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Newsletter from the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development- U. T. Dallas

University News

Annenberg School at Penn Receives $2.5 Million From Annenberg Foundation to Honor George Gerbner

The Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania will receive a US$2.5 million gift from the Annenberg Foundation in memory of former Annenberg School Dean George Gerbner.

Students from the Annenberg School at Penn and the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California will be eligible for selection to the two-year residencies for study and research of communication.

Founded in 1958 through the generosity and vision of diplomat and philanthropist Walter Annenberg, the Annenberg School for Communication at Penn is devoted to furthering understanding of the role of communication in public life through research, education and service.

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UTD's Jonsson School Receives $1.5 Million from Texas Instruments to Establish Chair, Graduate Fellowships

The Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) received a US$1.5 million pledge from Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) to establish an endowed faculty chair and graduate student fellowships. The gift was announced at TI/UTD Day, an event held at TI and hosted by the company's University Relations Program to honor UTD faculty and alumni.

The gift will allow for the creation of two permanent endowments for the Jonsson School — the Texas Instruments Distinguished Chair and the Texas Instruments Diversity Graduate Fellowship Endowment.

Funds from the Texas Instruments Distinguished Chair endowment will support the research and scholarly activities of the chair holder as directed by the dean of the Jonsson School, Dr. Bob Helms. Funds from the Texas Instruments Diversity Graduate Fellowship Endowment will provide scholarships to graduate students enrolled in the Jonsson School. Recruitment of the scholarship recipients will be consistent with UTD's strategic plan, which calls for a student body that exhibits not only excellence but also is reflective of the gender and ethnic demographics of Texas.

TI has been a long-time supporter of U. T. Dallas, which was established by three TI founders — former Dallas Mayor Erik Jonsson, for whom the engineering and computer science school is named, Cecil Green and Eugene McDermott. Green and McDermott also have buildings at UTD named after them.

Nearly three years ago, TI partnered with UTD in a major economic project that involved the State of Texas, private donors and the University of Texas System. Under the terms of the deal, TI agreed to build a $3 billion chip fabrication plant in Richardson, Texas, and UTD was to receive up to $300 million in public and private funds to expand and improve the Jonsson School. Part of that project includes the construction of an $85 million, four-story, 192,000-square-foot Natural Science and Engineering Research Laboratory on the UTD campus. The facility currently is under construction and is slated for completion by the end of 2006.

TI/UTD Day was created to further strengthen the relationship between UTD faculty members and TI leaders and technologists, and increase the synergy in respective research initiatives between the two organizations. The event is an outgrowth of TI's existing relationship with UTD and a desire to see the university continue to build upon its goal of becoming one of the top 50 engineering schools in the country. Today's event took place at TI's headquarters in Dallas.

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Five Leading Organizations in Haifa Set Up Site for Biotechnology Industries Communication and Information Center

The Samuel Neaman Institute for Advanced Studies in Science and Technology at the Technion, which for the past two years had been spearheading an initiative to set up a biotechnology cluster in northern Israel, recently has succeeded in attracting four leading organizations to join it in this endeavor: the Haifa Economic Corporation, the Technion, the Rappaport Institute for Research in Medical Science and the Rambam Health Care Center. Together, they have set up the Northern Israel Life Sciences land Biotechnology Network, whose goal is to promote cooperation between biotechnology industries and researchers in academia.

Dr. Avraham Rotem, the project's coordinator for the Neaman Institute, explained that biotechnology industries all over the world make up the fastest developing sector, especially in the framework of "clusters". These industries, which develop around advanced academic centers, are reinventing science, especially in the areas of biotechnology, life sciences, biomedical engineering, pharmacology, food, agriculture and ecology.

