National Cancer Institute awards $25 million in multi-year grants to Stanford center
BY BRUCE GOLDMAN
Sam Gambhir
The National Cancer Institute has awarded more than $25 million over the coming five years to two centers at the Stanford University School of Medicine to develop new diagnostic techniques and therapies, as well as advancing the understanding of basic cancer cell biology. Sanjiv “Sam” Gambhir, MD, PhD, professor of radiology, is the principal investigator for both grants.
One of the two grants is for about $10 million and helps to support the In Vivo Cellular and Molecular Imaging Center at Stanford, or ICMIC, which brings together investigators from across the university in the fields of chemistry; materials science and engineering; molecular imaging; oncology; cancer biology; protein engineering; biostatistics; and mathematical modeling.
The center’s goal is to develop state-of-the-art molecular imaging strategies to enable new cancer research and improved cancer-patient management. The award will fund several research projects involving positron emission tomography, magnetic resonance and optical imaging. These projects aim to improve the understanding of basic cancer-cell biology and to optimize novel cancer therapies. The co-principal investigator is Christopher Contag, PhD, associate professor of pediatrics and of microbiology and immunology.
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The second award, which is for about $15 million, goes to the Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence and Translation, or CCNE-T, which like the ICMIC fosters interdisciplinary work. Faculty from radiology, bioengineering, materials science, oncology and other departments collaborate in the center’s effort to use and develop nanotechnology to improve cancer-patient management by, for instance, promoting earlier cancer detection and better monitoring of responses to anti-cancer therapy.
The projects supported by this grant include: the production of next-generation smart nanoparticles; the development of magnetonanotechnology for blood proteomics and cell sorting; the use of multiple nano-platforms to interrogate single circulating tumor cells; the advancement of molecular imaging with Raman imaging and nanoparticles; and the monitoring of responses to therapies using imaging and magneto-nanosensors.
The co-principal investigator on the CCNE-T grant is Shan Wang, PhD, professor of materials science and engineering and of electrical engineering. In addition, the grant provides support for scientists from UCLA, UC-Berkeley, USC and MIT to collaborate with Stanford faculty on the research.
Gambhir is also the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor of Cancer Research and a member of the Stanford Cancer Center.
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