Weinberg to head Ludwig Center for
Molecular Oncology at MIT
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (Nov. 15, 2006) - Whitehead Institute
Member and MIT professor of biology Robert
Weinberg has been named head of a new MIT-based
Ludwig Center for Molecular Oncology.
This new center is made possible by a $20 million grant
to MIT from the Ludwig Fund, a major philanthropic foundation
primarily focused on cancer research. The new center,
which will be administered through MIT’s Center
for Cancer Research (CCR), will focus on the biology
of cancer metastasis.
Weinberg is widely credited as a world leader in cancer
genetics. He led the research team that isolated the
first cancer-causing oncogene in humans, as well as
the first known tumor suppressor gene. His research
into the enzyme telomerase yielded insights into the
so-called “immortality” of certain cancer
cells, and his group was the first to successfully transform
normal human cells into cancer cells through genetic
manipulation.
“The Ludwig Fund’s commitment to
support research in metastasis—the most
deadly and possibly least understood phase of
cancer—is both generous and visionary. And
Professor Robert Weinberg, with his history of
groundbreaking research in this area, is a superlative
choice to head up this effort,” said MIT
President Susan Hockfield. |
Recently, Weinberg’s lab has made fundamental
discoveries in the mechanisms of metastasis, finding
that tumor cells metastasize by awakening a group of
dormant genes that are usually active only in early
embryogenesis.
Such discoveries are particularly important since roughly
90 percent of cancer deaths occur because of metastasis
and not because of the primary tumor.
“The Ludwig Fund’s commitment to support
research in metastasis—the most deadly and possibly
least understood phase of cancer—is both generous
and visionary. And Professor Robert Weinberg, with his
history of groundbreaking research in this area, is
a superlative choice to head up this effort,”
said MIT President Susan Hockfield.
“The Ludwig grant comes to MIT at a particularly
auspicious time, because we now have the proper biochemical
tools to make rapid inroads in this research area,”
commented Weinberg. “The major questions are now
ripe for experimentation, and the Ludwig Center at MIT
is poised to move ahead quickly.”
The establishment of the Ludwig Center will enable strong
synergies between MIT research groups that are addressing
the problem of metastasis through different means. “Each
research group will bring its own set of experimental
tools to a common table,” said Weinberg.
The CCR, founded in 1974, is one of eight National
Cancer Institutes designated basic research centers
in the country. Tyler Jacks, a former postdoc from the
Weinberg lab, is the Center’s director. Aside
from Weinberg, Whitehead Members on the CCR faculty
include Rudolf Jaenisch, Eric Lander, Susan Lindquist,
Harvey Lodish, Paul Matsudaira, Terry Orr-Weaver, David
Sabatini, and Richard Young.
The Ludwig Center at MIT is one of six new cancer research
centers being established concurrently around the country
by the Ludwig Fund, created by billionaire Daniel K.
Ludwig, who died in 1992. Ludwig considered cancer to
be one of humanity's great challenges, and the majority
of his wealth was given over to cancer research.
In addition to MIT, five other institutes will also
receive $20 million each. They are Dana-Farber/Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Memorial Sloan-Kettering,
Stanford, and the University of Chicago. This total
of $120 million is believed to be the largest single
gift by a foundation to US cancer research efforts.
The Ludwig Center at MIT will ultimately be located
within the new Cancer Research Facility, a new building
being planned for the corner of Ames and Main streets
on the MIT campus.
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