In this initiative's framework, meetings were held at the Neaman Institute between leading researchers in academia and senior representatives of biotechnology companies and research institutes in the north. As a result of these meetings, and in the wake of conclusions published, a communication and information site on the Internet is now being set up: www.bionorth.org.il

The site constitutes an important first step that will assist in advancing the idea of a northern biotechnology cluster. It includes live and constantly updated information about industrial companies, incubators and start-ups, as well as researchers in the north, scientific publications and patents. It gives surfers up-to-date information on labs and knowledge centers that can serve industries in the north and also information on news and events such as seminars, scientific conferences, etc. It is already possible to find details about more than 100 biotechnology researchers in the north, 10 industrial companies, 6 incubators, 15 start-ups, 24 labs and 5 knowledge centers. Since the site was put up, it has been receiving requests to join from both researchers and companies.

Dr. Rotem emphasized that the site is intended to create a live communication network for transferring updated, interactive information among all those involved in the field in northern Israel. The site also aims to promote the creation of connections among all those dealing with biotechnological research in the north, to assist academic researchers to connect with start-ups and industries in their day-to-day activities, and to contribute to the greater economic success of its partners.

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Keck Futures Initiative Announces Grant Recipients;$1 Million Awarded for 14 Research Projects

The National Academies Keck Futures Initiative announced the recipients of its 2005 Futures grants, each in the amount of US$50,000 or US$75,000 to support interdisciplinary research on genomics and infectious disease. The 14 research projects that were awarded funding represent a wide range of approaches to the field, which was the subject of the third Futures conference, "The Genomic Revolution: Implications for Treatment and Control of Infectious Disease," held last November in Irvine, Calif.

These competitive seed grants aim to fill a critical gap between research on bold new ideas and major federal funding programs, which do not typically provide grants in areas that are considered risky or unusual. The Futures grants allow researchers to start developing a line of inquiry by recruiting students and postdoctoral fellows, purchasing equipment, and acquiring preliminary data – all of which can position the researchers to compete for larger awards from other public and private sources.

Funded by a US$40 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation in 2003, the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative is a 15-year effort to enhance communication among researchers, funding agencies, universities, and the general public – with the objective of stimulating interdisciplinary research at the most exciting frontiers. The National Academies and the W.M. Keck Foundation believe considerable scientific progress and social benefit will be achieved by providing a counterbalance to the tendency to isolate research within academic fields. The Futures Initiative is designed to enable researchers from different disciplines to focus on new questions and entirely new research, and to encourage better communication between scientists as well as between the scientific community and the public.

The Futures Initiative builds on three pillars of vital and sustained research: interdisciplinary encounters that counterbalance specialization and isolation; the identification and exploration of new research topics; and communication that bridges languages, cultures, habits of thought, and institutions. Toward these goals, the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative incorporates three core activities each year: Futures conferences, Futures grants, and National Academies Communication Awards.

The award recipients and their grant research topics are:

The Co-evolution of Human and Plasmodium Genomic Interactions - $75,000

Mortality associated with malaria has been a major selective force shaping variation in the human and P. falciparum genomes resulting in a genetic "arms race." Using an interdisciplinary approach, Awadalla, Zhao, and Tishkoff will incorporate novel molecular, genetic, statistical, evolutionary, and bioinformatics approaches to identify variants in genomes that play a role in host/pathogen interaction.

Exploring the Emerging Role of Public Health in Integrating Genomics into the Control and Prevention of Infectious Diseases - $75,000

Blower, Breban, and Vardavas will collaborate with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to investigate the "superbug" methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). These researchers will decide how genetic data can be used to characterize outbreaks, and predict the size and frequency; and design effective control strategies for MRSA at the state and the national level.

Metagenomic Studies of Human Microbiota in Crohn's Disease - $75,000

Crohn's disease is an inflammatory disease of the digestive track that affects a half-million patients in the United States. Microbial populations in the intestines affect the development of the disease and vice versa. These researchers will use genomics to survey intestinal microbiata populations and understand their role in disease.

Dynamics of the Human Intestinal Flora in Health and Disease- $75,000

The human gut contains vast numbers of mutualistic bacteria. Normally the human immune system regulates this population, but upon HIV infection, gut immune cells are rapidly destroyed and intestinal illness follows. Using genomic approaches, these researchers will study the effects of disease on the composition of the gut flora.

