News

Photo credit: Randy Belice 

The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - The James hosted the in-person component of its inaugural "Clinical Trial Concept in the Oncology Landscape" course during the 17th Annual AACI Clinical Research Innovation (CRI) Meeting in Rosemont, IL.

The R25 National Cancer Institute (NCI)-supported course, also known as idea2Concept (i2C), trains early-career investigators in oncology to design a cancer clinical trial concept that is scientifically sound and feasible. The primary objective is to ensure that physician researchers have the tools they need to ethically and effectively design an interventional clinical research concept that can later be used to conduct a clinical trial of new therapeutic treatments and approaches to cancer care.

The i2C hybrid course teaches Good Clinical Practice and scientific reasoning into effective clinical trial design. The course accepted 15 junior oncologists and fellows/residents in an oncology specialty who were novices in cancer clinical research. Part 1 of the course, "The Fundamentals of Clinical Research," is a nine-month, immersive virtual educational experience across all areas of cancer clinical research. It culminated in Part 2, the in-person "Trial Concept Writing Camp" held during AACI's annual CRI meeting, where participants met with experienced clinical investigator mentors from AACI member institutions. Seventeen mentors and a statistician were paired with the learners, who finalized their clinical trial concepts.

Participants were selected through a competitive, national application process. The virtual training used a flipped classroom approach to teach the 11 domains of clinical trial expertise, including oncology, science, medicine, business/negotiation, accounting, statistics, pharmacy, pharmacology, laws and regulations, ethics, and clinical trial management. At the CRI meeting, mentors helps participants deliver a realistic concept that meets scientific standards.

Learners will submit their finalized clinical trial concept on August 1, 2025. They should be able to use their concept to develop a full protocol at their own institutions or though the NCI clinical research networks or other clinical trial networks.

i2C Inaugural Class of 2025

Fellows:
Dr. Jacob Appelbaum
Dr. Julia Aronson
Dr. Nirmal Choradia
Dr. Simone Dekker
Dr. Leighton Elliot
Dr. Naomi Fei
Dr. Sencer Goklemez
Dr. Jasmin Hundal
Dr. Jennifer Hwang
Dr. Chunjie Li
Dr. Nerea Lopetegui-Lia
Dr. Jesus Gonzalez Lugo
Dr. Abner Murray
Dr. Onika Noel
Dr. Hira Shaikh
Dr. Noha Soror
Dr. Tony Varughese

Mentors:
Dr. Ashley Davenport
Dr. Konstantin Dragnev
Dr. Edmund Folefac
Dr. Ben George
Dr. Mridula George
Dr. Thomas George
Dr. John Hays
Dr. Margaret Kasner
Dr. Abdullah Khan
Dr. Tara Lin
Dr. Devalingam Mahalingam
Dr. Dwight Owen
Dr. Koen van Besien
Dr. Brian Van Tine
Dr. Claire Verschraegen
Dr. Theresa Werner
Dr. Robert Wesolowski

Applications are open for the next i2C workshop, with an in-person component planned in conjunction with the 18th Annual AACI CRI Meeting, June 23-25, 2026, at Loews Chicago O'Hare Hotel in Rosemont, IL. The deadline to apply is Monday, August 11, 2025 at 5:00 pm eastern time.

Apply Now