Singapore, Feb 02, 2012: Massachusetts Life Sciences Center has awarded Boston-based Dana-Farber Cancer Institute $10 million grant to support the expansion of its pioneering cancer imaging research program.
The MLSC grant will help fund the establishment of the Molecular Cancer Imaging Facility, a $20 million research initiative to develop new molecular imaging probes. The facility will ultimately allow physicians to better diagnose and characterize cancer, choose targeted therapies, monitor treatment efficacy, and improve the outcomes of adult and pediatric patients with cancer. The expansion is projected to create more than 100 construction jobs, and 15 jobs to operate the facility. Funding for the grant comes from the state’s 10-year, $1 billion Life Sciences Initiative, proposed by Governor Deval Patrick in 2007 and approved by the Legislature in 2008.
“Molecular imaging holds tremendous promise for accelerating drug discovery by allowing more rapid assessment of drug efficacy in preclinical and clinical settings,” says Barrett Rollins, MD, PhD, Dana-Farber’s chief scientific officer. “Moreover, molecular imaging will play a key role in the delivery of personalized medicine, by allowing clinicians to determine whether specific drugs are effective in days instead of months.”
“This grant will support Dana-Farber’s vital and life-saving work, while creating jobs and advancing scientific knowledge in cancer treatment and personalized medicine,” said Governor Deval Patrick. “Together we can strengthen our innovation economy and provide a substantial return on investment in both jobs and treatment.”
Non-invasive imaging methods that can visualize, characterize and measure biological processes at the molecular and cellular levels in living systems (“molecular imaging”) are a critical step to speeding the pace of new therapies, according to Andrew Kung, MD, PhD, director of preclinical imaging at Dana-Farber.
Dana-Farber made a commitment to developing a world-class cancer imaging research program when it opened the Lurie Family Imaging Center on its Harbor Campus in South Boston in 2009. The Center provides researchers with a wide array of technologies, including a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner, a combined positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) scanner, an advanced ultrasound imaging system, and multiple optical imagers for studies that use light-emitting proteins to track disease, with which to conduct preclinical studies.
The new Molecular Cancer Imaging Facility will complement and expand several of Dana-Farber’s basic and clinical research enterprises that are focused on the development of targeted cancer therapies. This includes the Center for Biomedical Imaging in Oncology, which houses the Lurie Family Imaging Center, the Center for Novel Experimental Therapeutics(CNExT), and Profile, one of the country’s most extensive cancer genomics research projects, done in partnership with Brigham and Women’s Hospital, which seeks to accelerate the evelopment of personalized cancer treatments. Dana-Farber has committed to making the facility available for use by small businesses conducting related research in Massachusetts.