Our Role in Cancer Research
An explosion of scientific knowledge about the processes leading to cancer and the rapid emergence of advanced technologies such as genomics, bioinformatics, proteomics, and nanotechnology have created an opportunity to achieve exponential progress against cancer that was unimaginable twenty years ago. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has a long history of leadership in the research and development of biomedical technologies enabling cancer research and clinical care. To help meet the goal of eliminating suffering and death due to cancer, the NCI has coordinated its advanced technology development programs to revolutionize the way that cancer is detected, treated, and prevented in the 21st century.
The Office of Technology and Industrial Relations (OTIR) is comprised of the following Programs:
OTIR also works closely with the following related NCI initiatives:
As important as these new initiatives are for the research they are catalyzing, they are also significant because they are fostering new models for funding and conducting research. To help break down the “silo mentality” that can stifle innovation and impede the translation of knowledge into clinical advances, the NCI’s new technology-driven initiatives all place a premium on collaboration – collaboration among research groups, across research between academic laboratories and NCI comprehensive cancer centers and affiliated Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPOREs), and between the public and private sectors. To help ensure that both cancer research and cancer patients get the maximum benefit in the least amount of time from these new technology-driven initiatives, the NCI has emphasized milestones and deliverables so that progress can be tracked and measured over time.
In addition, NCI has formed extensive partnerships focused on biomedical technology development with other NIH institutes and centers as well as other Federal agencies, including the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The NCI participates in the NIH Bioengineering Consortium (BECON) and the Biomedical Information Science and Technology Initiative (BISTI) — two trans-NIH working groups focused on biomedical engineering and bioinformatics support, respectively.
Continuing in this long and rich tradition, OTIR serves as the NCI’s vanguard for advanced technologies and strategic partnerships.
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