Co-Leaders:
Dr. David M. Nanus and
Dr. Paraskevi Giannakakou
The Weill Cornell Medicine SPORE in Prostate Cancer Developmental Research Program (DRP) acknowledges that to achieve the over-arching goal of impacting patient care, the SPORE must develop and maintain a highly productive translational research program. The DRP provides a mechanism for soliciting new research ideas and developing innovative high-risk/high-impact projects to stimulate prostate cancer research in the context of the SPORE. The DRP is co-led by Drs. David Nanus and Paraskevi Giannakakou who have extensive experience in mentoring at every academic level and significant involvement in critical cancer-related organizations that include the AACR, the PCF, and the NCI.
The objectives of the Developmental Research Program are:
Specific Aims:
AIM 1: Identify promising areas of prostate cancer related translational research that may directly impact clinical practice, and solicit high-quality applications by publicizing across the Tri-Institutional campus the availability of pilot funding for translational prostate cancer research;
AIM 2: Select research projects worthy of funding using internal and external reviewers and based on specific criteria. Final selection to be made by the SPORE Executive Committee chaired by the Co-Directors of the DRP;
AIM 3: Evaluate research project’s progress and accomplishments, including the possibility of transitioning to a full SPORE Project. A program designed in which promising pilot projects follow one of three courses: funding for another year, elevation to a full SPORE project, or encouragement to apply for research support outside of the SPORE mechanism (NIH, DOD, PCF, etc.);
AIM 4: Evaluate the DRP program and work with the DRP investigators and the SPORE to assist them in achieving their translational research goals, including yearly evaluation of all DRP project progress reports.
Evi Giannakakou, PhD
Development of Selective AR-V7 Small Molecule Inhibitors for PCa Therapy
Tan Ince, MD, PhD
A Versatile Patient Derived Prostate Cell Culture System
Xiaojing Ma, PhD
Developing a Novel Genetically Engineered Mouse Model of Prostate Cancer
Ravi Sharaf, MD
Development of a Pan-Ethnicity Polygenic Risk Score for Prostate Cancer
2020: Melissa Davis, PhD
2020: Maria Diaz-Meco, PhD & Jorge Moscat, PhD
2020: Edward Fung, PhD
2019: Ekta Khurana, PhD
2019: John Babich, PhD
2019: Marcus Goncalves, MD, PhD
2019: Xin-Yin Huang, PhD
2018: Charles Drake, MD. PhD
2018: Pengbo Zhou, PhD
2018: Samie Jaffrey, MD, PhD
2017: Ankur Singh, PhD
2017: Scott Tagawa, MD