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Cancer Center |
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Director:
Kristiina Vuori, M.D., Ph.D. |
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10901 North Torrey
Pines Road
La Jolla, CA 92037 |
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Tel: (858) 646-3100 |
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Fax: (858) 713-6272 |
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Visit
Website |
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The Burnham Institute for Medical Research was founded as
the “La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation” in 1976 and has
earned accreditation from the National Cancer Institute as an NCI-designated
Cancer Center focusing on basic cancer biology since 1981. The Cancer
Center is an interdisciplinary effort, mobilizing ~ 400 scientists, including
faculty, postdoctoral fellows, technicians, and graduate students, organized
into six collaborative programs, each individually focused on a particular
aspect of cancer: Cell Adhesion & Extracellular Matrix Biology, Glycobiology,
Oncodevelopmental Biology, Cancer Genetics & Epigenetics, Signal
Transduction, and Apoptosis & Cell Death Research.
NCI funding at the Cancer Center supports specialized
expertise and high-end technologies organized as "shared resources“,
which include: Gene Analysis (automated DNA sequencing,
microarray, and quantitative, real-time PCR); Proteomics (HPLC analysis
of organic compounds,
protein identification, analysis of post-translational
modifications); High Throughput Cell Analysis and Chemical Library
Screening (biochemical
and cell-based assays, high-throughput microscopy,
flow cytometry-based cell analysis and cell sorting); Functional Genomics
(RNAi-technology
and siRNA library screens); Medicinal Chemistry (peptide
chemistry, analytical and synthetic organic chemistry); Structural
Biology (x-ray crystallography,
NMR, and protein expression); Cell Imaging and Histology
(light, fluorescent, and electron microscopy, confocal analyses, and
laser capture microscopy);
Informatics and Data Management; and an AAALAC-accredited
Animal Facility.
In its 25 year history, the Cancer Center has produced
targeting technologies that deliver anti-cancer
drugs specifically into tumors, strategies for tricking cancer cells
into
committing suicide
through restoration of a natural mechanism for
cell death, and a number of cancer cell behaviors that can be pre-empted
or, in some cases, promoted,
as potential cancer drug targets. Chemical biology
and drug discovery, a developing focus of the Cancer
Center, will be
greatly enhanced by
the Burnham Institute's establishment of the San
Diego Center for Chemical Genomics, funded in 2005
by the National Institutes of Health Roadmap
initiative as one of nine national centers for
high-throughput screening, known collectively as "The Molecular Libraries Screening Centers
Network"
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