Cancer Cell Biology

University Of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

The CCB Program Area has 24 core members, distributed among these three focus areas. During the current funding year, peer-reviewed funding totaled $12 million in total costs, including $1.45 million from the National Cancer Institute. As with other Program Areas, JCCC fosters a number of interactive activities and many of the Shared Resources that support investigators in the CCB Program Area. During the current grant cycle, funds from the JCCC in the form of CCSG Developmental Funds, institutional support and philanthropic gifts to the CCB Program Area total $1,042,520. These funds supported Interdisciplinary Grants, Seed Grants, recruitment/retention, Program Area Leadership support, funding for the use of emerging Shared Resources and trainees. Twelve of the Program Area Members were the recipients of JCCC support. Cancer Cell Biology Program Area members published 201 peer-reviewed papers during the recent five-year renewal period. The JCCC CCB program area is highly interactive, with 9% of its 201 publications reflecting intraprogrammatic efforts and 59% reporting inter-programmatic collaborations. 129 publications (64%) appeared in high-impact journals. The Cancer Cell Biology (CCB) Program Area was previously named the Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology (MCDB) Program Area. In response to the 2002 CCSG review, and in extensive consultation with our External Advisory Board, the JCCC has reorganized this program. The goals of the reorganization were to: (1) identify critical cancer-relevant focus areas of basic science and biomedical technologies; (2) identify appropriate leaders and members for these focus areas; (3) promote intraprogrammatic interactions and collaborations within and across these groups in cancer-related areas; and (4) foster inter-programmatic interactions leading to translational and clinical collaboration. Concomitantly with the interest in reorganizing this program area, UCLA had made the strategic decision to invest heavily in infrastructure, faculty recruitment and funding in nanotechnology and stem cell biology; the California NanoSystems Institute and the Broad Stem Cell Center (BSCC) have both been created during the current JCCC CCSG funding cycle, and new buildings constructed to house these programs. The JCCC capitalized and incorporated the investment made by UCLA into our Program Area strategic plan and identified three main interest groups for the Cancer Cell Biology Program Area: (1) nanobiology applications to cancer detection, monitoring, and therapy; (2) cancer stem cell identification and eradication; and (3) model organism studies of cancer detection, progression, and therapy. Senior Associate Dean Dr. Leonard Rome, the former MCDB Program Area director, has become the JCCC Director for Strategic Planning and Partnerships. With the enthusiastic support of our EAB, Dr. Luisa Iruela-Arispe, an internationally known developmental biologist and cancer researcher has become the Director of the CCB Program Area. Dr. Michael Teitell, a pathologist and cancer biologist with strong interests in nanotechnology, brings strength in this area and a clinical perspective to the Co-Director position.