CBCRP Application Evaluation & Review Committees

Grant applications in 2002 were initially reviewed and scored for scientific merit in six peer review Committees. The Committees are composed of distinct types of reviewers, and they reviewed grants modeled on established practice at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Chair leads the review process and is a senior researcher in breast cancer areas associated with the Committee's central topic or priority issue. Committee members have broad expertise in topics associated with individual applications. Breast cancer Advocate reviewers are women active in breast cancer issues (many of whom are also living with the disease), and they bring their personal knowledge and commitment to the review process. Often the Advocates have specialized training in grant review, such as the NBCC's Project LEAD. Each committee also has a California Advocate Observer, who is not assigned applications for review and does not vote, but represents the California advocacy community. The Observer gains insight into the research evaluation process and provides feedback to the Program on this process. Ad Hoc members participate by teleconference and bring their specialized expertise to the review of individual applications.

Over the past five years, the CBCRP has developed, tested, and phased in a scoring system that allows our expert reviewers to better differentiate applications that are especially innovative and that have the most potential impact on breast cancer. This has improved our ability to choose the most innovative and creative research for funding. In the past, the majority of research funding agencies, including the CBCRP and the NIH, rated proposals with a single scientific merit score. With this method, for example, an application with an excellent research plan to test an idea that wasn't particularly novel could receive the same score as an application with an average research plan to test a very novel idea. CBCRP's new scoring method, which separates scientific merit into component elements specific for each award type, can better differentiate specific qualities in each application. Some key scientific merit components include:

  • Innovativeness
  • Impact
  • Approach
  • Feasibility
  • Career Development
  • Translational potential (TRC award type)
  • Cross-disciplinary elements (TRC award type)
  • Community Involvement (CRC award type)
  • Community Benefit (CRC award type)

After the completion of all review committees, the CBCRP ranks the application pool by average scientific merit, which is the combined average of the scientific merit components for the application's award type. The lowest third (approximately) of applications ranked by average scientific merit are excluded from further consideration for funding.

Next, applications having sufficient scientific merit are then examined by the CBCRP's advisory Council for programmatic relevance. The following criteria are used:

  • Responsiveness to the CBCRP's priority issues and award types
  • Multidisciplinary approach
  • Translational potential
  • Focus on the underserved
  • Strength of individual scientific merit component scores
  • Balance of overall portfolio
  • Emphasis on relatively underfunded areas
  • Inclusion of advocates and sensitivity to advocacy issues/concerns

In addition, we place some of our Priority Issues and Award Types into a primary category, and these applications are given first consideration for funding.

Finally, the advisory Council recommends the grants to be funded, based upon (1) the review committee scientific average and component merit scores and (2) the programmatic relevance. This two-tiered process ensures both scientific excellence and relevance of the research to CBCRP's mission and goals.

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Review Committees

The CBCRP wishes to thank the participants in our 2002 Review Committees for their service and dedication to our Program.

Basic Breast Biology Committee
CRC and Sociocultural, Behavioral, and Psychological Committee
Etiology and Prevention Committee
Innovative Treatments and Earlier Detection Committee
Pathogenesis Committee
Tumor Progression Committee

Basic Breast Biology Committee

Chair:

Margaret (Peggy) C. Neville, Ph.D.
Professor of Physiology and Biophysics
School of Medicine
University of Colorado Health Sciences Center
Denver, CO 80262

J. Thomas Pento, Ph.D.
Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology
College of Pharmacy
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
Oklahoma City, OK 73190

California Advocate Observer:

Lee Lane
National Breast Cancer Coalition
Coronado, CA 92118

Members:

Michael F. Clarke, M.D.
Professor
Simpson Memorial Institute
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-0668

Terry Riss, Ph.D.
Project Manager, Cell Reg./Signal Transduction
Promega Corporation
Madison, WI 53711-5399

Ad Hoc Members:

Elizabeth S. Garrett, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Oncology
The Johns Hopkins Oncology Center
Oncology Biostatistics
Baltimore, MD 21205

James DiRenzo, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology
Department of Pharmacology
Dartmouth Medical School
Hanover, NH 03755-3835

Mary Sharon Stack, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Cell and Molecular Biology
Northwestern University School of Medicine
Chicago, IL 60611