Engineering "Microbial Swarmbots" for Medical Applications - $75,000

These researchers will engineer microbial swarmbots as a platform technology for delivery of bioactive agents to combat infectious diseases. A microbial swarmbot is a small population of bacterial cells that are autonomously regulated by synthetic gene circuits and are encapsulated in microcapsules built from synthetic or natural polymers.

Identification of Isocitrate Lyase Inhibitors as Broad-Spectrum Antimicrobial Drugs - $50,000

These researchers will test a new model of drug discovery that uses comparative genomics and computer simulation. Using a combination of structure-guided computer modeling and laboratory testing, they will identify pharmaceutical inhibitors of the enzyme isocitrate lyase, which is required by several infectious agents to cause disease in humans.

Role of Nitric Oxide on White Blood Cell Function in Inflammation and Infection - $75,000

These researchers will use state-of-the-art microscale technology to measure and compare cellular events and white blood cell genomic expression in in vitro human models of infection and inflammation. Nitric oxide is an important mediator of white blood cell function in the pathogenesis and host defense of infectious and inflammatory processes.

Direct Electronic Detection of Molecular Recognition and Binding Events with Engineered Nano-Scale Structures - $75,000

Two nano-scale sensing mechanisms based on tunneling current and surface dipole fields will be investigated for direct conversion of molecular recognition and binding events to electronic signals. The new sensing mechanisms will provide powerful tools for furthering the understanding of biology at the small scale and extending the link between the genomic information and phenotype and the eventual disease.

Genetic Diversity and Efficacy of Malaria Drugs and Vaccines - $75,000

These researchers will develop new genomic tools to assess how genetic differences in malaria parasites affect the ability of drugs to treat malaria and the ability of vaccines to prevent the disease in clinical trials in Africa.

Bringing Genomics to the Rainforest: The Study of Monkeypox in the Democratic Republic of Congo - $75,000

Monkeypox is an emerging infectious disease in Africa, and it unexpectedly caused an outbreak in the United States in 2003. These researchers will study the responses of patients with monkeypox in the Democratic Republic of Congo using powerful genomic tools, in order to understand this poorly studied disease.

Creating an Inexpensive Diagnostic for Malaria Using Combined Nanotechnology and Genomic Approaches - $75,000

These researchers will develop an inexpensive field diagnostic to detect active malaria infection in a remote field setting where little electricity or medical expertise is available. The diagnostic tool uses microfluidics, nanotechnology, and genomics to diagnose the type and drug resistance of malaria parasites in humans.

Enhancement of DNA Microarray Hybridization Using Thermal Gradient Induced Convective Flow - $75,000

These researchers will develop a novel but simple and easy-to-implement technique, based on thermal gradient induced convection flow, to enhance DNA microarray hybridization and address the diffusion limitation and low throughput of current microarray technology. This technique would accelerate hybridization kinetics in virtually any microarray platform.

Low Cost and Rapid Microbe Diagnostics to Combat Drug Resistance Phenomenon in Infectious Diseases - $50,000

These researchers will develop a magneto-nano biosensor for portable and rapid microbial diagnostics. Furthermore, they will investigate its feasibility to rapidly identify organisms in infected patients, thereby reducing the overuse of broad-spectrum antibiotic regimens and saving numerous lives in hospitals.

Micro Incubator for Bacterial Infectious Agents - $75,000

Using microelectromechanical technology, these researchers will design and build a prototype microfluidic-based incubator with the potential to provide up to 100 environmental conditions within a small space. The incubator will be used to evaluate the impact of environmental factors on bacterial strain evolution, propagation and death.

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12 UTD - U. T. Arlington Research Projects Receive Monies from Joint Funding Program

When the presidents of The University of Texas at Dallas and The University of Texas at Arlington swapped jobs for a day last fall, the two leaders promised a new era of cooperation and solidarity between the sister institutions. One of the first tangible results of that pledge emerged this week as 12 projects involving faculty and researchers at both universities received grants from a newly created Presidential Joint Research Seed Funding Program.

