3 La Jolla Research Institutes Form Collaboration to Fight Cancer

Three of San Diegos's leading life science and health institutions announced Wednesday that they will collaborate in the fight against cancer.

The UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, Salk Institute for Biological Studies and Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute have formed the San Diego National Cancer Institute Cancer Centers Council, or C3.

The partnership is designed to help San Diego's cancer researchers accelerate the understanding of cancer and find innovative treatments for the disease, the nation's second leading cause of death.

"San Diego's cancer centers are rapidly unlocking the genetic and molecular mechanisms involved in cancer and are in the vanguard of a new era in cancer science," said Tony Hunter, director of the Salk Institute Cancer Center and an American Cancer Society professor.

"The C3 partnership will allow us to build on the city's foundation of groundbreaking cancer research and harness our collective strengths to produce the next generation of therapies," he said.

Dr. Scott Lippman, director of Moores Cancer Center, said there's a need to take advantage of the proximity of the many exceptional cancer scientists and physicians in San Diego.

"Our goal is to build a structure for increased interaction among the cancer center faculties, leading to a deeper understanding of cancer and, ultimately, more and better treatments," Lippman said.

Leaders of the collaboration said their goals include fostering more frequent interaction between the cancer centers; enhancing collaborative research efforts, with members sharing resources in such areas as bioinformatics, genomics, clinical trials and data storage; and organizing conferences and forums to expand and deepen scientific and public understanding of cancer and advance the field.

—City News Service