Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is entering into a $120 million partnership with the nearby North Shore-LIJ Health System to pursue cancer therapeutics research, the institute has announced.
The funds will go toward advancing cancer therapeutics research as well as the development of a new clinical cancer research center at North Shore-LIJ's Cancer Institute and the recruitment and training of additional clinician-scientists.
ScienceInsider's Jocelyn Kaiser wonders how this move toward the clinic will affect CSHL's traditional bent toward basic research. The lab, she notes, has long studied cancer and houses a National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center, but it has typically turned to pharma companies to then develop their findings into treatments.
Bruce Stillman, the CEO and president of CSHL, tells her that this will not mean that the lab is moving away from its roots. "Our discovery science has placed us as one of the leading research institutions in the world," he says, adding that the alliance "will provide a substantial amount of funding to do the translational cancer research that we have been doing on a shoestring budget."
"Cold Spring Harbor's identity is not going to change," Stillman says.