Career Enhancement Program
Program Director: Robert Bast, Jr., M.D.
The central goal of the Career Enhancement Program (CEP) is to use the resources at MD Anderson Cancer Center to train exceptional young investigators who will reduce the morbidity and mortality from ovarian cancer by making advances in the early detection, prevention, and treatment of this disease. To achieve this goal, the MD Anderson Ovarian SPORE will fund two CEP awards, each of $50,000 annually for up to two years. The intent of each CEP award is to prepare the selected scientists to become international leaders in academic research relevant to ovarian cancer. We will achieve this through focused recruitment of a diverse cadre of promising young investigators. We will work in partnership with awardees to generate individualized development plan and provide them with outstanding clinical and laboratory mentors and a mentoring committee, formal course work, coaching in grant and paper writing, leadership training, attendance at national meetings, networking with ovarian cancer scholars and completing and publishing a translational ovarian cancer research program.
The objective of the CEP is to build a strong, diverse ovarian cancer CEP team that will mentor and foster the career development of the CEP awardees in the field of ovarian cancer research. The SPORE leadership will support these awardees’ projects both with scientific mentorship as well as with research funding. We will pursue the following three Aims:
Aim 1: To recruit and train a diverse group of outstanding investigators to develop innovative translational approaches for improving ovarian cancer diagnosis, prevention, and treatment.
Aim 2: To educate awardees in the current principles of ovarian cancer biology and clinical care with an emphasis on translational science.
Aim 3: To integrate the CEP and other programs within and outside the Ovarian Cancer SPORE.
The positive impact of the CEP is that support of career enhancement projects will enable exploration of novel and meritorious approaches for early detection and treatment of ovarian cancer. Furthermore, CEP projects will be carried out in a supportive environment of basic, translational, and clinical research created by the experienced SPORE investigators.
Please direct questions to Ersulan Hampton at 713-563-0639 or via email at ehampton@mdanderson.org.
Career Development Awards
2023–2024
- Margie Sutton, Ph.D.
Instructor, Cancer Systems Imaging
Exploring statin-mediated changes of B7-H3 dimerization in Ovarian Cancer - Sammy Ferri-Borgogno, Ph.D.
Instructor, Gynecologic Oncology & Reproductive Medicine
Apoe-Lrp5 crosstalk at the tumor-stroma interface modulates immune checkpoint resistance in ovarian cancer
2020–2021
- Johannes Fahrmann, Ph.D.
Instructor, Clinical Cancer Prevention
Validation of a MYC-driven polyamine signature for detection of ovarian cancer - Linghua Wang, M.D, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Genomic Medicine
Single-Cell Dissection of Tumor and Immune Cell Heterogeneity and interactions in High-grade Serous Ovarian Cancer
2019–2020
- Janice Santiago- O’Farrill, Ph.D.
Post-doctoral Fellow, Experimental Therapeutics
Crizotinib improves the therapeutic efficacy of olaparib in ovarian cancer
2017–2020
- Cristian Rodriguez-Aguayo, Ph.D.
Instructor, Experimental Therapeutics
Novel approaches for CRISPR CAS9/gRNA delivery
2017–2018
- Sharmistha Sarkar, Ph.D.
Instructor, Genomic Medicine
PRKCI as therapeutic target for immunotherapy in ovarian cancer
2013–2015
- Guang Peng, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Clinical Cancer Prevention - Research
Targeting ARID1A-deficiency in ovarian cancer
- Xiaojun Liu, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Experimental Therapeutics
Targeting BRCA1/2-deficient ovarian cancer with sapacitabine
2011–2013
- Alpa Nick, M.D.
Assistant Professor, Gynecologic Oncology & Reproductive Medicine
A novel breath-based bioassay for the detection of ovarian cancer
- Roel Verhaak, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Bioinformatics & Computational Biology
Validating intergenic breakpoints in ovarian cancer
2009–2011
- Shannon Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Baylor College of Medicine
Ovarian cancer, endometriosis, and epigenetics
- Junghae Suh, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Bioengineering, Rice University
Directed evolution of viral vectors for ovarian cancer treatment
2007–2009
- Michel Gilliet, M.D.
Associate Professor, Immunology
Role of plasmacytoid dendritic cells in the generation and maintenance of regulatory T cells in ovarian cancer
- Charles N. Landen, Jr., M.D.
Assistant Professor, Gynecologic Oncology
Characterization and therapeutic targeting of ovarian cancer stem cells
2005–2007
- Kwong Wong, Ph.D.
Identification of Prognostic Markers and Therapeutic Targets for Low-grade Serous Ovarian Carcinoma by Integration of High-Density SNP Array and Gene Expression Profiles
- Vikas Kundra, M.D., Ph.D.
Imaging Ovarian Cancer Specific Gene Expression In Vivo
2002–2004
- Anil Sood, M.D.
Functional Role of MMPs in Ovarian Tumor Cell Plasticity Properties
- Honami Naora, Ph.D.
Targeting Mediators of Ovarian Cancer Metastasis by Applying a Cross-species Approach
2001–2002
- Rosemarie Schmandt, M.D.
The Role of the SRC-related Kinase BRK, in the Pathogenesis of Epithelial Ovarian Cancer
- Jinsong Liu, M.D., Ph.D.
In vitro Model for Hereditary Human Ovarian Cancer
- Zhen Fan, M.D.
Exploration of Differential Signal Transduction Pathways Mediated by Akt1, Akt2 and Akt3 Oncogenes in Ovarian Cancer Models
2000–2001
- Renata Pasqualini, Ph.D.
Modulation of the Extracellular Matrix as a Strategy Against Ovarian Cancer
- Karen Basen-Engquist, Ph.D.
Pilot Test of a Physical Activity Intervention To Reduce Fatigue in Ovarian Cancer Survivors
- Zhen Fan, M.D.
Exploration of Differential Signal Transduction Pathways Mediated by Akt1, Akt2 and Akt3 Oncogenes in Ovarian Cancer Models
- Jinsong Liu, M.D., Ph.D.
In vitro Model for Hereditary Ovarian Cancer
1999–2000
- Yutaka Hasegawa, Ph.D.
LPA Receptors: A new target for Ovarian Cancer Therapy?
- Chenyi Zhou, Ph.D.
Sensitivity to Carboplatin and Paclitaxel Mediated by BRCA1 protein in Human Ovarian Cancer Cell Lines
- Binhua Zhou, Ph.D.
HER-2/neu and p21Cip1/WAF1 in Ovarian Cancer