2/2 Drug Development and Capacity Building: A UCR/CoH-CCC Partnership

The United States has led the world in drug discovery for over 50 years; however, the majority of scientific ideas that progress to clinical trials frequently come from Comprehensive Cancer Centers. Unfortunately, not all local universities and colleges have the resources to take their ideas forward to drug development and clinical trials. Through a partnership between University of California, Riverside (UCR) and City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center (CoHCCC), we aim to develop the resources, infrastructure, and training to help 1) UCR take their scientific ideas forward to develop therapeutic agents and ultimately initiate clinical trials and 2) mentor the next generation of drug development researchers and clinical trialists. Building on our successful P20 grant, in this U54 partnership, UCR and CoHCCC aim to develop the collaborations, resources, and training programs to improve drug development throughout the entire drug development pipeline. Our goal is for this program to become a focal point for UCR and CoHCCC to mentor and train cancer biologists, therapeutic and drug development scientists, and clinical trialists. Already, our P20 has fostered joint R01 grants, K01 grants, and pre-/post-doctoral fellowships. Both institutions are highly committed - CoHCCC contributed over $800K to our P20 grant and will contribute $250K/year to ensure the success of this U54 partnership. Aim 1 will strengthen UCR’s cancer research capacity and develop the resources to increase UCR/CoHCCC’s ability to jointly develop therapeutic agents. Aim 2 will increase the capacity of UCR and CoHCCC to jointly develop drugs and improve health. Aim 3 will provide the training, opportunity, and mentorship to foster the next generation of therapeutic scientists and clinical trialists.