Yale and Partners Launch a Center for Interdisciplinary Cancer Research

Yale researchers are part of a newly launched center that focuses on collaboration, resource sharing, and outreach for the cancer research community across six programs funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) / National Cancer Institute (NCI) Division of Cancer Biology (DCB).

Corey O’Hern, professor of mechanical engineering & materials science, physics and applied physics, is the principal investigator for Yale for the Multi-Consortia Coordinating (MC2) Center for Cancer Biology. Hosted by Sage Bionetworks, a non-profit health research organization based in Seattle, WA, the MC2 Center is designed to break down the barriers between interdisciplinary communities of scientists working on important questions in cancer research. The MC2 Center works to motivate engagement and collaboration across consortia, support resource sharing, and disseminate knowledge among cancer biologists. 

For the center, O'Hern is developing a short course that will be held during the summer of 2023 to train junior scientists in computational and quantitative methods for cancer research. Topics will include machine learning methods for image processing, proteomics, protein structure prediction, and discrete element method simulations of cancer invasion. The short course will be filmed and shared online for the cancer research community and will serve as a pilot for other short courses on cancer research topics developed by the MC2 Center.  

Other partners in the center include Colorado University Anschutz, Harvard Medical School, and the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. All are developing methods and tools to support the center’s goal of catalyzing cancer research collaboration across disciplines and institutional boundaries.