NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The Institute for Cancer Research, London plans to launch a new center that will conduct genomic profiling of patients' cancer tumors, and it wants to raise £3.2 million ($5.1 million) to fund the venture.
ICR said yesterday that the money it raises for the new Tumour Profiling Unit will be used to attract scientific expertise to the center and to buy new equipment and to outfit its labs.
The center will help to advance ICR's personalized medicine-centered scientific strategy, which is based on three themes: genetics and epidemiology, molecular pathology, and therapeutic development.
The institute pursues its goals by working with The Royal Marsden cancer center and the Biomedical Research Centre for Cancer, by balancing its portfolio between basic and applied science, and by developing treatments based on patient and tumor genomes.
ICR, a college of the University of London, also partners with funding organizations that include Cancer Research UK, Breakthrough Breast Cancer, and the Wellcome Trust. In 2011, its budget totaled £87.4 million.