• About UANews
• Sign up for News
• Resources for Media
• Calendar
• Contact Us

The Cancer Biology Program at the UA is the only program of its kind in the Southwest, excluding Southern California.

By Donna Breckenridge, Arizona Cancer Center
June 25, 2008

The National Cancer Institute has awarded the Arizona Cancer Center a $2.1 million grant to continue training cancer researchers for the future.

The grant, called a T32 Training Grant, is a five-year grant that will draw on the strengths of research faculty at The University of Arizona, who direct their efforts toward the understanding of cancer causation, prevention and treatment, to train future cancer researchers.

The training grant has been competitively renewed by the Arizona Cancer Center since 1978, when the center’s Dr. Eugene Gerner, director of the center’s Gastrointestinal Cancer Program, was the first principal investigator. In April 1992, Dr. G. Tim Bowden, the center’s chief science officer, became the principal investigator for the grant and has since submitted the last three competitive renewals.

“The renewal of this training grant, which we have had at the Arizona Cancer Center for 30 years, means that we can continue to train the next generation of cancer researchers, who will contribute to the prevention and cure of cancer,” said Bowden, who is also chair of the Cancer Biology Graduate Interdisciplinary Program, known as GIDP.

The GIDP, which grew as part of the training grant, was formally approved by the Arizona Board of Regents in 1988. The GIDP leads to a doctorate in cancer biology and offers graduate students the opportunity to interact with both basic scientists and clinical researchers. They can then establish themselves as independent investigators pursuing research into the origins and treatment of cancer. Since 1988, the program has trained and graduated over 50 cancer researchers.

“What is special about this grant is the opportunity it gives to graduate students. With the help of this grant, our graduates have gone on to be professors, heads of their own cancer biology programs and researchers in industry,” said the program's coordinator, Anne Cione.

The UA's Cancer Biology Program is the only program of its kind in the Southwest, excluding Southern California. There are no cancer biology programs within 900 miles of Tucson.

“For more than 20 years, the Arizona Cancer Center’s Cancer Biology T32 Training Grant has served as the cornerstone of our research activities and has provided us with a ‘raft’ of talented basic and translational research scientists,” said Dr. David S. Alberts, Arizona Cancer Center director. “We must salute Drs. Tim Bowden, Gene Gerner, Anne Cress, associate dean for research at the UA College of Medicine and Jesse Martinez, director of research education for the center, for keeping this training program alive and well for so many years.”