NEW YORK (September 11, 2015) - Montefiore Einstein Center for Cancer Care (MECCC) and the NCI-designated Albert Einstein Cancer Center (AECC) today announced receipt of a $3.93 million grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the prestigious Paul Calabresi Career Development Award for Clinical Oncology (PCACO). This competitive NIH Institutional Research Career Development grant provides MECCC and AECC an average of $786,000 annually over five years, the largest amount given to any participating institution in the country.
PCACO is an innovative resource for clinicians and scientists to build invaluable skills geared towards true bench-to-bedside cancer therapeutic research. This is accomplished through a coordinated program of mentoring from senior AECC faculty, an established innovative series of formal courses provided by the Block Institute for Clinical and Translational Research at Einstein and Montefiore and research projects with an interdisciplinary collaborative design. Recipients include M.D.s and Ph.D.s who are committed to developing careers in patient-oriented clinical and translational research.
"The Calabresi Award is a nationally renowned program, with only fifteen of its kind throughout the country," said Roman Perez-Soler, M.D., chairman and chief, Department of Medical Oncology, MECCC; chief and professor, Division of Oncology, Department of Medicine (Oncology) at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, deputy director of AECCC and Principal Investigator for the Calabresi Program. "We have received funding from the program since 2010 and during that time the grant has supported the work of 13 of our brightest clinician scientists who have devoted themselves to groundbreaking cancer therapy research and most of them currently pursuing successful academic careers. We are very excited for the next generation of Calabresi scholars to continue this legacy at Montefiore and Einstein."
The four new Calabresi scholars selected for this application period are Thomas Ow, M.D., Akiva Novetsky, M.D., M.S., Benjamin Gartrell, M.D., and Haejin In, M.D. Drs. Ow and Novetsky will both receive mentorship and conduct research, the former concentrating on radiation therapy for head and neck cancer and the latter on gynecologic oncology surgeries. Dr. Ow is enrolled in the Clinical Research Training Program at Einstein, which leads to a Master of Science degree in clinical research methods. Dr. Novetsky, a graduate of that program, is enrolled in PCOR-PRIME, which focuses on patient-centered outcomes. Dr. Gartrell will be investigating therapy for patients with adenocarcinoma of the prostrate under the mentorship and direction of Sanjay Goel, M.B.B.S., attending physician at MECCC and associate professor of medicine at Einstein. Dr. In will be exploring suboptimal patterns of health care utilization prior to cancer diagnosis to improve patient outcomes and reduce preventable expenditures.
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About Montefiore Health System
Montefiore is a premier academic health system and the University Hospital for Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Combining nationally-recognized clinical excellence with a population health perspective that focuses on the comprehensive needs of the communities it serves, Montefiore delivers coordinated, compassionate, science-driven care where, when and how patients need it most. Montefiore consists of eight hospitals and an extended care facility with a total of 2,747 beds, a School of Nursing, and state-of-the-art primary and specialty care provided through a network of more than 150 locations across the region, including the largest school health program in the nation and a home health program. The Children's Hospital at Montefiore is consistently named in U.S. News' "America's Best Children's Hospitals." Montefiore's partnership with Einstein advances clinical and translational research to accelerate the pace at which new discoveries become the treatments and therapies that benefit patients. The health system derives its inspiration for excellence from its patients and community, and continues to be on the frontlines of developing innovative approaches to care. For more information please visit http://www.montefiore.org. Follow us on Twitter; like us on Facebook; view us on YouTube.
About Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Albert Einstein College of Medicine is one of the nation’s premier centers for research, medical education and clinical investigation. During the 2013-2014 academic year, Einstein is home to 743 M.D. students, 275 Ph.D. students, 103 students in the combined M.D./Ph.D. program, and 313 postdoctoral research fellows. The College of Medicine has more than 2,000 full-time faculty members located on the main campus and at its clinical affiliates. In 2013, Einstein received more than $150 million in awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This includes the funding of major research centers at Einstein in aging, intellectual development disorders, diabetes, cancer, clinical and translational research, liver disease, and AIDS. Other areas where the College of Medicine is concentrating its efforts include developmental brain research, neuroscience, cardiac disease, and initiatives to reduce and eliminate ethnic and racial health disparities. Its partnership with Montefiore Medical Center, the University Hospital and academic medical center for Einstein, advances clinical and translational research to accelerate the pace at which new discoveries become the treatments and therapies that benefit patients. Through its extensive affiliation network involving Montefiore, Jacobi Medical Center –- Einstein’s founding hospital, and three other hospital systems in the Bronx, Brooklyn and on Long Island, Einstein runs one of the largest residency and fellowship training programs in the medical and dental professions in the United States. For more information, please visit www.einstein.yu.edu, read our blog, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, and view us on YouTube.