5. CANCER IMMUNOBIOLOGY PROGRAM Thomas F. Tedder, Ph.D. and Michael R. Zalutsky, Ph.D., Co- Leaders The Cancer Immunobiology Program is a research effort focused on understanding the immunological aspects of cancei biology and treatment. The Program is focused in five overlapping areas of research: 1) Understanding the molecular mechanisms of normal leukocyte development and biology. 2) Understanding how abnormal leukocyte function or development results in malignancies. 3) Understanding how immune effector cells and their products interact and how these mediators interact with tumor cells to cause their destruction. 4) Understanding how the presence of neoplasic cells perturbs the regulator and effector mechanisms of the immune system, and 5) Developing and testing novel diagnostic and therapeutic applications of immunological research. The program consists of 52 investigators from ten basic science and clinical departments of Duke University Medical Center (DUMC), who currently hold 90 peer reviewed grants with over $32.6M of support. Since the last competing renewal, members of the Program have published 1,176 papers, primarily in peer-reviewed journals, which bear predominantly on cancer-related problems. Finally, 19.5% of the publications (229) are the result of intra-programmatic collaboration and 8.5% (100 papers) were published as a result of collaborations with investigators in other programs.
The aims of the Program are: 1) To provide an intellectual environment within the academic medical center that promotes interactions and collaborations between Cancer Immunobiology Program members and with members of other programs of the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center (DCCC). 2) To recruit and mentor faculty conducting successful basic, translational, or clinical research in the field of Cancer Immunobiology. 3) To provide new insight into the molecular origins of human malignancies, and to identify or develop new diagnostics and therapies for Cancer. 4) To train new investigators in the field of immunology to provide a current understanding of the role that immunology has played and can play in the identification and treatment of human malignancies. The overall thrust of the Program is to continue building an integrated, yet broadlybased, basic and clinical research effort in immunology that will to have a major positive effect on all Cancer Center investigators and will lead to more collaborations and productive basic and clinical research.
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