It's About Time

[Tom]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20060925-17330400-bc-us-consortium.xml

Five-year cancer consortium is formed

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 25 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers are joining together to form a five-year consortium to battle [color=green! important][color=green! important]cancer[/color][/color].

The Broad Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, [color=green! important][color=green! important]Harvard [color=green! important]University[/color][/color][/color] and four prominent New York research centers are forming the consortium using a $100 million award from the Starr Foundation.

The Starr Cancer Consortium will conduct research to harness the power of genomic technology for the understanding and treatment of cancer.

In addition to the Broad Institute and Harvard, members include the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering [color=green! important][color=green! important]Cancer [color=green! important]Center[/color][/color][/color], Rockefeller University and the Weill Medical College of [color=green! important][color=green! important]Cornell [color=green! important]University[/color][/color][/color].

MIT's Broad Institute and Harvard have already formed a research collaboration involving several Boston-area [color=green! important][color=green! important]universities[/color][/color] and teaching hospitals, with programs focused on a variety of human diseases.

"Genome technology offers enormous opportunities to accelerate the understanding and treatment of cancer, which is a genomic disease," said Todd Golub, director of the Broad's Cancer program. "With these tools, it will be possible to systematically define the molecular pathways underlying cancer and to reveal the Achilles' heels that can be targeted by new therapies."

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