With eight other NFCR research centers at universities and research hospitals worldwide, the NFCR Center at Dana-Farber will conduct therapeutic antibody research and provide high affinity human single-chain antibodies (sFv) to facilitate the ongoing cancer research of NFCR scientists. Many of the most promising anti-cancer drugs developed in recent years utilize humanized or human monoclonal antibodies Rituximab (anti-CD20); Herceptin (anti-Her2); Campath-H (anti-CD52). Other NFCR Centers have been established at Oxford, Yale, Penn State, University of California-Berkeley, University of Arizona, Freie Universitt Berlin, and the Institute of Medicinal Biotechnology in Beijing.
"This new initiative allows one of the world's strongest research programs at Dana-Farber to be networked into a collaborative partnership with NFCR scientists internationally. This collaborative effort adds a new dimension to NFCR's 'Laboratory Without Walls'," said Dr. Michael Wang, Director of Research at the National Foundation for Cancer Research in Bethesda, Maryland. "With this new NFCR Center for Therapeutic Antibody Engineering at Dana-Farber, we hope to create great synergies and multiple possibilities toward our goal of curing cancer."
How the Center Works
Traditionally, monoclonal antibodies have been derived from mouse models. However, this technique can produce Human Anti-mouse Antibody Responses (HAMA) when used clinically for human thera
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Contact: Bill Schaller
william_schaller@dfci.harvard.edu
617-632-5357
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
13-Mar-2003