Transdisciplinary Research in Energetics and Cancer (TREC) Training Grant

Given the rising prevalence of obesity, poor diet and physical inactivity, known in combination as “energy balance” or “energetics”, as well as their associations with cancer incidence and mortality, innovative research, clinical care and training of scientists are needed to lower the prevalence of these risk factors and in turn, lower cancer incidence and mortality rates. In September 2020, the NCI released its Fiscal Year 2022 Budget proposal, which includes obesity and cancer as a featured scientific topic and training the next generation of cancer researchers as a key investment. With NCI R25 support from 2016-2021, we developed and offered an annual one-week, in-residence Transdisciplinary Research in Energetics and Cancer (TREC) Training Course, followed by a yearlong mentoring program, that focused on energy balance and cancer research across the cancer control continuum. The overall goals of this Program were to educate, train and mentor 100 early career investigators, called TREC Fellows, from various academic backgrounds (i.e., basic, clinical and population sciences) in transdisciplinary research in energetics and cancer. For the first four years of TREC, we admitted and trained 97 Fellows from 57 different institutions. We are in our 5th year of our TREC Program and expect to recruit 20 more Fellows, for a total of 117 Fellows completing the TREC Training Program. TREC Fellows have published 270 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals, with 62 published manuscripts including the TREC Fellow as first or senior author and including a TREC Faculty and/or Fellow as co-author. Since completing the Program, TREC Fellows have received 31 extramural grants, as principal investigator. Building upon the strengths of the previous five years but responsive to additional opportunities for training and further dissemination of the course, the goals of our competitive renewal are: 1) to offer a hybrid TREC Training Program with virtual TREC Faculty-led programs before the in-person workshop focused on increasing content knowledge; 2) followed by a 5-day in-person workshop focused on the Fellows’ research, networking and professional development; and 3) year-long mentorship between the Fellow and Faculty Mentor and Peer Mentor. Led by Dr. Melinda Irwin and drawing from the resources of the Yale School of Public Health, Yale Cancer Center, and ~20 expert TREC Faculty from across the country and 100+ TREC Fellow alumni from around the world, our TREC Program is innovative in that currently no training opportunity exists that focuses on energetics and cancer research. Our goal is to continue the TREC mission of training scientists to develop a cadre of well-trained researchers. The overall impact of this program will be defined by the degree to which TREC Fellows produce innovative research approaches and discoveries, thereby accelerating the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based approaches into everyday practice and patient care, in turn improving the health of the population at risk for cancer as well as cancer survivors.