The Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence Focused on Therapy Response (CCNE-TR) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Annual Site Visit, March 30, 2007

Posted 10:22 AM, April 23, 2007, by jaruiz

Over 75 visitors from a variety of universities, foundations, and industries attended the CCNE-TR/NCI annual site visit organized by Sanjiv Sam Gambhir, MD, PhD, professor of radiology and bioengineering; director of the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford; chief of the Nuclear Medicine Division; and principal investigator of the CCNE-TR. The annual CCNE-TR/NCI site visit provides an opportunity for the NCI to review and experience CCNE-TR research and enables the scientists involved in the multiple cores of the CCNE-TR to convene in one meeting and share their scientific progress.

(Image courtesy of Mark Riesenberger)

Dean Philip Pizzo, MD, and Beverly Mitchell, MD, director of the Cancer Center, were among the 20 speakers presenting in the Clark Center. The site visit also included presentations featuring such topics as the proteomic identification of markers of therapeutic response in prostate cancer; the biological modification of quantum dots for in vivo targeting; and mouse cancer models for integrated tissue/serum proteomics and molecular imaging.

Like scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), researchers at the CCNE-TR are convinced that nanotechnology will make a significant impact on cancer diagnosis and management in potentially revolutionary ways. The goal of the CCNE-TR is to develop and validate nanotechnology so that it will be possible to predict which patients will likely respond to a specific anti-cancer therapy and to monitor their response to therapy. Because of our investments in faculty and infrastructure, Stanford Radiology was selected in 2006 as one of eight institutions in the nation to receive support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop the CCNE-TR. This Center includes scientists from Stanford and from six other sites across the country: the University of California at Los Angeles; the University of Texas at Austin; the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; Cedars Sinai; Intel; and the General Electric Global Research Center. The CCNE-TR has greatly expanded our Department's collaborative efforts, and we now work with an additional 35 faculty in more than 20 departments here at Stanford and across the country.