The US$250,000 fund was created by $125,000 contributions from Presidents James Spaniolo of UT Arlington and David Daniel of UTD. Its purpose is to foster collaborative efforts between the faculties of both universities, and provide a catalyst for seeking additional federal research funds.

Twelve projects were selected for funding from 32 proposals submitted by 76 faculty members from both institutions, said Dr. Da Hsuan Feng, vice president for research and economic development at UTD. The proposals were evaluated and ranked by a panel of 10 faculty members – five from each university – who were not associated with any of the projects, Feng said.

The 12 projects selected garnered nearly $240,000 in funding, according to Dr. Ronald Elsenbaumer, vice president for research at UT Arlington.

"While the grants were limited to no more than $20,000 each, we view this funding as 'seed money' that will enable promising research to get underway, to demonstrate results and to attract additional monies from other sources," Elsenbaumer said.

Funding will begin April 15 and continue for one year.

The projects selected for funding represent a number of fields of study, Elsenbaumer said. The largest number, five, involve the biological and life sciences, while four are in engineering and one each in the physical sciences, liberal arts and business. Each project includes at least one investigator from each institution.

Among the research to be conducted are studies involving sickle cell anemia, neurodegeneration, cancer therapeutics, microelectronic devices and wireless sensors. Additional information about the projects is available at http://www.utdallas.edu/research/collaboration.html.

While the new funding program will increase collaboration between the two universities, UTD and UT Arlington were already working together. The two institutions partner in a significant number of research and teaching areas, including nanotechnology, computer science, brain imaging, art and photography, robotics and electrical engineering, among others. The schools also participate together in joint distance-learning degree programs facilitated through the U. T. Telecampus.

Both relatively new in their positions at the time, Daniel and Spaniolo switched jobs for a day on September 20 to learn more about the other's university and as a symbolic gesture of mutual respect and cooperation between the leaders and their schools. They also sought to put an end to a rivalry between the two schools that was spirited and, at times, acrimonious.

At the time, both men pledged to work together for the benefit of the Metroplex and the entire state.

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UCI Receives $674,000 from State for Stem Cell Training

UC Irvine has received more than $674,000 in state funds from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine for training students in the basic biology, ethics, policy and clinical applications of stem cell research. The funds are part of a $12.1 million disbursement to institutions across the state, the first to be awarded by CIRM for stem cell research.

The money is part of a $2 million grant over three years promised to UCI for educating new stem cell researchers. The university was one of 16 institutions approved to receive funding for these training grants in 2005. UCI will use the funds for the first-year training of eight predoctoral and four postdoctoral students, who will study stem cell biology, its clinical applications, and ethical and policy issues related to the use of stem cells.

The funding for this initial award of training grants comes from the sale of $14 million of Bond Anticipation Notes to six California philanthropic entities. The California Stem Cell Research and Cures Finance Committee approved the BANs last week.

In 2004, voters approved the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Act (Proposition 71), which is to provide $3 billion in funding for stem cell research. The state's ability to sell general obligation bonds to finance the act has been impeded by legal challenges to Prop. 71. The litigation is expected to conclude next spring. The BANs will be repaid when the general obligation bonds are issued.

With the training grants, UCI continues its development as one of the premier centers for stem cell research in California. The university plans to construct a $60 million Stem Cell Research Institute facility aimed at propelling stem cell technology from the research lab to the clinic.

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Yudof Announces Appointment of Vice Chancellor for Governmental Relations

Barry McBee, first assistant attorney general of The State of Texas, has been appointed vice chancellor for governmental relations in the University of Texas System. The appointment, announced April 7 by Chancellor Mark G. Yudof, is effective June 12.

As first assistant attorney general, McBee serves as the second highest ranking attorney and as the agency's chief administrator under the State Attorney General. He was appointed to the post by current Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott in 2002.

