DESCRIPTION This Collaborative is between the University of California, San Francisco Cancer Center (UCSFCC) and San Francisco State University (SFSU). It will initiate two pilot Research Projects and two Planning and Developmental activities for future collaborative pre-doctoral research training. The pilot Research Projects will involve two teams of SFSU/UCSFCC investigators; both collaborations is between a newly hired SFSU Assistant Professor of Biology and a senior UCSF faculty member who is also a member of the UCSFCC, UCSF Professor Elizabeth Blackburn, Ph.D. will serve as mentored and co-investigator with Sally Passion, Ph.D. to characterize telomere ends in fission yeast DNA replication and repair mutants. Wilfred Denetclaw, Ph.D. (Appointment as a SFSU Assistant Professor of Biology effective September 2000) will be mentored by this former UCSF post-doctoral supervisor Professor Charles Ordahl. Their collaborative Research Project will focus on the biological markers for dermomyotomal myotome progenitor cells and their epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition into the myotome layer. The research questions and mentoring commitments build into each collaborative pilot project are designed to test in the submission of RO1 proposals during the third year of this P-20 planning grant. Student research training will be the focus for the Planning and Developmental components of this proposal. One pilot Planning and Development activity will use a cohort of SFSU and UCSFCC faculty to develop a more aggressive and concerted placement process/program for SFSU undergraduate (MARC and MBRS-RISE) and SFSU MA/MS degree (NIH Bridge and MBRS-RISE) students into UCSFCC laboratories specifically. In order to commence this activity in June 2001, the collaborative faculty planning committee review and evaluate the past involvement of, 1) SFSU undergraduates (MARC and MBRS-RISE) in summer research experiences in UCSF and 2) whose academic thesis research was executed in UCSF faculty laboratories and develop an action plan that will develop a strong research training experience in an environment permeated with a cancer focus. The second pilot Planning and Development activity will be directed at the submission of a joint R-25E or R-25T or T-32 pre-doctoral training proposal during the third year of this P-20 project. Realization of this goal will require serious planning through joint UCSFCC-SFSU faculty meetings and retreats to 1) identify and prioritize short and long-term pre- doctoral student cancer research training goals and 2) develop a mutually acceptable collaborative pre-doctoral cancer research training program with the guidelines of the R-25E or R-25T or T-32 funding mechanisms. A core element of any final proposal will be the application of recruitment and retention strategies that will result in an increased enrollment of under-represented minorities in Ph.D. programs.