Richard W. Kriwacki, Ph.D.
Assistant Member
Department of Structural Biology
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Memphis, TN 38105

Leena Hilakivi-Clarke, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Oncology
Georgetown University
Washington, DC 20007

Alan Wells, M.D., D.M.S.
Professor
Department of Pathology
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15261

James P. Landers, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry
Department of Chemistry
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4319

Russell Hovey, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Animal Science
University of Vermont
Burlington, VT 05405

Advocate Members:

Debbie Basile
Babylon Breast Cancer Coalition
Babylon, NY 11702

David Mankoff, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Radiology
Division of Nuclear Medicine
University of Washington Medical Center
Seattle, WA 98195

Patricia J. Keely, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
University of Wisconsin
Department of Pharmacology
Madison, WI 53706

Michele W. Ganon, M.B.A., Ph.D.
National Breast Cancer Coalition
Danbury, CT 06810

Mario Marchand, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
School of Information Technology and Engineering
University of Ottawa
Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5

M. Stephen Meyn, M.D., Ph.D., FRCP(C)
Professor
University of Toronto
The Hospital for Sick Children
Toronto, ON M5G 1X8

Selma J. Morris, M.Ed.
Breast Health Initiative
Decatur, GA 30030

Michael D. Morris, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry
University of Michigan
Department of Chemistry
Ann Arbor, MI 48105

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Community Research Collaboration and Sociocultural, Behavioral, and Psychological Committee

Chair:

Electra D. Paskett, Ph.D.
Professor
Ohio State University
School of Public Health
Columbus, OH 43210-1240

John K. Worden, Ph.D.
Research Professor
Office of Health Promotion Research
University of Vermont
Burlington, VT 05401-3444

James T. Thigpen, M.D.
Director of Medical Oncology
Department of Medicine
University of Mississippi School of Medicine
Jackson, MS 39216

Members:

Deborah Bowen, Ph.D.
Member and Professor
Cancer Prevention Research Program
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Seattle, WA 98109

 Advocate Members:

Deborah Clark
Oklahoma Breast Care Center
Oklahoma City, OK 73120

  

Karen H. Dow, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
School of Nursing
University of Central Florida
Orlando, FL 32816

Susan M. Cohen, J.D.
New York Breast Cancer Network
New York, NY 10007

  

Paula M. Lantz, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
School of Public Health
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029

 California Advocate Observer:

Kathy Walters, J.D.
Community Breast Health Project
Palo Alto, CA 94301-1704

  

Frances Marcus Lewis, Ph.D.
Professor
Family and Child Nursing
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195-7262

 Ad-Hoc Members:

Debra Barton, RN, PhD, AOCN
Clinical Nurse Researcher
Mayo Clinic
Rochester, MN 55905

  

Alfred C. Marcus, Ph.D.
Chair, Center for Behavioral & Community Studies
Center for Behavioral and Community Studies
AMC Cancer Research Center
Denver, CO 80214

Nancy Keating, M.D.
Instructor
Harvard Medical School
Department of Health Care Policy
Cambridge, MA 02115-5819

  

Marianne N. Prout, M.D.
Associate Professor
Boston University School of Public Health
Department of Epidemiology
Boston, MA 02118

Charles L. Shapiro, M.D.
Director of Breast Medical Oncology
Ohio State University
Columbus, OH 43210

  

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Etiology and Prevention Committee Committee

Chair:

Susan Harlap, M.D.
Research Professor
Department of OBGYN
NYU Medical Center
New York, NY 10016

Gary L. Johanning, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
University of Alabama
Birmingham, AL 35294-3361

Ad-Hoc Members:

Celia Byrne, Ph.D.
Instructor of Medicine
Channing Laboratory, Nurses' Health Study
Boston, MA 02115

Members:

Christine Ambrosone, Ph.D.
Director, Cancer Epidemiology Program
Derald H. Ruttenberg Cancer Center
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
New York, NY 10029

James D. Shull, Ph.D.
Professor
Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer
University of Nebraska Medical Center
Omaha, NE 68198-6805

Carol Friedman, Ph.D.
Professor
Dept of Med Informatics
Columbia University
New York, NY 10032

Bradley A. Arrick, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Medicine
Dartmouth Medical School
Hanover, NH 03755