Prior to joining the attorney general's office, McBee served as chief of staff for Rick Perry in both the Governor's and the Lt. Governor's offices. He also served as deputy commissioner of agriculture from 1991 to 1995 and was appointed by then-Governor George W. Bush to the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission where he served as chairman from 1995 to 1998.

Previously, McBee served as a special assistant to the secretary of the cabinet of President George H. W. Bush from 1989 to 1991. Prior to entering public service, he was a partner at Bracewell & Patterson LLP (now Bracewell & Giuliani) in Houston. An oil and gas and real estate attorney, McBee began his legal career as an associate — and was later promoted to partner — at the Dallas office of Thompson & Knight LLP.

As vice chancellor for governmental relations, McBee will represent the Board of Regents and the UT System in its interactions with the Legislature and other state agencies.

McBee holds a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Oklahoma and a law degree from Southern Methodist University.

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Columbia Names New Executive VP for Health Sciences

Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger announced April 10 the appointment of Lee Goldman as the University's new executive vice president for health and biomedical sciences and dean of the faculties of health sciences and medicine.

Goldman is a professor and associate dean at the University of California in San Francisco (UCSF). He will assume his post at Columbia in late June, succeeding Gerald D. Fischbach, who last year announced his plans to step down in June 2006. Goldman will have appointments as the Harold and Margaret Hatch Professor of the University, as professor of medicine in the College of Physicians & Surgeons and as professor of epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health.

Currently, Goldman chairs the highly ranked UCSF Department of Medicine, which receives more financing in grants and contracts from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) than any other academic department of any kind in the United States. He is the Julius R. Krevans Distinguished Professor and associate dean for Clinical Affairs at the UCSF School of Medicine.

This appointment follows by three weeks the announcement of the University's largest ever gift, more than $200 million from Dawn M. Greene and the Jerome L. Greene Foundation to establish the Jerome L. Greene Science Center, a new research and teaching facility that will serve as the intellectual home for Columbia's expanding initiative in Mind, Brain and Behavior. The Goldman appointment is a further signal of Columbia University Medical Center's commitment to excellence in patient care, research and education.

A pioneer in the application of statistical analysis to key areas of clinical medicine, Goldman has developed innovative predictive models used by clinical investigators and practicing physicians throughout the world. The most widely used of these models are the Goldman Index for assessing cardiac risk involved in non-cardiac surgeries and the Goldman Criteria to determine which patients with chest pain require hospital admission. Another of his analytical products, the Coronary Heart Disease Policy Model, established priorities for preventing and treating coronary disease. In San Francisco, he also created the first academic hospitalist program (physicians with solely hospital inpatient practice).

A cardiologist by training, Goldman has been at UCSF since 1995. Prior to that, he had served on the faculty at Harvard since 1978. There, he was a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. He was also vice chair of the Department of Medicine and later chief medical officer at Brigham & Women's Hospital, and served as a member of the operating committee of the Partners Healthcare System, all in Boston.

Goldman received his undergraduate and medical degrees at Yale University, where he also earned a master's degree in public health. He fulfilled his internship and residency at UCSF and at Massachusetts General Hospital, followed by a clinical fellowship in cardiology at Yale University School of Medicine.

Goldman is currently serving as president of the Association of Professors of Medicine and was previously a director of the American Board of Internal Medicine. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. A past editor of The American Journal of Medicine, he is also lead editor of the renowned Cecil Textbook of Medicine and co-editor of Hospital Medicine and Primary Cardiology.

Goldman's research has focused on the cost and effectiveness of diagnostic and therapeutic strategies, with special emphasis on how the delivery of medical care can be improved based on the results of quality clinical investigation. His work has applied the latest analytical methods and computer-simulation models to integrate public health and clinical medicine assessment.

Among his more than 400 publications are more than 20 first- or senior-authored articles in The New England Journal of Medicine. Many of those who trained with him are now leaders in cardiology, general internal medicine and public health nationally and internationally. Goldman was a creator of the Harvard Program in Clinical Effectiveness, which was one of the models for an NIH program that trains physician investigators at academic medical centers throughout the country.

