News Release

Cooperation, not competition, to usher in new era of federally funded cancer research

Peer-Reviewed Publication

University of North Carolina Health Care

CHAPEL HILL - In the new millennium, cooperation rather than keen-eyed competition may signal a new era of federally funded research for the nation's top scientists who develop and study mouse models of cancer. Such models have revolutionized the ability to probe mammalian biology and human disease. In a bold strategy, a University of North Carolina scientist will share the helm of the Mouse Models of Human Cancer Consortium, a cooperative of 19 university-based research teams from around the nation, each individually funded by the National Cancer Institute, NCI.

"It's really very exciting. It's a paradigm shift in the way most people do science," said Dr. Terry Van Dyke, professor of biochemistry and biophysics at UNC-CH School of Medicine. "Most who do science do so independently, are worried about the competition and who gets the credit. Now each team will have some money to work on their own animal models, and pursue their own individual ideas, but will also participate in a larger scale co-operative group.

"There will be extensive sharing of ideas, results and reagents. Furthermore there will be a concerted effort to develop useful technologies and technical support strategies that will benefit the research community at large. For example, if I generate a brain cancer model and another group wants to conduct pre-clinical drug trials, then that model is made available to them."

According to Van Dyke, a member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, the consortium concept arose after NCI director Dr. Richard Klausner challenged national experts to recommend ways to speed research findings in utilizing the powerful mutant mouse technology. He particularly wanted recommendations for using the mouse to learn more about human cancer development with the aim to develop predictive models and to provide an avenue for pre-clinical drug and diagnostics testing.

Although mouse model technology had tremendously advanced the basic science of cancer genetics, more information was still needed to answer some crucial questions.

"Not enough work has been done to say a particular type of cancer in the mouse model is like this cancer in humans, or in what ways it is like a cancer in humans," said Van Dyke a leading scientist in mouse models research. "Moreover, a cancer in the mouse and in humans may have similar genetics but different biologies, or different genetic behaviors and similar biological behaviors. Extensive work needs to be done to find out."

The recommendations to NCI would come from several working groups, headed by Dr. Doug Hanahan of the University of California San Francisco and Robert Horvitz of MIT, including one on pre-clinical mouse models, co-chaired by Van Dyke.

"Among our recommendations was the need for a funding mechanism that would target animal models research," she said. "Access to at least a core set of technology also was needed. We said it's not efficient for each lab to develop their own set of technology, to seek out their own collaborators, and for NIH to fund each of these individually. We recommended that it would be far more efficient to bring a consortium of people together, identify their needs, and fund those needs in a cohesive fashion. This would ultimately benefit the entire research community."

And that was the model chosen. Independent teams would compete for funding, each based around a type of cancer or on technology development. "At the outset, the idea was that NIH would select five or six teams to form the consortium. In the end they were so excited by the proposals that 19 were funded," Van Dyke said. "So now 19 groups make up the consortium, and Klausner has asked me and Dr. Tyler Jacks of MIT to serve as co-chairs."

Dr. Dinah Singer, director of NCI's Division of Cancer Biology, says the consortium "is an extraordinary opportunity that should greatly improve our ability to understand the process of malignant transformation and should also enhance our ability to evaluate a range of biomarkers prior to their clinical use."

While the consortium will share models and technology, there's the issue of publishing new findings-will this be a team effort as well? "Joint publication? Most certainly," Van Dyke said. "Some will come from the whole consortium, while others will come from funding the projects of small collaborations. "If it turns out we can actually model cancer, then we've got a whole new avenue for drug testing, diagnostic predictions, and many other possibilities that will help the human cancer scenario. We're breaking new ground here."

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Note to media:
Dr. Van Dyke
tvdlab@med.unc.edu
919-962-2145


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