TRIO-US

Print Feedback

Font Size: + -

The Translational Research in Oncology-US, Network (TRIO-US) is an organization with a long-standing history of providing innovative cancer research in the community, beyond the walls of large academic medical centers and big cities. TRIO-US is a site management organization (SMO) of committed oncologists across the United States interested in offering their patients opportunities to participate in research of novel cancer therapies, while staying close to home. TRIO-US has more than 10 participating community oncology practices from California to Arkansas

We base our research efforts on therapies targeted to cancer to minimize side effects and focus more directly on the cancer. We work to get early phase studies to patients in their communities to reduce the burden on traveling to large cities or academic medical centers. This helps not only the patients but allows for the faster progress of cancer research by quickly reaching more people. It also allows for us to offer research in a more inclusive way, by extending research to communities that may be underserved or underrepresented in clinical trials, offering potentially better cancer care options.

It is because of the participation of the thousands of patients, their committed clinicians and support systems that TRIO-US has been able to develop and offer important research that led to many new therapies for breast, kidney, lung, and colorectal cancers.

TRIO-US History

The TRIO-US Network has a long history of bringing clinical trials to patients in their communities and is one of the oldest oncology research networks in the United States. The founders of the network, clinical research physicians at UCLA, understood the importance of patients receiving cancer care close to their homes while being able to take part in important research of novel cancer therapies.

TRIO-US was founded more than 20 years ago by Dr. Dennis Slamon and Dr. John Glaspy and is affiliated with the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC). Many of the TRIO-US Network sites have participated in clinical trials since the inception of the network. Many of these research studies originated from UCLA clinical researchers and have resulted in approval of new therapies for breast, lung and renal cancer.

In the beginning, the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center partnered with private practices to offer oncology patients earlier access to leading-edge therapeutic trials. This organization consisted of sites conducting research under the JCCC. Originally, this collection of affiliated community practice was named the Community Oncology Research Network (CORN). In 1995, the organization formally changed the name to Translational Oncology Research International (TORI), established itself as a non-profit, 501c (3), and subsequently site management organization (SMO). With the establishment of the 501c (3), a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was developed between the UCLA Chancellor’s Office and the JCCC to formalize the affiliation. The MOU stipulates the primary purpose of TRIO-US is to offer important and select cutting-edge therapeutic trials to participants outside the immediate catchment area and nationwide. An additional aspect of the affiliation with UCLA JCCC, allowed for academic faculty to take their research conducted in the UCLA laboratories out to the patients in the community. This bench to bedside research is called “translational research”. Additionally, this has allowed UCLA scientists to translate their research findings into clinical trials. The allowed for true bench to bedside research or translational research. This relationship has been particularly effective at giving JCCC investigators access to the wider potential patient pool needed to conduct early phase clinical trials. There is also a long-standing affiliation with an international partner, the Translational Research in Oncology-Global (TRIO-Global) contract research organization. In 2011, TORI changed their name to the Translational Research in Oncology-US Network (TRIO-US). This was to acknowledge the strong relationship between the UCLA laboratory, TRIO-US Network and TRIO-Global.

TRIO-US UCLA Laboratory Affiliates

UCLA-Translational Oncology Research Laboratory (UCLA-TORL) is the basic science laboratory where pre-clinical data is generated for translation into humans. The laboratory includes both laboratory scientists (basic scientists) and clinical researchers who help to develop studies and care for patients. They are united in their efforts to identify and develop novel treatments for cancer patients. TORL basic scientists generate data in the laboratory and in animal models (pre-clinical data) that demonstrate possible new therapies for patients. Together the laboratory and clinical scientists develop the promising pre-clinical data into early phase proof of concept clinical trials. These trials can be done at UCLA and the TRIO-US Network. Often the data in early phase clinical studies looks encouraging and it leads to expanding to later and larger phase trials that can be done at UCLA, the TRIO-US Network and internationally.

