Developmental Research Program

Developmental Research Program SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The purpose of the Developmental Research Program (DRP) is to fund promising projects by investigators whose current work may not focus exclusively on ovarian cancer, but who propose highly innovative translational studies of ovarian cancer that could become full SPORE projects or compete successfully for

funding outside of the SPORE. The DRP provides a unique opportunity for making available significant financial support, and for demonstrating active institutional support, through a program that is rapidly responsiveto new ideas or initiatives. Moreover, this program is rooted in a spirit of collaboration promoted by the SPORE

investigators who have an extensive track record of bringing investigators from other disciplines into ovarian cancer research. The strength of the DRP rests in its ability to make available financial support needed to access all the critical expertise and resources within the entire SPORE. This will allow us to develop

collaborative, multi-investigator, multi-institutional research projects with the support of innovative, investigator- initiated projects that have the potential to flourish into reliable and productive translational research projects that make a path from basic and/or population research projects into research focused on human clinical

specimens/patient populations. Over the course of the past decade, the MD Anderson OvarianSPORE has supported DRP projects from 22 investigators. Collectively, these investigators have published 470 peer- reviewed manuscripts related to ovarian cancer. Thirteen of the recipients have received peer-reviewedfunding

in ovarian cancer as either PI, Co-PI or Co-Investigator. The investigators have received funding from three R01s, three R21s, three CPRIT awards, two Department of Defense Awards and four OCRA awards. One awardee in the most recently funded cycle just received support from both the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance and

Foundation for Women’s Cancer. Additionally, three former awardees have participated in full SPORE projects after completing a DRP project.