Rice joins M.D. Anderson for new program

Rice joins M.D. Anderson for new program
Collaboration to provide ‘bed to bench’ training for doctoral students

BY JADE BOYD
Rice News staff

Rice University, the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) announced Feb. 15 the creation of an innovative new doctoral training program that will offer Rice bioengineering students a chance to go on clinical rounds and take coursework at M.D. Anderson.

“Over the last 50 years, there have been tremendous advances in our understanding of the molecular and cellular processes of cancer, and great progress in the treatment of a number of neoplastic disorders,” said Rebecca Richards-Kortum, the Stanley C. Moore Professor in Bioengineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering and chair of bioengineering. “However, there has been no change in the age-adjusted mortality due to cancer. We need to revolutionize the way we translate our knowledge of cancer biology into new technologies for detecting and treating cancer, and with HHMI’s help we’ll be doing that.”

Rice and M.D. Anderson’s program involves a unique training opportunity for bioengineering doctoral students that integrates courses in cancer biology, clinical medicine, bioengineering and translational research; internships in clinical cancer care and translational research; and jointly mentored interdisciplinary projects. The program marries Rice’s bioengineering doctoral program — ranked among the nation’s 10 best — with the clinical and basic science strengths of M.D. Anderson — one of the nation’s top-ranked cancer hospitals.

The new program, “Translational Bioengineering for Cancer Diagnostics and Therapeutics,” is funded by a four-year, $850,000 award from HHMI. Rice’s program is one of 13 pioneering new translational medical research programs funded by HHMI’s “Med to Grad” initiative, supporting innovative graduate programs that introduce doctoral students to the world of clinical medicine.

Rice’s program will build upon four areas of joint research that already exist between Rice and M.D. Anderson: computational bioengineering for design of cancer-inhibiting drugs and vaccines, molecular imaging for early cancer detection, nanobiotechnology to design new cancer imaging and therapeutic agents, and cell and tissue engineering to develop effective reconstructive procedures after tumor resection.

Starting this fall, Rice will enroll seven students per year in the program. The students will complete courses taught jointly by M.D. Anderson and Rice faculty, and they will complete an intensive clinical cancer internship with rotations at M.D. Anderson in diagnostic imaging, surgery, radiotherapy, internal medicine, lab medicine, pathology, bone-marrow transplantation and cancer prevention. The students will also carry out a translational research rotation that is supervised by faculty at both institutions.

“In designing and implementing this program, we’re bringing together an outstanding group of faculty dedicated to translational research and education,” said Michele Follen, director of M.D. Anderson’s Center for Biomedical Engineering and professor of gynecologic oncology.

Richards-Kortum said, “Rice is one of only two institutions without a medical school to win an HHMI grant under this program. This win is a testament both to the strength of Rice’s and M.D. Anderson’s partnership and to the caliber of their combined programs.”

HHMI is a nonprofit medical research organization that employs hundreds of leading biomedical scientists working at the forefront of their fields. Through its grant programs and other activities, HHMI is helping to enhance science education at all levels and maintain the vigor of biomedical science worldwide. The institute is one of the world’s largest philanthropies, with laboratories across the U.S. and grant programs throughout the world. HHMI’s endowment in fiscal year 2004 was approximately $12.8 billion.