TRIO-US International Affiliates

TRIO-Global, commonly referred to as TRIO, initially began as the Breast Cancer International Research Group (BCIRG) is a full-service, not-for-profit contract research organization (CRO) with offices in Edmonton, Canada, Paris, France, and Montevideo, Uruguay. BCIRG (TRIO) was established in 1997 as part of the Alberta Cancer Board. The first trial conducted by BCIRG was a pivotal breast cancer study which led to the registration of docetaxel in the adjuvant treatment of breast cancer. BCIRG was incorporated as the Cancer International Research Group (CIRG) in 1999, an operational structure which adhered to comprehensive pharmaceutical industry standards. It also appropriately reflected the broader range of cancer histologies for clinical trials they managed.

CIRG, TORI, and the UCLA Translational Oncology Research Laboratory (UCLA-TORL) united in 2005 to become a larger entity TRIO. In 2011, to clarify the partnerships, CIRG, and TORI officially changed their name to TRIO-Global and TRIO-US, respectively. Since the inception of TRIO, it has established a reputation as a leader in the clinical oncology research community. TRIO has built a network of more than 300 research sites, with over 500 investigators, to successfully run international trials. Like TRIO-US, TRIO benefits from the expertise of the UCLA-laboratories and its findings which form the basis of its study designs and strategy.

TRIO, a not-for-profit organization, is a global leader in translational oncology research through scientific innovation, excellence in trial development and execution, and collaboration with investigators and industry. TRIO has three values which the organization follows: integrity, teamwork, and passion. The goal is to improve the survival and quality of life of patients with cancer.

TRIO-US The Organization

TRIO-US is a not-for-profit site management organization (SMO) founded by UCLA researchers, Dr. Dennis Slamon and Dr. John Glaspy. It is governed by a Board of Directors (BOD), of both Drs. Slamon and Glaspy as well as Frances M. Visco. The organization is a 501c(3), located in Los Angeles, California. The daily operations are managed by Meghan Brennan, PhD, RN, ONP, Chief Operating Officer (COO), Brenda Williams, BSN, RN, Director of TRIO-US Network, Cara Nolan, Director of Clinical Research Operations, Mengsha Li, CRA Manager, Clinical Research Collaborations, Allison Muff, Manager, Site Engagement Program, the Financial Team of Shannon Ibara, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Jennifer Kawata, Finance Director, Steve Wong, Pharm D, the TRIO-US Pharmacist, and the many administrative and regulatory staff of the TRIO-US Central Administration Team.

TRIO-US provides the participating SMO sites with centralized regulatory, contracting, budgeting, and pharmacy operations. TRIO-US also offers support and funding for research staffing at the many different locations throughout the country. In addition to providing SMO services, TRIO-US offers contracted clinical research organizational (CRO) support for industry and academic partners executing early phase clinical trials at UCLA, TRIO-US, or other oncology practices or institutions in the United States.

President

Dennis Slamon, MD, PhD

President

Slamon 2019

Dennis J. Slamon, M.D., Ph.D., serves as the President of TRIO-US. He is a UCLA Professor of Medicine, Chief of the UCLA Division of Hematology/Oncology and Executive Vice Chair for Research for UCLA's Department of Medicine. He is the Director of Clinical/Translational Research for the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC). Dr. Slamon known worldwide for his extensive research in cancer and has been recognized nationally and internationally as a leader in cancer research. Dennis has been awarded numerous research awards honoring his scientific accomplishments.

In 2019, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and Sweden’s Sjöberg Foundation honored Dr. Slamon as a co-winner of the 2019 Sjöberg Prize for his groundbreaking research in the development of successful targeted cancer therapies. Additionally, that same year, Dennis was presented with the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for his revolutionary work in the development and utilization of Herceptin in breast cancer. It is a therapy targeting a genetic alteration of the HER2 oncogene in 25% of breast cancer patients. This effort turned one of the deadliest kinds of breast cancer into the one of the most treatable and controllable. The Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation honored Dr. Slamon and colleagues H. Michael Shepard and Axel Ullrich for demonstrating that monoclonal antibodies were a viable and effective strategy to treat solid tumors, opening a new path to develop and deploy antibodies to treat cancer. This pioneering work changed not only breast cancer, but many other cancers, treatments and paved the way for more targeted therapies.

