Inside this issueCover storiesThe big questionsNew Kavli center for neuroscience research will untangle mysteries of the human brain Molecular gambleYale physiologist elected to National Academy of Sciences TrailblazerMagazine innovator celebrates 101 years with gifts for his medical school “family” PeopleLifelines: Expert on gene-swapping joined molecular biology at its very beginningsFor new deputy dean, focus is on top-notch care, service to patientsKidney researchers celebrate a banner yearUnconventional physician-filmmaker receives “genius” grantNew HHMI investigator says appointment liberates his scienceAwards & honorsScienceAnalysis of genome reveals clues to macular degenerationVaccinating wildlife suggests a new strategy in continuing battle against Lyme diseaseAdvances: Salmonella “syringe” ready for its close-up | Possible cancer inhibitor found in worm studyHealthA heart is repaired, the patient grows up: Program helps growing number of adult survivors of congenital diseaseMore integrated care for cancer patients, collaboration of scientists and clinicians are goals of proposed new YNHH buildingAdvances: New test easier for patients to swallow. | Study finds payoff in wider HIV testingPartnershipsPfizer and Yale join forces for research and educationA long, fruitful collaboration: Bristol-Myers Squibb and YaleDrive to cure blindness hits $5 millionClass of 1954 makes a lasting impact with scholarship giftGrants and contracts
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More integrated care for cancer patients, collaboration
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An architect’s rendering of the proposed new pavilion for cancer care at Yale-New Haven Hospital. |
The proposal derives from “an intense focus on cancer that is truly uniting the medical school, Yale-New Haven Hospital and the university as a single effective team,” says Edelson, a cancer immunologist who developed a widely used immunotherapy for T-cell lymphoma. “The people whom we’re recruiting are leaving outstanding positions at other university medical centers to come to Yale because they recognize that this new facility is not just another building at another cancer center. Something quite special is happening in the field of cancer at Yale.”
From the patient’s perspective, too, the proposed 14-story clinical center will be far more than bricks and mortar, Chu says, because it will consolidate services now scattered around the medical complex, including diagnostic imaging, surgery, radiation treatment, social services and palliative care. “For the first time, we’ll actually have a dedicated facility for the clinical care of our cancer patients,” says Chu. “We’re really making the patient the focus.”
To achieve a marriage between basic and clinical research, Chu says, the School of Medicine has hired nine clinical investigators, most of whom will arrive this summer. The heart of the new effort, says Mellman, will be an unusually close collaboration between these investigators and the teams of basic scientists who will develop new therapies and test and refine them in clinical trials.
Mellman says that the construction of the new center comes at an auspicious time, when basic research on the molecular biology of cancer is ripe for translation to human treatments.
“Increasingly, Yale faculty on the basic science side are becoming deeply committed to applying what we have learned in the laboratory to problems of human biology in general and human cancer in particular,” says Mellman, the Sterling Professor of Cell Biology and a prominent figure in cancer research, “because the problems are so great from a human point of view, and the challenges are so great from a scientific point of view.”
And although researchers can learn a great deal studying fruit flies and mice, Mellman says, clinical trials are vital to advancing cancer care: “The only true model for human cancer is human cancer.”
The proposed new Clinical Center is part of a larger Yale Cancer Center endeavor, which will have as a central goal the combination of scientific advances with creative and seamless delivery of the best available clinical care.
According to Mellman and Chu, because understanding cancer requires a multidisciplinary approach, the Yale Cancer Center’s research focus will not be on particular tumor types but on disciplines: cancer immunology, cancer genetics, imaging, stem cell biology and drug development. The new clinical facility is, therefore, a central part of the broader Yale cancer effort.
Once the construction cranes are gone and the hard hats are hung up, Mellman says he looks forward to seeing clinicians, students, laboratory staff and basic scientists brainstorming over coffee in the new building. “The first step in any new scientific collaboration,” he says, “is communication.” 
