PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT: The Canary Center at Stanford for Cancer Early Detection (“Canary Center”) is a world-class facility with the mission to foster interdisciplinary research leading to the development of blood (and other minimally invasive) tests and molecular imaging approaches to detect, localize, and stratify early cancers by integrating research in in vivo and in vitro diagnostics. Embedded within this mission is the need to formally present new and innovative approaches to scientific communities at all levels. This competitive renewal application is for continued support of the Canary Cancer Research Education Summer Training (Canary CREST) Program which fulfills an educational mission by introducing students to research education and new career paths. The overall goal of the program is to train a new generation of interdisciplinary scientists in early cancer detection by offering an integrative hands-on research experience at an early stage of their scientific education. The Canary CREST Program is a 10-week instructional summer program for 30 undergraduate students in the biological, engineering, mathematical, and/or physical sciences, and offers a structured research experience with a focus on early cancer detection. The program will be administered by the Canary Center and brings together a multidisciplinary group of 26 faculty whose research groups are dedicated to the field of early cancer detection using experimental and computational approaches in biochemistry, bioengineering, bioinformatics, molecular imaging, and cancer biology. Proposed Canary CREST Program activities include: (1) Mentor-directed research in one of six investigative areas, namely, development of devices for cancer diagnostics, cancer biomarker discovery and validation, cancer biology, molecular imaging of cancer, clinical imaging of cancer, and cancer bioinformatics; (2) Specially-designed classroom sessions to provide a conceptual framework of the field of early cancer detection; (3) Seminars in scientific research; (4) A comprehensive professional development component that includes career talks, student presentations, workshops on communication skills, career opportunities, and diversity. The key aspect of this program is to offer participants the opportunity to conduct mentor-directed research while developing an understanding of hypothesis-driven studies with critical interpretation of results and analysis of data. The long-term objective of this educational research program is to support the growing need of specialized researchers who will have a significant impact in the rapidly-expanding area of cancer early detection.

NARRATIVE: The Canary CREST Program fulfills the mission of the Canary Center at Stanford by educating and training a new generation of scientists as they explore new research experiences in the biological sciences. The importance of this training offered at the undergraduate level, with a focus on cancer early detection, provides a new understanding of career opportunities in biomedical research, including clinical translational science.