OVERALL VISION FOR DEVELOPMENTAL ACTIVITIES Over the last 5 years of our CCNE, there has been a tremendous interest by researchers to join the consortium through pilot projects and/or collaborative research. We view such projects as an important adjunct of the CCNE's mission and from which full projects and important science can emerge. For example, in the past our consortium has funded the selected following projects: ? Paula Hammond and Dane Wittrup (pilot project) on functionalized linear-dendritic diblock copolymers for tumor-selective nucleic acid delivery. One ofthe postdocs (Greg Thurber) now works in the Weissleder lab and confinues interactions (85, 86) ? Stephen Lippard (pilot project) on functionalizing gold nanoparticles with DNA duplexes containing tethered, releasable plafinum conjugates at their termini in collaboration with Chad Mirkin at Northwestern CCNE (87) ? Robert Westen/elt (pilot project) on hybrid integrated circuit/microfluidic chips forthe manipulation of cells (88, 89) ? Sridhar Ramaswamy (pilot project) on nanomodels of metastatic cancer (90) ? Mehmet Toner and Daniel Haber (pilot project) on microfluidic sorting of circulating tumor cells. This original pilot project has resulted in several high impact publications (91-93) and funding outside the consortium, including a recent SU2C grant involving several CCNE members (Bhatia, Weissleder). Pilot, Alliance Challenge and other exploratory projects provide a mechanism by which to attract new researchers and to rapidly fund the most promising ideas. The following section lists some of our general plans on continuing developmental activities.
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