Insight: Research Edition

Fall 2005

Animal Cancer Center Selected to Receive Academic Enrichment Funds

The Robert H. and Mary G. Flint Animal Cancer Center (ACC) has been selected to receive a $2 million grant from the Colorado State University Academic Enrichment Program (AEP). The grant will help make the center an international leader in basic cancer biology and translational research used in the discovery and application of novel cancer diagnosis and treatment.

The grant complements a recent $1 million gift to create a graduate Cancer Biology program of study within the University's College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. The graduate program, the first of its kind in the nation, will train scientists whose focus is on the basic science of the causes and prevention of cancer, in addition to cancer diagnosis, therapies and risk assessment. The anonymous donor requested that the gift be used to fund curriculum development with an emphasis on veterinary postdoctorate education and be administered through the Morris Animal Foundation.

The AEP grant will fund three specific areas at the ACC: experimental therapeutics, functional imaging, and the molecular signatures of cancer. Experimental therapeutics encompasses new chemotherapy drugs, specially designed therapies that target specific pathways in cancer cells, immunotherapy, cancer vaccines and more. Functional imaging permits veterinarians to look at tumors in non-invasive ways and to examine the biological differences between cancerous tumors and normal surrounding tissues. Molecular signatures involves looking at cancer on a molecular level including studying the DNA, RNA or proteins to better understand what makes each cancer cell different from normal cells and from other cancer cells.

“The program was designed by Dr. Robert Ullrich, Director of Research; Dr. Ed Gillette, Assistant Director; and myself,” said Dr. Stephen Withrow, Director of the Animal Cancer Center. “Between the three of us, we have almost a century of experience in battling cancer with surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. In envisioning the program’s structure, we saw a way of both increasing and expanding our knowledge of cancer and having a greater impact on the search for new answers to old questions.”

The Academic Enrichment Program at Colorado State is a source of one-time funds to support unique, high quality academic programs at the University during the next 5 to 10 years. Quality and pursuit of excellence were the features that took precedence over all other considerations when the selection committee looked at the various programs competing for the funds. For more information about the Animal Cancer Center, visit their Web site at www.csuanimalcancercenter.org.