The Sylvester Cancer Center Support Grant

PROJECT SUMMARY: OVERALL As the only NCI-designated Cancer Center in South Florida (SoFL), the University of Miami’s Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center (Sylvester) has continued to advance its mission to reduce the human burden from cancer through research, education, prevention, and the delivery of quality patient care, while serving one of the most unique catchment areas (CA) in the US. Sylvester’s clinical, research, and community outreach and engagement activities are focused on its four-county CA (Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe, and Palm Beach counties), home to more than 6.2 million residents. Since earning NCI designation in 2019, Sylvester has grown considerably in size and scope, promoting team science and translational research, based on its 2019-2023 Strategic Plan. Center membership has grown from 114 to 148 due to external recruitment and the successful engagement of new members from across the University. This strategic expansion allowed Sylvester to launch its Translational and Clinical Oncology Research Program (RP) in 2022, joining the Cancer Control, Cancer Epigenetics, and Tumor Biology RPs. Four cross-cutting themes integrate Sylvester’s RPs and activities to address the cancer burden in its CA: cancer risk and outcomes, interdisciplinary research and technology, aging and cancer, and infection and cancer. Based on its 2019-2023 Strategic Plan, Sylvester has made major investments in two highly translational developing Shared Resources (Cancer Modeling and Biospecimen), clinical research infrastructure and investigator-initiated studies, and its education and training programs. To further transdisciplinary team science, the $250M Transformational Cancer Research Building will open in 2025, more than doubling Sylvester’s cancer research footprint (adding 100,000 sq ft of lab space). Sylvester currently has $27.9M of peer-reviewed cancer funding and $21.9M of non-peer-reviewed funding, totaling $49.8M of direct cost, extramural research funding, plus $4.1M in active training grants. The Center has increased its overall NCI funding to $14.8M as of 05/31/23 ($12M excluding training grants), and Sylvester members have more than tripled their high-impact publications (JIF ≥ 10) over the reporting period. In the next funding period, Sylvester is committed to 1) fostering collaborative and transdisciplinary science, 2) expanding its clinical research capabilities, 3) broadening its translational research, 4) enhancing its community outreach and engagement, 5) supporting effective education and training, 6) expanding global oncology, 7) enhancing its research infrastructure. Sylvester’s trajectory can be traced to its strategic investments in people, processes, and infrastructure. Renewal of the CCSG will allow Sylvester to continue to serve as a powerful, sustained influence on cancer research, patient outcomes, and public policy in SoFL and beyond.