Antonio Prudente Cancer Research Center

Abstract

a) Description of the Center and its characteristic features. The Center consists of a vigorous and internationally respected research institute working in close collaboration with Brazil's foremost cancer hospital. Both institutions are private not for profit organizations which combine the flexibility and agility of the private sector together with a philanthropic mission to serve society. The two institutions, the Hospital do Cancer-AC Camargo (HCACC) and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR) enjoy an almost seamless integration due to the presence of a common director, the physical presence of the Institute within the has premises, the vigorous clinical research program that utilizes the molecular and bioinformatics infrastructure of the Institute, the molecular studies of the instill based heavily on the use of a recently implanted tumor bank as a collaborative effort between hospital and Institute staff, the common post graduate course in oncology and lastly their active participation in the design and execution of clinical diagnostic tests and genetic counseling. The mission of the Center is to improve Cancer Care through the pursuit of excellence in research and clinical practice. It is conceived that the discipline of a research environment is conduce to the attainment of high level, standardized clinical protocols and that the research itself, to be most effective, is oriented in its broadest terms by the limitation and needs highlighted by the application of state of the art clinical care. The HCACC was founded in 1934, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. This Institution is run by the Fundação Antonio Prudente of which Ricardo Brentani has been the President since 1990. Besides cancer care, the HCACC is committed with educational all research activities. The LICR currently consists of eleven branches. They are situated either within hospitals or are university departments with the aim of fostering clinically orientated research in the area of human cancer. The last year has seen a significant new investment on the part of the Institute in the area of genomics,and molecular genetics by the Sao Paulo branch in collaboration with the Office for Information Technology in Lausanne Switzerland. The Sao Paulo branch was founded in 1983 and has been under the directorship of Ricardo Brentani since its inauguration; b) definition of research focus and of its multidisciplinary connections. The research focus of the Center is the molecular dissection of the process of malignant transformation and the early clinical application of the acquired knowledge to provide optimized and individualized health care. Our vision of cancer is that of a somatic genetic disease that results from the inexorable acquisition of genetic defects during the natural human life span. Each tumor, a clone expansion from a cell that contains the correct permutation of mutation: ontogenesis and tumor suppressor genes, is distinct and to be fully understood (and optimally managed) would require a complete and detailed genome analysis: is possible to imagine a future technological scenario which would permit the early detection of tumors (or indeed the identification of still normal tissues at high risk of containing incipient tumors) and the rapid and minimally invasive analysis of the molecular phenotype of the tumor based on its gene expression profile leading to the selection of the best possible combination of available therapies to remove the tumor or delay its growth. To achieve this goal we need to first catalogue the complete protein coding content of the human genome, to define patterns of gene expression in healthy tissues, to identify the patters of mutation that result in cellular transformation, define the altered patters of gene expression that directly result from the mutational load and interpret these events in the of the biological and clinical behavior of individual tumors. This Center intends to provide a local focus for high quality, clinically based biotechnological project that will contribute to the international effort aimed at improving the diagnosis and treatment of human malignancies. Our goals will only be met by the continued pursuit of excellence across a broad range of clinical and scientific disciplines. First and foremost, our proposal is only viable in an environment of health care excellence. The perception of the needs and possible applications of biomolecular assays can only be made where state of the art clinical care is practiced in the diagnostic, surgical and therapeutic arenas. To complement this environment, access to and execution of the most powerful of the new era of biotechnological innovations is required. This involves gene identification, mutation detection and polymorphism determination together with powerful bioinformatics capacity for the compilation and annotation of human genome structure and highly parallel analysis of gene expression. This juxtaposition is provided by the unique combination of the presence of an internationally competitive institute for cancer research, the Ludwig Institute, within Brazil's foremost dedicated cane hospital; c) description of planned technology transfer and educational activities and of their relationship to the research focus. The organizational concept of the Hospital and the strategy of the LICR together provides a perfect environment for technology transfer and the nurturing of small business initiatives. The preferred means of further development of patented procedures and reagents is collaboration with local commercial laboratories and industries. This insures the possibility of immediate application within the local community as well as contributing to wealth creation and development of the local biotechnology community. In addition, the individual researchers contracted by the Institute are encouraged to play interactive roles with health care and commercial activities by means consultant ships and membership of scientific boards of biotechnology and clinical companies. The structure of the hospital is also conducive to the vigorous development of individual initiatives since all the clinical departments take the form of small businesses run and administered by the clinical staff themselves' renewable contracts, remunerated on the basis of performance and results, with the Fundação for the execution of defined clinically duties. The enormous benefit of this system is that it continually promotes the pursuit of efficiency and excellence and permits total flexibility in the hiring and continuation of only the best available physicians. The educational activities of the Center focus on post graduate training. This takes the form of both a well established program of clinic residency and post-graduate course in oncology; d) brief justification for the creation of a research center. The logical progression of the convergent course of two institutions over recent years would now be the establishment of a unified research center involving both entities. The dynamism, flexibility, administrative structure, clinical prowess, research excellence and multidisciplinary nature of such an amalgamation would ensure both a self sufficient center excellence and a focal point for large scale collaborative projects in the clinical and research fields. In practice the majority of both research and educational actives are already joint ventures between the professionals’ active in both institutions, a collaborative ideal achieved in great part by the common leadership which presently exists and which deserves to be consolidated in the form of a single research center. We believe that the future of health care and biomedical research in the local environment is intimately dependent on the existence of chosen institutions with access to the latest biotechnological innovations, professional excellence, administrative agility and a proven record of innovation, leadership and dissemination. The proposed center fulfills all of these criteria is thus a candidate for becoming a cornerstone in the fundamental changes in research structure and achievement that will be required over the coming decal order for local research to remain competitive in the international forum; e) description of facilities offered as counterpart by the participating Institution: The hospital has more than 200 beds available for cancer patients and all necessary diagnostic and support facilities associated with a major cancer treatment Center. The Hospital archives contain more than 300.000 medical reports with 90% five year follow up, histological slides and paraffin blocks from all register patients, a tumor bank for fresh tissues. The Ludwig Institute consists of 2.000 m2 of research and administrative space which supports four research groups working in laboratories with an infrastructure for basic molecular biology techniques, a sequencing facility, an animal facility and a bioinformatics service. As facilities, both the HCACC and the LICR, have libraries and auditoriums for small seminars as well as major symposia. The Center, in the context of the pre funding application, will be administered by the full time team at the LICR which consists of professionals in the areas of finance, personnel, importation and purchasing as well as maintenance. (AU)