When Lou Weiner asked me to be the faculty coordinator of our next competitive CCSG application, I knew what I was getting into. In 2002, I worked with Drs. Cullen, Dickson and Pestell in this role. This time around, I will be working in a team with Lou, Steve Byers and Ellen McLaughlin.
With our application date set for May 2013, we have jumped right into planning. Our first steps have been to meet individually with the leaders of each CCSG component: programs; cross-cutting initiatives; shared resources; clinical activities; and administration. We are reviewing the CCSG requirements and identifying areas that need attention. While cancer-focused, high-impact research and investigator-initiated clinical trials are high priorities, we are also tasked to demonstrate that Georgetown Lombardi is more than a sum of its individual components.
It reminds me of pointillist paintings like A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat where individual dots of paint form an amazing picture. So how do we show our amazing picture to the reviewers? Joint publications and multi-investigator grants provide examples of how our investigators work together to tackle complex problems in cancer.
The support of the Cancer Center and the University in the form of shared resources and pilot funding to our individual research programs demonstrates how this environment helps everyone succeed. Georgetown Lombardi has recently asked the faculty to update their publications so we can document our research activities, show interactions among investigators, and demonstrate use of the shared resources.
I want to thank all of you who have provided this information to your program specialists. For those who have not, please send those updates soon. There is a lot of information that we need to collect and collate before May 2013 and we will be doing that throughout the following months with your help. It will take all of us to paint our picture. I am looking forward to its unveiling in May 2013!