Goldman's wife, Jill S. Goldman, is a clinician, educator and researcher. She has been a genetic counselor in the UCSF Department of Neurology and an assistant clinical professor in the UCSF School of Nursing. Her focus is on patient care and research aspects of hereditary adult-onset neurological diseases, such as dementia and ALS. She has coordinated genetic research and genetic risk assessment and has taught nursing students specializing in genomics.

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Nanoparticles Armed to Combat Cancer

Ultra-small particles loaded with medicine -- and aimed with the precision of a rifle -- are offering a promising new way to strike at cancer, according to researchers working at MIT and Brigham and Women's Hospital.

In a paper to appear the week of April 10 in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team reports a way to custom design nanoparticles so they home in on dangerous cancer cells, then enter the cells to deliver lethal doses of chemotherapy. Normal, healthy cells remain unscathed.

The team conducted experiments first on cells growing in laboratory dishes, and then on mice bearing human prostate tumors. The tumors shrank dramatically, and all of the treated mice survived the study; the untreated control animals did not.

"A single injection of our nanoparticles completely eradicated the tumors in five of the seven treated animals, and the remaining animals also had significant tumor reduction, compared to the controls," said Dr. Omid C. Farokhzad, an assistant professor at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

Farokhzad and MIT Institute Professor Robert Langer led the team of eight researchers. (Farokhzad was formerly a research fellow in Langer's lab.)

The scientists said that further testing is needed. Although all the parts and pieces of their new system are known to be safe, the system itself must yet be proven safe and effective in humans. This means thorough testing must be done in larger animals, and eventually in humans.

"We're most interested in developing a system that ends up in the clinic helping patients," Farokhzad said. To make that happen, he added, "we brought in cancer specialists and urologists to collaborate with us."

Further, he said, from an engineering perspective "we wanted to develop a broadly applicable system, one that other investigators can alter for their own purposes."

For example, Langer said, researchers "can put different things inside, or other things on the outside, of the nanoparticles. In fact, this technology could be applied to almost any disease" by re-engineering the nanoparticles' properties. The nanoparticles work like a bus that can safely carry different passengers to different destinations.

In the study, Farokhzad, Langer and colleagues tailor-made tiny sponge-like nanoparticles laced with the drug docetaxel. The particles are specifically designed to dissolve in a cell's internal fluids, releasing the anti-cancer drug either rapidly or slowly, depending on what is needed. These nanoparticles were purposely made from materials that are familiar and approved for medical applications by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Thus all of the ingredients are known to be safe.

Also, to make sure only the correct cells are hit, the nanoparticles are "decorated" on the outside with targeting molecules called aptamers, tiny chunks of genetic material. Like homing devices, the aptamers specifically recognize the surface molecules on cancer cells, while avoiding normal cells. In other words, the bus is driven to the correct depot.

In addition, the nanoparticles also display polyethylene glycol molecules, which keep them from being rapidly destroyed by macrophages, cells that guard against foreign substances entering the body.

The team chose nanoparticles as drug-delivery vehicles because they are so small that living cells readily swallow them when they arrive at the cell's surface. Langer said that particles larger than 200 nanometers are less likely to get through a cell's membrane. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter.

The Farokhzad-Langer team created particles that are about 150 nanometers in size: a thousand sitting side by side might equal the width of a human hair.

Additional authors of the new paper are Jianjun Cheng, a former postdoctoral fellow with Langer now at the University of Illinois; Benjamin A. Teply of Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and Harvard; Ines Sherifi, also at BWH and Harvard; Sangyong Jon, a former postdoctoral fellow with Langer now at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea; Dr. Philip W. Kantoff of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute; and Dr. Jerome P. Richie of BWH and Harvard.

The research was supported, in part, by a grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) through the Harvard-MIT Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence. The Harvard-MIT center is one of seven national Centers of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence established recently by the NCI.

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