Harsh realities shaped the blueprint for the new
Rebecca and John Moores UCSD Cancer Center building. It takes up
to $800 million and 15 years to bring a new drug to market—and
patients with advanced cancer can’t wait. What’s needed
is a new model for academic and industry collaboration that speeds
the time to market. “The mission is to get drugs off the
bench and into the clinic,” explains David Cheresh, Ph.D.,
a cancer biologist and the center’s associate director for
translational research.
People who share a physical space are more apt to share ideas,
and the architecture of the new, 270,000-square-foot cancer facility
reflects that. By housing outpatient care and research labs under
one roof, the new facility brings together clinical and scientific
experts who were formerly scattered across campus. “We physically
run into each other all the time,” says Joanne Mortimer,
M.D., professor of clinical medicine and the center’s deputy
director for clinical affairs. “Basic science people get
to see cancer patients and see what the endpoint of this research
is. Clinicians see the breadth of research that is going on here.”
This proximity is already producing results. In their second floor
laboratory, Cheresh and a group of researchers are studying basic
mechanisms related to pancreatic cancer invasion. Down the hall
is Michael Bouvet, a surgeon who treats patients with pancreatic
cancer. “We told Mike about our scientific discoveries, he
told us about his patients, and as a result, we’ve developed
a joint project for attempting to diagnose early forms of pancreatic
cancer,” says Cheresh. His research team is using plasma
samples and surgical specimens from Bouvet’s patients to
test laboratory drugs in a pre-clinical model.
Collaborations at the center occur by architectural and institutional
design, by happenstance, and by an industry relations program that
introduces private-sector players to the mix. The center has an
unpaid industry advisory council of San Diego biotech executives
and hosts symposia for a diverse audience of academics, local science
entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, attorneys and bankers. It’s
a departure from traditional research models that separated town
and gown.
“In the cancer field we can’t develop our own drugs alone.
To find a cure, we have to get industry involved,” says cancer
center director Dennis Carson, M.D.
In 2000, the National Cancer Institute designated the Moores
UCSD Cancer Center a comprehensive cancer center—the only one
in San Diego County and one of 38 nationwide. The new facility
(the largest project ever undertaken by UCSD Health Sciences) was
dedicated last April, after eight years of planning and two years
of construction. The center, with a staff of more than 275 physicians
and scientists, records about 53,000 patient visits on an annual
basis. At any given time there are more than 150 clinical trials
underway, as well as educational programs that emphasize prevention
and early detection. It’s apparently a blueprint that is successfully shaping
a new, more hopeful
future for cancer patients. 
— Sylvia
Tiersten
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