Cancer
Since the institute was founded in 2004, the Broad’s Cancer Program has been at the forefront of understanding the molecular mechanisms in cancer and applying that knowledge to the clinic. Over the past decade, the program has served as the flagship of international efforts to map the cancer genome. Our contributions have helped drive the latest generation of precision cancer medicine.
Despite the revolution in cancer medicine, we still don’t have cures. Broad cancer researchers are actively engaged in a range of activities, all for one purpose: to help the world cure cancer.
To do this, the program deploys the institute’s powerful capabilities in investigating genes and potential therapeutic targets. Our research is rigorously systematic and comprehensive, and is conducted at scale—an ability seldom seen in academia. Ongoing research projects range from developing more faithful disease models to gleaning valuable clinical information to help future cancer patients. Work is also underway to identify the cellular processes that cancers disrupt, what genes they need to survive, and how cancer cells become drug-resistant. Broad researchers are also developing drug leads for cancers previously deemed “undruggable.” We are also finding new ways to empower patients to share their genomic information in order to accelerate research. We are seeking philanthropic partners in the following ongoing projects:
Creating a comprehensive therapeutics roadmap to drive novel and targeted cancer therapies.
Discovering and characterizing the many unknown genes that drive cancer and treatment response, including cancer drug resistance, and enabling early detection and prevention.
Pioneering completely new approaches to cancer therapeutics, including next-generation cancer immunotherapy and drug targets that have been deemed “undruggable.”