NFCR Opens Center for Molecular Analysis and Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital

National Foundation for Cancer Research
Sunday, 1 October 2000

The National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR) today announced the creation of the NFCR Center for Analysis and Molecular Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. NFCR awarded a $1 million grant to Massachusetts General Hospital to fund the Center. It will be co-directed by Dr. Ralph Weissleder, MD., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School, and James P. Basilion, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School.

The NFCR Center for Molecular Analysis and Imaging (NFCR-CMAI) will perform basic investigation and molecular analysis of cancers to better understand the molecular abnormalities that are unique to cancers and use this data to inform the development novel imaging probes. One of the goals of the program will be to foster inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional collaborations between the NFCR-CMAI and other groups around the world.

"I think that the grant from the National Foundation for Cancer Research enables us to ask broad questions that aren't necessarily fundable through other organizations," says Basilion. "This is probably the first attempt within an imaging center to set up a program specifically focused on molecular analysis of disease for the purpose of identifying non-invasive imagable disease markers-I am very excited about the Center's research program."

Dr. Weissleder adds, "If we are going to improve cancer treatments, we have to develop reliable methods for in vivo molecular target assessment and be able to do that repetitively. The main goal of our research is to develop such methodology, and the National Foundation for Cancer Research Center will play a critical role in this endeavor."

National Foundation for Cancer Research

The National Foundation for Cancer Research is a cancer related charity fully dedicated to advancing basic science cancer research in the laboratory. Formed in 1973 to support research related to the prevention, treatment and cure of cancer, NFCR encourages and facilitates collaboration and the sharing of ideas and results among scientists. By supporting the best ideas of the best minds, and by facilitating collaboration among scientists, advances in one field contribute to discoveries in others. This is what NFCR's "Laboratory Without Walls" makes possible. Since 1973 NFCR has provided more than $170 million to fund discovery-oriented research that has played a key role in many current breakthroughs in the prevention, diagnosis and new treatments of all types of cancer.

Massachusetts General Hospital

Massachusetts General Hospital, established in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United States, with an annual research budget of almost $250 million and major research centers in AIDS, the neurosciences, cardiovascular research, cancer, cutaneous biology, transplantation biology and photomedicine. In 1994, the MGH joined with Brigham and Women's Hospital to form Partners HealthCare System, an integrated health care delivery system comprising the two academic medical centers, specialty and community hospitals, a network of physician groups and nonacute and home health services.

For more information, or to contact National Foundation for Cancer Research, see their website at: www.researchforacure.com