DoD Lung Cancer, Translational Research Partnership Award

The FY19 LCRP Translational Research Partnership Award mechanism supports partnerships between clinicians and research scientists that will accelerate the movement of promising ideas in lung cancer into clinical applications. This award supports the development of translational research collaborations between two independent, faculty-level (or equivalent) investigators to address a central problem or question in lung cancer in a manner that would be less readily achievable through separate efforts. One partner in the collaboration must be a research scientist and the other must be a clinician. In addition, one partner in the collaboration is strongly encouraged to be an active duty Service member or Federal employee from a Department of Defense (DoD) military treatment facility or laboratory, or a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical center or research laboratory. It should be clear that both have had equal intellectual input into the design of the research project. Multi-institutional partnerships are encouraged but not required. At least one member of the partnership must have experience either in lung cancer research or lung cancer patient care. A proposed project in which the clinical partner merely supplies tissue samples or access to patients will not meet the intent of this award mechanism.

Observations that drive a research idea may be derived from a laboratory discovery, population- based studies, or a clinician’s firsthand knowledge of patients and anecdotal data. The ultimate goal of translational research is to move a concept or observation forward into clinical application. However, members of the partnership should not view translational research as a one-way continuum from bench to bedside. The research plan must involve a reciprocal flow of ideas and information between basic and clinical science.

This mechanism is intended to fund a broad range of translational studies, including, but not limited to, the following:

• Studies advancing/translating in-vitro and/or animal studies to applications with human samples/cohorts.
• Late-stage preclinical work leading to/preparing for a clinical trial, e.g., Investigational New Drug (IND) application submission.
Pilot, proof-of-principle clinical trials (must include documentation of an existing IND or Investigational Device Exemption (IDE), if applicable).
Correlative studies that are associated with an open/ongoing or completed clinical trial and projects that develop endpoints for clinical trials.