Scientific Report 2005
Message from the Senior Vice President for Research
As senior vice president for research, I have had the challenging and exciting responsibility of supporting and promoting state-of-the-art cancer research at DFCI. Our broadly based research spans a continuum that includes basic studies of normal and malignant cellular processes; work in model systems for translating new discoveries into better treatments and diagnostic techniques; prevention research in healthy, at-risk populations; and clinical studies aimed at developing new therapies. Other aspects of our research programs deal with the challenges of long-term survivorship and the important goal of improving palliative care when cures are not yet available.
This Scientific Report is intended to inform both scientists and laypeople about the cutting-edge research of our basic, population-based, and clinical investigators. In addition, we hope that it will further enhance communication within the Dana-Farber research community by helping investigators better understand the scope of research being conducted here, by building stronger bridges among investigators, and by speeding the application of new findings to patient care. The Scientific Report features a research summary by each independent investigator at DFCI, along with a brief biography and lists of recent awards, colleagues, trainees, and selected publications.
Since science at DFCI is progressing so rapidly that published reports are quickly outdated, our website version at www.dana-farber.org/ScientificReport will always be more current than the print version of the Scientific Report, which is now published in hard copy only every three years.
Departmental organization
DFCI is organized into the following departments: Medical Oncology, Radiation Oncology, Pediatric Oncology, Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Cancer Biology, and Cancer Immunology and AIDS. The following divisions within Medical Oncology provide increased focus for certain areas of research: Molecular and Cellular Oncology, Solid Tumor Oncology, Hematologic Malignancies, Hematologic Neoplasia, Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care, and Population Sciences. The goal behind this structure is to facilitate scientific communication and collaboration among researchers at all levels.
The DFCI Strategic Plan for Research
In the past three years, we have prepared a Strategic Plan for Research that further builds on our strengths by creating major collaborative initiatives that cut across organizational units and decrease the time it takes to apply our research discoveries to patient care. We hope that the Strategic Plan, highlighted in this report for the first time, generates much excitement and encourages any faculty not yet involved to join in these important initiatives.
Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center
Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC) was created in 1999 by expanding the former Dana-Farber Comprehensive Cancer Center, a federally designated cancer center for 36 years. The formation of this research consortium was led by David Nathan, MD (now president emeritus, DFCI), Joseph Martin, MD, PhD (dean of the Harvard Faculty of Medicine), and Barry Bloom, PhD (dean of the Harvard Faculty of Public Health), who conceived and shaped a new collaboration among all seven Harvard-affiliated medical institutions with a focus on cancer.
A significant indication of success in our collaborative efforts is the recent renewal of the Consortium Cancer Center after its first five-year period of funding by the National Cancer Institute as an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center. This year, peer review of our progress in this "noble experiment" rated DF/HCC as "outstanding." We are very proud of the progress made by our DF/HCC member institutions: DFCI, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Children's Hospital Boston, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and Harvard School of Public Health.
Today, DF/HCC has nearly 900 faculty members at its participating institutions and comprises 19 interrelated disease- and discipline-based programs supported by 19 shared core facilities. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is the administrative hub of DF/HCC, and Edward J. Benz Jr., MD, president and CEO of DFCI, serves as its director. The intellectual power of the research collaborations within this enterprise continues to be most impressive, as demonstrated by the award of several major inter-institutional grants.
In 2005, DF/HCC launched an improved Internet site to help members communicate with one another and with the core facilities. The public portion of this site gives laypeople access to information about cancer, cancer research and treatment, and current clinical trials. For information on DF/HCC activities, please visit www.dfhcc.harvard.edu.
Growth of faculty and research funding
As of October 2005, DFCI's staff exceeded 3,000 members, including 889 faculty with doctorates, 483 of whom are receiving postdoctoral training in our laboratories and clinics. This is a net increase of 152 faculty members, including an increase of 104 postdoctoral trainees, since the last Scientific Report in 2002. Since then, our external funding has increased 38 percent, from $132.3 million to $182.5 million. With the recruitment of new faculty members and the implementation of our Strategic Plan for Research, we expect to see even more growth in the years ahead.
Reviewing our research accomplishments over the past three years, we are pleased with progress toward our vision of bringing together all the DFCI talent in basic, population, and clinical science to translate scientific discoveries into clinical applications as quickly and safely as possible. This Scientific Report describes the broad range of research under way at DFCI and presents our progress toward this goal. I hope that this report adequately conveys the spirit of scientific promise and commitment to patient care that is felt so strongly here at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Faye C. Austin, PhD
Senior Vice President for Research, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Associate Director for Administration, Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center
