Cooper, Rowan, and Coriell to jointly run a new cancer research center in Camden
The new center, formed through a partnership between the three organizations, will focus on a number of areas in cancer science.
A new cancer research center in Camden aims to bolster South Jersey’s research profile by pooling resources from three leading local health institutions.
The Camden Cancer Research Center is a $30-million collaboration between the Coriell Institute for Medical Research, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, and Cooper University Health Care. (Cooper’s health system is also home to a MD Anderson Cancer Center.)
Scientists and medical experts across the three institutions will work together at the new center, seeking to advance new cancer treatments, said Jean-Pierre Issa, the center’s founding director and a researcher.
He hopes to work toward a National Cancer Institute designation, a status reserved for the most elite research programs. Two institutions in the region, both based in Philadelphia, currently have the NCI’s highest recognition: Fox Chase Cancer Center and the Abramson Cancer Center at University of Pennsylvania. Others have lower-level NCI designations.
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A regional focus
The center’s research will focus on cancers and barriers to care that doctors in the region often see among their own patients. For instance, researchers want to find ways to improve screening rates and reduce late diagnoses. These factors are common among patients in many lower-income South Jersey communities with limited access to preventive care.
“There’s an opportunity really to study cancer in South Jersey in a different way,” said Issa, also the president and CEO at Coriell.
Other research will focus on breast cancer, the relationship between cancer and aging, and epigenetics, a fast-growing field that studies how the environment can directly affect a patient’s genetics.
The center has dedicated two-thirds of the initial $30 million in funding over the next 10 years to help recruit scientists. The center is starting with about 10 cancer scientists. Issa hopes to more than triple that number in the future.
Coriell will house the new center at its current location in Camden. Construction on an expanded space for the center will begin in the next few months.