3/2/10 FOX Business News reports the Lustgarten Foundation has announced the formation a new national pancreatic cancer research consortium, a collaborative effort to advance the most promising research initiatives aimed at finding a cure for pancreatic cancer. Named the Pancreatic Cancer Research Consortium (PCRC), the Lustgarten Foundation will provide an initial $10 million in grants this year for research in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the fourth-leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. The Lustgarten Foundation expects to contribute more than $25 million in funding to the consortium over the next several years. The KI was chosen along with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratoy, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in affiliation with Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. As part of PCRC, the scientists will share knowledge, information, expertise and technologies in a coordinated effort. 

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3/2/10   The National Cancer Institute (NCI) announced that KI will host a new Center for Cancer Systems Biology (CCSB). These centers are part of the NCI’s Integrative Cancer Biology Program (ICBP), which is the NCI’s primary effort in cancer systems biology, a field that is rapidly seen as an essential component in the future of cancer research. “These centers represent a unique multidisciplinary union of outstanding scientists and clinicians who will work to unravel the complexities of cancer through the novel application of technology and mathematical modeling. Their discoveries and models will be critical to our continued success in understanding and treating this disease,” said Dan Gallahan, program director for the Integrative Cancer Biology Program. Douglas Lauffenburger, member of the Koch Institute and head of the Department of Biological Engineering, will be the principal investigator for the new center.

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2/15/10 The altered metabolic state all cancer cells share—rather than gene mutations specific to certain cancers—could be the key to finding new treatments. KI researchers are collaborating with scientists from the National Institutes of Health’s Chemical Genomics Center (NCGC). Of particular interest to cancer researchers is pyruvate kinase M2, a target that is commonly expressed in tumors but isn’t present in most healthy adult tissues.  M2 may be a highly tractable cancer-specific enzyme target, says KI's Matthew G. Vander Heiden.

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1/6/10 A team of researchers including a group at MIT has developed a “cocktail” of different nanometer-sized particles that work in concert within the bloodstream to locate, adhere to and kill cancerous tumors. In their study, UC San Diego chemists, KI bioengineers and cell biologists at UC Santa Barbara developed a system containing two different nanomaterials the size of only a few nanometers, or a thousand times smaller than the diameter of a human hair, that can be injected into the bloodstream. One nanomaterial was designed to find and adhere to tumors in mice, while the second nanomaterial was fabricated to kill those tumors.

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June, 2010 The 9th Annual 2010 Oncology Research Symposium on “Integrative Approaches to Cancer” is to be held on Thursday and Friday, June 10 and 11. Over the two-day program, top cancer researchers from around the world will share insights and updates on their work. This symposium will be the last held before the KI moves to its new facility on the MIT campus in December 2010. The MIT symposia on cancer have historically been very popular, drawing more than 1,000 attendees each year from the greater Boston area, throughout New England, and across the world. The 2010 Symposium will provide an opportunity to participate in an exciting scientific program.

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