In 1975, Dennis Slamon graduated from University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine with honors. He earned both his MD and Ph.D. in cell biology that same year. He completed his internship and residency at the University of Chicago Hospitals and Clinics, becoming chief resident in 1978. One year later, he became a fellow in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at UCLA. He has remained at UCLA since his fellowship and joined leadership in the University as Division Chief of Hematology-Oncology, Professor of Medicine in the David Geffen School of Medicine, as well as Director in the UCLA JCCC.

Dennis founded TRIO-US with his colleague and fellow UCLA research, Dr. John Glaspy, in 1995 to help bring his cutting-edge research to the patients in their communities. Since that time, he has continued to research novel approaches to cancer and the help the patients and families affected by cancer. He serves as President and a member of the Board of Directors of TRIO-US. He also serves as the Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of TRIO.

Dr. Slamon has practiced medicine and conducted cancer research at UCLA for over 40 years, dedicating his life to improving cancer therapies and the lives of patients around the world. For a list of more of his awards check out his Board of Directors page here.

Chief Operating Officer

Meghan Brennan, PhD, RN, ONP

Chief Operating Officer

Brennan Headshot

Meghan Brennan, PhD, RN, ONP is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of TRIO-US. Dr. Brennan has been working in oncology clinical research for more than 25 years. Trained as an oncology nurse, Meghan first began working in breast cancerresearch. She worked on important studies that led to ground-breaking minimally invasive surgical approaches, specifically, sentinel lymph node dissection (SLND), for breast cancer patients (Z-010 and Z-011). These procedures not only changed how breast cancer was surgically managed, but because of the advances with histopathological analysis of lymph nodes, SLND changed the way breast cancer was staged. Since then, Dr. Brennan, has contributed to several different areas and domains of oncologic research. She has a solid industry and academic medical center background which has helped her to develop policies, procedures, and standards by which clinical research is executed. Dr. Brennan has drug and device development knowledge and extensive FDA experience. Meghan was at UCLA for more than 10 years running the JCCC Clinical Research Unit (CRU) and overseeing the TRIO-US Network alongside Drs. Dennis Slamon and John Glaspy. She then served as the Vice President for Clinical Research Operations at City of Hope. Dr. Brennan has a strong background in translational research in both solid and hematologic malignancies and has been a passionate advocate for bringing research to patients in their communities. Meghan understands the operational challenges of clinical research and the ever-evolving regulatory landscape. She re-joins TRIO-US, as the Chief Operating Officer (COO). Her goals are to further develop the site management organization and contract research operations of TRIO-US.

Dr. Brennan received her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Georgetown University. Subsequently, in 2000 Meghan earned her Master’s in Nursing Science from UCLA and became an Oncology Nurse Practitioner. In 2016, Meghan completed her Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing Science degree at UCLA. She has more than 20 publications in peer-reviewed journals, numerous presentations on the studies she has worked on, as well as principals to clinical research execution. Meghan serves as a board member for the Women in Oncology initiative.

Chief Medical Officer

Director, TRIO-US Network

Brenda Williams

Director, TRIO-US Network

Brenda Wiliams Brenda joins to TRIO-US with more than 25 years of experience in nursing, research, and oncology. Brenda began her career as a nurse and within a short time took on overseeing the General Research Center at Cedars Sanai in Los Angeles. Subsequently, she worked at City of Hope, known for the management of patients with hematologic malignancies and diabetes for several years in their research center, overseeing nurses, research nurses, coordinators, data managers, and regulatory staff. She directed the community network and affiliates for City of Hope and worked closely with leadership to further develop their network. Moreover, in the last several years of Brenda’s tenure at City of Hope, she helped to develop their solid malignancy program across all histologies. Prior to leaving City of Hope, Brenda was the Executive Director for all the Clinical Research Care operations. This included both in-patient and out-patient research. Most recently, Brenda served as the Director of Nursing at Science37, one of the early companies to serve as a decentralized clinical trial (DCT) network and develop this platform. She has the experience of providing patient centric research in a multitude of therapeutic areas and utilizing home health nurses quite extensively. Brenda is based in Nebraska which provides a great opportunity for TRIO-US to focus on some sites in the middle of the country as well as both coasts.

