Center (VCU/MCC- D-PDTC). Through our collective efforts the VCU/MCC-D-PDTC known hereafter as United for Health Equity - Living PDX Program (U4HELPP) will obtain and develop patient-derived xenografts (PDX) and organoids (PDO) primarily from underrepresented minority tumor samples from cancers of the pancreas, breast, genitourinary (GU), gynecologic (GYN), lung and primary and advanced gastrointestinal tract malignancies. The U4HELPP leverages the leadership and infrastructure of the VCU Massey Cancer Center and VCU Health which is a safety net health care system serving underrepresented minority cancer patients in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Our team will capitalize on our complementary expertise, research interests, and technologies, as well as our collective breadth of PDX/PDO expertise, to promote maximum project synergy and productivity. The AC will interact with an Advisory Board that includes strong leaders in the fields of clinical oncology, PDX development, disparities research, cancer prevention, and patient advocates. Through interactions with the NCI, the AC will provide direction and oversight of the project to ensure timely progress on the entirety of the studies. Overall, the AC will provide strong organizational oversight to develop disparity-relevant PDX (D-PDX) models that will be used within our institution supporting U4HELPP Research Projects and Cores, shared with internal and PDX Net collaborators, and provided to the NCI Patient-Derived Models Repository (PDMR).