Andrew T. Vaughan, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Radiation Oncology
Loyola University
Maywood, IL 60153

Jennifer A. Harvey, M.D.
Associate Professor of Radiology
University of Virginia
Department of Radiology
Charlottesville, VA 22904

Melissa L. Bondy, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Epidemiology
M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX 77030

Douglas Yee, M.D.
Professor
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Susan L. Hendrix, D.O.
Associate Professor
Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI 48201

Gail M. Clinton, Ph.D.
Department of Biochem. & Mol. Biology
Oregon Health Sciences University
Portland, OR 97201

Advocate Members:

Barbara Balaban
West Islip Breast Cancer Coalition
New York, NY 10023

Michael A. Hollingsworth, Ph.D.
Eppley Institute, Univ. of Nebraska Medical Center
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Omaha, NE 68198-6805

Andreas I. Constantinou, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
University of Illinois at Chicago
Functional Food for Health Program
Chicago, IL 60612

Cynthia Geoghegan
Wilton, CT 06897

Wei-Zen Wei, Ph.D.
Member
Karmanos Cancer Institute
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI 48201

Joan E. Cunningham, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29203

Janice Malett, RN, MPH, WOCN
SHARE
Larchmont, NY 10538

Martin J. Yaffe, Ph.D
Professor
Department of Imaging Research
Sunnybrook Health Science Centre
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M4N 3M5

Marco M. Gottardis, Ph.D.
Bristol-Myers Squibb
Princeton, NJ 08543

California Advocate Observer Member:

Kathleen Scheible
San Francisco, CA 94122

  

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Innovative Treatments and Earlier Detection Committee

Chair:

Mary (Nora) L. Disis, M.D.
Associate Professor
Division of Oncology
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195-6527

Members:

Rajesh Agarwal, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
School of Pharmacy
University of Colorado Health Sciences Center
Denver, CO 80262

Emmanuel Akporiaye, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
University of Arizona - Life Sciences North
Tucson, AZ 85724

Guy Besson, Ph.D.
Chief Technical Director
Fischer Imaging Corporation
Denver, CO 80241

Rosalyn Blumenthal, Ph.D.
Director Tumor Biology
Garden State Cancer Center
Belleville, NJ 07109

David K. Bol, Ph.D.
Group Leader
Bristol-Myers Squibb
Princeton, NJ 08543

James T. Dalton, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
College of Pharmacy - Division of Pharmaceutics
Ohio State University
Columbus, OH 43210

Ram Ganapathi, Ph.D.
Staff Scientist
Taussig Cancer Center
The Cleveland Clinic Foundation
Cleveland, OH 44195

Mark A. Green, Ph.D.
Professor of Medicinal Chemistry
Division of Nuclear Pharmacy
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN 47907-1333

Andrew Karellas, Ph.D.
Professor of Radiology
Department of Radiology
Worcester, MA 01655-0331

H. Kim Lyerly, M.D.
Professor
Department of Surgery
Duke University Medical Center
Durham, NC 27710

Edward R. Sauter, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Surgery
Thomas Jefferson University
Philadelphia, PA 19107

Gerald A. Soff, M.D.
Assistant Professor
Northwestern University
Division of Hematology/Oncology
Chicago, IL 60611

David A. Talmage, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Clinical Nutrition
Columbia University, Institute of Human Nutrition
Hammer Health Sciences Center
New York, NY 10032

Nancy S. Templeton, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Center for Cell and Gene Therapy
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX 77030

Philip M. Toleikis, Ph.D.
Director Pharmacology & Toxicology
Angiotech Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4

Advocate Members:

Jessica Henderson, Ph.D.
Oregon Breast and Cervical Cancer Coalition
Corvallis, OR 97330

Claudia C. Kruggel
Breast Cancer Today
West Lafayette, IN 47906

Brenda MacGibbon-Taylor, Ph.D.
University of Quebec, Montreal
Department of Mathematics
University of Quebec, Montreal
Montreal, Quebec, CANADA H3C 3P8

California Advocate Observer Member:

Janet Howard-Espinoza
Women of Color
Inglewood, CA 90301

Ad-Hoc Member:

Mark B. Williams, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Radiology
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA 22908

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Pathogenesis Committee

Chair:

Ann D. Thor, M.D.
Lloyd E. Radar Professor and Chair
Department of Pathology
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
Oklahoma City, OK 73104

Members:

Marie Audette, Ph.D.
Professeure
Centre de Recherche du CHUQ, Lab. d'Endo. Moleculaire
Universite Laval
Sainte-Foy, Quebec G1V4G2

James Kaput, Ph.D.
Director, Eukaryotic Biology
NutraGenomics
2201 West Campbell Park Drive
Chicago, IL 60612

Thomas Kelly, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Pathology
Arkansas Cancer Research Center
Little Rock, AR 72205-7199

William G. Kerr, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Moffitt Cancer Center - Immunology Program
University of South Florida
Tampa, FL 33612

Rachel E. Klevit, D. Phil.
Professor
Department of Biochemistry
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195-7742

Scott Kurtzman, M.D.
Associate Professor of Surgery
Department of Surgery
University of Connecticut Health Center
Farmington, CT 06030-3955

Zheng-gang Liu, Ph.D.
Tenure Track Investigator
CCR, NCI, NIH
Cell and Cancer Biology Branch
Bethesda, MD 20892

James B. McCarthy, Ph.D.
Professor
Lab Medicine and Pathology
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Steffi Oesterreich, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Breast Center
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX 77030

Susan E. Pories, M.D., FACS
Assistant Professor of Surgery
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Breast Care Center
Boston, MA 02215

Patricia Schoenlein, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Cellular Biology & Anatomy , CB1112/1115
Medical College of Georgia
Augusta, GA 30912

Gail E. Sonenshein, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Biochemistry
Boston University School of Medicine
Boston, MA 02118

Erik (Rik) W. Thompson, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
St. Vincent's Institute of Medical Research
University of Melbourne
Fitzroy, Victoria, 3065 Australia

Advocate Members:

Roberta C. Gelb
SHARE
New York, NY 10011

Diane L. Roth
Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization
Oak Lawn, IL 60453

Sandra Stanford
Alamo Breast Cancer Foundation
San Antonio, TX 78249-1832

California Advocate Observer Member:

Emilia Sebestyen
USC Norris Cancer Survivors' Advisory Council
Westlake Village, CA 91361

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Tumor Progression Committee

Chair:

Nita J. Maihle, Ph.D.
Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Mayo Clinic
Rochester, MN 55905-0001

Members:

Anne M. Bowcock, Ph.D.
Joint Director of the Division of Human Genetics
Department Genetics
Washington University
St. Louis, MO 63110

Jeffrey T. Holt, M.D.
Professor
Department of Cell Biology
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN 37232

Michael S. Kinch, Ph.D.
Associate Director
MedImmune, Inc
Gaithersburg, MD 20878

Dawn A. Kirschmann, Ph.D.
Assistant Research Scientist
Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology
University of Iowa, College of Medicine
Iowa City, IA 52242-1109

Richard C. Kurten, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Physiology and Biophysics
Arkansas Cancer Research Center
Little Rock, AR 72205-7199

Michael T. Lewis, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
The Breast Center
Baylor College of Medicine
1 Baylor Plaza , MS: 600
Houston, TX 77030

Peggy L. Porter, M.D.
Head, Breast Cancer Research Program
Divisions of Human Biology and Public Health Sciences
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Seattle, WA 98109

Karin D. Rodland, Ph.D.
Staff Scientist
Molecular Biosciences Division
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Richland, WA 99352

Debra F. Skafar, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Physiology
School of Medicine, Wayne State University
Detroit, MI 48201

Thomas E. Smithgall, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Pittsburgh, PA 15261

Saraswati Sukumar, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Director of Basic Research
Johns Hopkins University - School of Medicine
Baltimore, MD 21231

Danny R. Welch, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Jake Gittlen Cancer Research Institute
Pennsylvania State University, College of Medicine
Hershey, PA 17033-2390

Advocate Members:

Margaree S. Crosby, Ed.D.
Clemson University
Greenville, SC 29602

Dale Eastman
Alamo Breast Cancer Foundation
San Antonio, TX 78230

Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Ph.D.
City University of New York
New York, NY 10011

California Advocate Observer Member:

Edare K. Carroll
San Francisco Medical Society
San Francisco, CA 94109

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