As Director of the TRIO-US Network, Brenda will be responsible for assisting with new participating site selection, quality control, and operations. She will serve as a resource not only to the site staff, but central staff as well. TRIO-US has several initiatives to further develop patient centric research programs in oncology and Brenda will be essential to these efforts. Including leading our ongoing efforts to bring the home health initiative forward with a national partner.

Director, Clinical Research Operations

Cara Nolan

Director of Research Operations

Cara Nolan

Cara Nolan is the Director of Research Operations for TRIO-US. Cara has over 20 years of oncology research experience including data, regulatory and site management. Prior to her current role at TRIO-US, Cara worked at City of Hope (Duarte, CA) where she most recently held a Clinical Trials Manager position in their Clinical Trials Office. At the City of Hope, Cara worked closely with the faculty and staff overseeing, among other programs, their immunotherapy program which was very large and growing every day. She led the team of regulatory, clinical research, and biospecimen coordinators. Additionally, she served as the leader of the Project Management team responsible for site feasibility, internal disease specific review process, study start-up, and coordination of investigator-initiated protocols. Before her time at City of Hope, Cara was a Research Project Manager for Kaiser Permanente as well as a Research Projects Director at Dayton Clinical Oncology Program in Dayton, Ohio. Cara earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Dayton and has maintained her Certified Clinical Research Professional certification since 2013. Cara started her career in clinical research by leading a cancer prevention minority outreach program. That experience helped shape her passion for clinical research and her hope that she plays a small part in helping to advance health equity.

As Director of Research Operations for TRIO-US Cara supports strategic priorities to enhance communication and collaboration and assist in the development of best practices and standard operating policies and procedures for the TRIO-US Network Administrative Offices. She works closely with Meghan Brennan, Dr. Salmon, TRIO-US administrative and regulatory staff, UCLA faculty and staff, to ensure the organization provides the best and most cutting-edge trials to our participating sites in the most efficient and smooth manner possible.

TRIO-US Central Pharmacist

Steve Wong, PharmD

TRIO-US Central Pharmacist

Steve Wong

Steve has been a valued member of the TRIO-US team for many years. He has worked at UCLA over 25 years with most of his time as an investigational drug pharmacist. In 2006, Steve took the role overseeing the TRIO-US Central Pharmacy and has been doing so since. Steve is an invaluable team member and has developed the central pharmacy for TRIO-US to be of the highest quality. He has extensive research experience and vast knowledge of the pharmaceutical aspect of clinical research. He has experience with numerous sponsor and FDA audits as the TRIO-US Central Pharmacist. Steve received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with an emphasis in Operations Management. Subsequently, Steve went on to earn his PharmD from USC. He feels truly blessed as he enjoys working with the UCLA, TRIO-US, Network staff, and sponsors. Outside of work, he enjoys serving at his church, spending time with his wife and three children, practicing jujutsu, and anything muscle car related.

Manager, Site Engagement Program

Allison Muff

Site Engagement Program Manager

Allison Muff

Allison Muff is the Site Engagement Program Manager. Allison has been with TRIO-US since 2014. She joined the team to help improve communications with our participating sites and academic faculty as well as further relationships with our industry partners. In addition, Allison is charged with developing and managing the TRIO-US website and social media platforms as well as the oversight of the many different conferences TRIO-US hosts, sponsors, or attends. She oversees the entire TRIO-US/UCLA Annual Conference in Lake Arrowhead each year. Allison led the charge with the Women in Oncology initiative that began at TRIO-US and UCLA in a partnership with other Los Angeles cancer centers and industry sponsors. She continues to move this program froward with colleagues from around Los Angeles. Allison has been instrumental in developing alliances with other institutional and corporate champions. Prior to joining TRIO-US, Allison came to TRIO-US with more than a decade of experience in the cruise industry. She is a skilled multi-tasker, planner, and problem solver. Allison works with the 14 sites across the country as well as with UCLA academic faculty and industry representatives.

Allison earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Phoenix. Has earned her Project Management Certificate from UCLA as well as her Supervisor Certificate. Allison has been awarded the UCLA STAR Award for excellence multiple times since she joined the organization. She has been recognized by Princess Cruises as an excellent employee and received the “I Make a Difference Award”. Additionally, Allison serves on the Women in Oncology Board of Directors.