New Cancer Center Joins Harvard, Dana Farber

A new collaborative cancer research effort between Harvard and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute will become the largest private cancer research initiative in the nation, Harvard Medical School (HMS) announced last week.

The Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center will fuse the cancer research efforts of seven Harvard-affiliated institutions: the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health and four Harvard-affiliated hospitals.

The seven institutions will pool more than $125 million in National Cancer Institute (NCI) grants each year, the largest sum of NCI money in the world, said David G. Nathan, president of Dana-Farber and the cancer center's director.

"This is really a massive collaborative effort," Nathan said.

"Nothing of this magnitude has ever been attempted at Harvard."

Each member institution has previously conducted separate basic, clinical, and population-based research.

Through their membership in the center, researchers from different institutions will now be able to coordinate efforts and share laboratory resources.

"[The goal is to]produce a cancer center without walls, one that has three times the firepower [of] the original one," Nathan said.

The member institutions have already invested money in building new laboratories and enhancing old ones, Nathan said. Many of the laboratories would be too expensive for independent institutions to maintain.

In addition, several collaborative projects have been launched. More than half of the center's 800 members are already engaged in collaborative research, according to a news release from HMS. Five disease-based programs that are designed to interact with 10 discipline-based programs have also been established.

The center will expand to include seven more disease-based and nine more discipline-based programs within the next few years, according to the release.

"The new center is already creating this research synergy because we know researchers have found each other through its programs who would not have through our old system," said HMS Dean Joseph B. Martin said in the release.

The center's Intranet, which became functional last week, will be essential to the collaboration.

Researchers from different membership institutions will now be able to securely exchange information and access shared data.

"We needed communication above all," Nathan said. "And we've got it."

Establishing a good communication network will help win the center a Comprehensive Cancer Center designation--and up to $10 million a year in grant money for upkeep of facilities--from the NCI, Nathan said. With the NCI visiting the center in early February, the center is trying to launch as many initiatives as possible.

"We're working hard to bring everything together," he said.