Grant Program Encourages Collaboration

Traditionally, basic scientists have kept to their lab experiments, clinical scientists have kept to their patient studies, and neither has much traffic with the other. But the National Cancer Institute (NCI) is seeking to turn this tradition around. Last year it handed out more than $17 million to the first recipients of its Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE) grants. These grants are expressly designed to support collaborative ventures--or what NCI officials like to call "translational research efforts"--between laboratory and clinical scientists. "When we talk about translational research, what we're really talking about is how we move our basic [research], whether it's done in cell lines or mice or rats, into research that will have more of a direct impact on incidence and mortality in humans," explains Brian Kimes, associate director of NCI's Centers Training and Resources Program. The aim of the SPORE program is to accelerate the flow of findings from the lab to patients' bedsides by forging an alliance between the two types of researchers. "The unique part of the grant mechanism is that we're merging the thinking of basic and clinical scientists [and getting them] to design research projects together," Kimes says. In the first round of the SPORE grants, some 50 institutions submitted applications. Out of this pool, NCI selected eight to receive three-year awards ranging from $1.7 million to $2.3 million annually. Four of the grants went to breast cancer researchers, and two apiece to scientists working in the areas of lung and prostate cancer. "Almost all of the grant applications had a lot of high-quality science in them," Kimes says. But the determining factor really came down to which "were the ones that had the translational issues addressed most thoroughly." A recipient whose study characterizes the cooperative nature of the SPORE program is Helene Smith, director of the Geraldine Brush Cancer Research Institute at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. For the project, Smith teamed up with Craig Henderson, chief medical oncologist at what might normally be considered a rival institution, the University of California, San Francisco. But instead of competing, Smith and Henderson are collaborating on a four-pronged study of breast cancer that will draw on the expertise of researchers and clinicians from all over the Bay area. Their enterprise developed out of a series of interrelated studies initiated about seven years ago. "I was working in breast cancer research," Smith says, "and I realized that in order to move ahead in trying to apply basic research on model systems to breast cancer, I really needed to have clinical colleagues." Smith's conclusion prompted her to start an informal journal club for like-minded scientists. These discussions laid the groundwork for a program project funded by NCI on developing new molecular markers for predicting prognosis. When it came time to apply for the SPORE grants, Smith says, the success of the program project gave her a big leg up on the process because she already had a group of scientists in place who had actively demonstrated their commitment to the SPORE ideal. With a collaborative framework already established, Smith says, "it was relatively easy for us to expand into additional scientists and new directions. The SPOREs were tailor-made for us, in a way." In addition to the eight major awards, NCI issued 12 smaller, three-year grants for feasibility studies. Varying between $70,000 and $200,000 annually, these grants went to investigators whose proposals had some weaknesses but were still judged to be fundable. Kimes characterizes the awards not as consolation prizes, but rather as a form of encouragement. "It was the desire of the cancer institute to maintain momentum at these institutions so that they can continue with their translational objectives and be competitive in the next round. The grants give them some kind of impetus to keep going." Maintaining momentum is exactly what Pittsburgh Cancer Institute director Ronald Herberman intends to do. Although his failure to land one of the major awards will force him to scale back considerably, Herberman still plans to apply the money he did receive to at least the first phase of his project and begin recruiting patients into his study. "It's a foot in the door," is how Herberman sees the grant. "Our challenge is to do as much as we can combining what NCI is making available together with what we can muster from institutional resources to show feasibility and promise [in the next round]," he says. Herberman and other cancer researchers have a bit of time before they have to start preparing for round two. In order to get the program up and running quickly, NCI decided to issue the initial SPORE grants all at once, rather than stagger them over several years. As a result, the second cycle of breast, lung, and prostate SPOREs isn't slated to take place until 1995, when the current awards are due to expire. In the meantime, NCI intends to expand the scope of the program. The institute is currently accepting applications for studies in gastrointestinal cancer (deadline: April 23), and by 1995 it expects to add brain tumors to the SPORE lineup. For more information, contact National Cancer Institute, Division of Cancer Biology, Diagnosis and Centers, 6130 Executive Blvd., Executive Plaza North, Suite 512, Bethesda, Md. 20892; (301) 496-8528. Jeff Seiken is a freelance writer based in Pittsburgh.

Grant Program Encourages Collaboration

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