NEW YORK – The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research announced on Monday that it has created the Mark Foundation Center for Advanced Genomics and Imaging at Johns Hopkins University.
The center, which will receive initial funding of $5 million over two years, will bring together pathology, computer science, cancer genomics, and immunogenomics to study oncology. Specifically, the researchers will work to expand the number of cancer patients who benefit from immunotherapy. They will also use tools of astronomy image analysis, the Mark Foundation said.
"It takes a village of diverse disciplines and areas of expertise to confront the vast challenges presented by cancer, and the work of this center is the perfect embodiment of this reality," said Mark Foundation CEO Michele Cleary said in a statement. "One focus of the center is especially imaginative, as it involves developing a new platform that takes a model used in astronomical nighttime sky analysis and turns it into one that can be used to analyze cancer tumors."
Scientists from the Mark Foundation will collaborate with JHU researchers as part of a joint steering committee that will review the center's scientific progress.