The National Cancer Institute has awarded Seattle’s Institute for Systems Biology $13 million to lead a collaborative cancer center studying two key types of cancer therapies: targeted therapies and immunotherapies. Using mouse models of cancer and human tissue, researchers will administer the two types of therapies in succession and compare the response to administration individually or in simultaneous combination.
Scientists will build computational models of the tumor response and design clinical trial concepts. “There is emerging evidence that starting these therapies in specific sequences before their combination might extract the most benefits for the patients,” said ISB president Dr. Jim Heath in a statement. Heath will lead the new program.