UCI, through its Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, has been a national and global leader at the forefront of cancer research and treatment for over a quarter century. Now, we propose an ambitious vision to bring together converging areas of cancer research to focus on the individual characteristics of each patient and their disease — a transformative synthesis that will catalyze new approaches to treat and cure cancer.
All coming to fruition in a visionary new program we are calling the Center for Transformative Cancer Research and Therapy. It has been selected as one of 12 high-impact research programs that will be located in the Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Innovation Building.
In This New Facility
World-renowned scientists and clinicians will collaborate in custom-designed labs to enable breakthroughs in cancer therapy.
Interdisciplinary teams will work side-by-side to facilitate fundamental advances at the interface of the fields of immunology, metabolism and genetics.
Future cancer researchers will be trained in a cutting-edge, collaborative environment.
Indoor and outdoor gathering spacesfor events, speakers and presentations will foster engagement and dialogue to speed and share discoveries.
Our Competitive Advantage
Empowered by the distinctive One Health approach of UCI Health Affairs that transcends disciplinary boundaries, the Center for Transformative Cancer Research and Therapy will comprise faculty and staff from the Susan & Henry College of Health Sciences which includes the Schools of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, Population & Public Health partnered with UCI Health, our region’s premier healthcare delivery system powered by the trailblazing Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute. With brilliant minds working together in teams instead of in silos, our experts will push the boundaries of innovation and facilitate fundamental discoveries in cancer treatment.
We are on the verge of a transformation in our ability to treat and cure cancer. A dramatic increase in our understanding of cancer and its relationship to the individual has led to the recognition that every patient and their cancer is biologically unique.
This provides an opportunity to harness a team of multidisciplinary scientists to develop personalized treatments for each patient. Our forward-looking teams will focus on three areas likely to lead to breakthrough cancer treatments in the next decade: cellular immuno-oncology, cancer metabolism and precision oncology.
Innovative, Leading-Edge Programs
Cellular immuno-oncology refers to the use of the cellular immune system to combat cancer. Over the past decade, the introduction of new immunology approaches, including so-called checkpoint inhibitors (which “take the brakes off” a patient’s immune system) and immune cells (“CAR T cells”) that are engineered to specifically attack cancer, have improved the prognosis for many patients. However, not all cancers respond, and resistance to these therapies can develop. The next frontier in cellular immuno-oncology involves developing effective cell therapies for treating a wider range of cancers and combining these therapies with other “immunemodulating” approaches, including checkpoint inhibitors, cancer vaccines and agents targeting the immune environment surrounding the tumor. UCI Health and the UCI Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center are well-positioned to be leaders in this exciting, new area of research through the UCI Health Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant and Cell Therapy Program launched in 2020, the only such program in Orange County.
Cancer metabolism research seeks to understand differences in the ways cancer cells and normal tissues process nutrients, including the tendency of cancer cells to inefficiently produce energy from sugar (glucose) without using oxygen even when it is available. The glucose dependency of many cancers is reflected in the PET scan used to diagnose them, which is based on high glucose uptake by tumors. The metabolic dependencies of cancer cells represent an “Achilles Heel” that theoretically could be exploited for cancer treatment. Initial efforts toward this goal have included drugs targeting metabolic enzymes, and nutritional interventions. However, future progress will depend on further basic and translational research. The cancer metabolism working group at UCI and the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center has already produced new insights into cancer metabolism that suggest novel therapeutic approaches. The inclusion of these researchers in the new Center will promote the translation of current and future discoveries into clinical trials.
Precision oncology encompasses the effort to tailor cancer therapy to the individual characteristics of a particular patient and the patient’s tumor. The initial step in a precision oncology approach is to determine the molecular profile of the cancer, which includes DNA sequencing and other genetic technologies. This information is then used to subclassify the tumor and, when possible, to predict specific treatments that might be effective. Many of these potential targeted therapies are also less toxic because they are directed at abnormalities present in the cancer cells, but not in healthy cells. UCI Health and the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center have been at the forefront of precision oncology and experimental cancer therapeutics for many years, offering the largest number of early phase cancer clinical trials in Orange County and leveraging the University of California Cancer Consortium, one of the largest cancer networks in the country. The new Precision Oncology group will accelerate progress in this area, including moving four novel first-in-class cancer therapeutic agents developed by our cancer scientists into the clinic for the first time.
A Visionary Leader
Richard Van Etten, MD, PhD Director, UCI Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
Under the leadership of Richard Van Etten, MD, PhD, the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center is the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center based in Orange County, California. It includes over 200 cancer scientists and clinicians drawn from 32 academic departments across nine UCI schools. Collectively this represents a strong foundation for the launch of the new Center for Transformative Cancer Research and Therapy, bringing together in one physical and collaborative space a team of experts in the scientific disciplines of genetics and genomics, metabolism, big data science and tumor-host interactions. The overarching goal of the Center is to function as an interdisciplinary Idea-Engine for the development of a new generation of personalized cancer therapies.
Collaboration in Cancer Research at UCI
200+
cancer scientists
32
academic departments
9
UCI schools
1 of 72
National Cancer Institute centers in the country
$46M
in extramural grant funding
110
associate member researchers
Join Us in Making an Impact
We are seeking philanthropic partners to establish a home for the UCI Center for Transformative Cancer Research and Therapy in the Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Innovation Building, and to support our programmatic funding to achieve transformational discoveries.
Named Spaces Within the Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Innovation Building
The overall design of the Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Innovation Building allows UCI to foster dynamic alliances that move discovery from inspiration to practice. There is the opportunity to name new spaces around the Center for Transformative Cancer Research and Therapy including custom-designed laboratories and gathering spaces. As a philanthropic partner, you will ensure our cancer scientists have the space, resources and facilities needed to perform their life-changing work.
Endowed Research Grants
Research endowments provide continuous support for our investigators who are reshaping the future of science and healthcare because external grants cover only a portion of costs. Moreover, endowed funding is particularly important to underwrite the most innovative discoveries and novel strategies because it provides the flexibility to follow the science that leads to breakthroughs. All this important work will be done under the name of our philanthropic partner. Named endowed scholarships underwrite the training of future generations of lead investigators and care providers in perpetuity.
Endowed Chairs
When you join us as a philanthropic partner naming an endowed chair, you will forever link your legacy to UCI’s distinguished experts. Ultimately, advances in cancer research will lead to innovative therapies. Philanthropic funds for endowed chairs, research and scholarships live in perpetuity. These funds create the ability to recruit and retain top-tier faculty who will be critical for UCI to remain a world-class center of excellence for emerging therapies. Endowed chairs are so powerful because they establish a perpetual annual support stream for the chairholder to focus their efforts on aspirational research.
Partner With Us
Please join us as we make our vision of Cancer Metabolism, Cellular Immuno-Oncology and Precision Oncology Research Programs a reality. To learn more about exclusive naming opportunities for this transformative initiative, and for associated spaces within the medical innovation building, please contact:
Caroline Pereira, MBA Associate Vice Chancellor of Health Advancement caroline.pereira@uci.edu | 949-824-5577
