James R. Heath, the Elizabeth Gilloon Professor and Professor of Chemistry, has been awarded $18 million by the National Cancer Institute to realize and direct the Nanosystems Biology Cancer Center at Caltech. One of the research thrusts of the NSBCC is to use nanotechnology and microfluidics-based chips for profiling various cancers. The goal is to use a fingerprick of blood as a diagnostic window into health and disease by detecting a panel of serum-based proteins that reflect the onset, progression, and therapeutic responses of cancer. The new center establishes a collaborative team comprising investigators from Caltech, the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), and UCLA's Institute for Molecular Medicine and Jonnson Comprehensive Cancer Center. Former Caltech professor and ISB founder Lee Hood is a co-director of the NSBCC, and Michael Phelps, Norton Simon Professor and chair of the UCLA Molecular and Medical Pharmacology Department, is also a co-director.
