The Purdue University Center for Cancer Research (PCCR) was established as an NCI basic science cancer center in 1978. As such, the PCCR's mission focuses on basic discovery - discovery that is the foundation through which the PCCR fosters innovative cancer solutions. Notably, the PCCR not only supports basic discovery but also facilitates discovery application and, where possible, positions discoveries for transfer to the public domain. Purdue core strengths in engineering, veterinary medicine, nutrition science, chemistry, medicinal chemistry, pharmacy, structural biology, and biological sciences, are coalesced by the PCCR into functional Foundational Disciplines within a transdisciplinary environment of Research Programs, to drive collaborative research that moves toward innovative cancer solutions. As a matrix center, PCCR leadership draws on core capabilities through its 111 members from 21 academic departments and 7 colleges across Purdue, to organize an infrastructure based on three Research Programs: Cell Identity and Signaling (CIS), the newly formed Targets, Structures and Drugs (TSD), and Drug Delivery and Molecular Sensing (DDMS). The PCCR expedites the process of discovery by managing six Shared Resources that were reorganized since the last competitive renewal to better support future scientific needs of the PCCR: Flow Cytometry Shared Resource, Computational Genomics Shared Resource, Biomolecular Structure Shared Resource, Life Science Mass Spectrometry Facility Shared Resource, Biological Evaluation Shared Resource, and Transgenic and Genome Editing Facility Shared Resource. These Shared Resources provide researchers access to state-of-the-art expertise to analyze cells, nucleic acids and proteins, to determine detailed molecular structures that can be used to design drugs, to evaluate targets/drugs in vivo, and to develop new animal models of cancer. These Shared Resource services are integrated into the PCCR process of collaborative discovery to generate novel observations that lead to innovative cancer solutions. The PCCR fosters a remarkable breath of cancer research spanning clinical evaluations of dogs with spontaneous malignancies as an evaluative process in drug development and validation of targets and technologies, to probing the fundamentals of molecular motion through interferometry and determining its application to the development of innovative cancer solutions, and to the application of the pioneering technology that is based on ionizing molecules in ambient conditions for mass spectrometry analysis to identify cancer markers and monitor chemical reactions for continuous automated synthesis process. Finally, the PCCR maintains the Essential Characteristics for a cancer center including exceptional Physical Space, effective Organizational Capabilities that provide the foundation for innovative cancer research, a Transdisciplinary Collaborative environment that facilitates fundamental discovery with a Cancer Focus, exceptional Institutional Commitment to expand and enhance cancer research at Purdue, and outstanding Center Director leadership that drives the development of cancer solutions.
As a basic science cancer center, the Purdue University Center for Cancer Research (PCCR), through its fundamental research effort, serves its state, country and the world through innovative discovery and its application to develop cancer solutions. Through drug discovery, drug delivery, imaging technology and biomarker discovery, the PCCR applies innovative solutions to major cancer problems.
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