Dana-Farber cancer imaging research wins grant for $10 million

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has been awarded a $10-million grant from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center to expand its molecular imaging research. The grant will help to create the institute’s Molecular Cancer Imaging Facility in South Boston, a $20-million project aimed at finding ways to help doctors better diagnose cancer and target their treatment for the best outcomes.

Here’s an excerpt from the press release announcing the award:

The expansion is projected to create more than 100 construction jobs, and 15 jobs to operate the facility. Funding for the grant comes from the state’s 10-year, $1 billion Life Sciences Initiative, proposed by Governor Deval Patrick in 2007 and approved by the Legislature in 2008.

“Molecular imaging holds tremendous promise for accelerating drug discovery by allowing more rapid assessment of drug efficacy in preclinical and clinical settings,” says Barrett Rollins, MD, PhD, Dana-Farber’s chief scientific officer. “Moreover, molecular imaging will play a key role in the delivery of personalized medicine, by allowing clinicians to determine whether specific drugs are effective in days instead of months.”

“This grant will support Dana-Farber’s vital and life-saving work, while creating jobs and advancing scientific knowledge in cancer treatment and personalized medicine,” said Governor Deval Patrick. “Together we can strengthen our innovation economy and provide a substantial return on investment in both jobs and treatment.”

Non-invasive imaging methods that can visualize, characterize and measure biological processes at the molecular and cellular levels in living systems (“molecular imaging”) are a critical step to speeding the pace of new therapies, according to Andrew Kung, MD, PhD, director of preclinical imaging at Dana-Farber.

Dana-Farber made a commitment to developing a world-class cancer imaging research program when it opened the Lurie Family Imaging Center on its Harbor Campus in South Boston in 2009. The Center provides researchers with a wide array of technologies, including a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner, a combined positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) scanner, an advanced ultrasound imaging system, and multiple optical imagers for studies that use light-emitting proteins to track disease, with which to conduct pre-clinical studies.