Clark Atlanta, Ga. Tech team up on cancer center

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Clark Atlanta, Ga. Tech team up on cancer center
August 3, 2009
by Urvaksh Karkari
Atlanta Business Chronicle

Atlanta will soon get a high-tech cancer research institute aimed at beating prostate cancer.

Clark Atlanta University will team up with Georgia Tech to launch the Collaborative Cancer Genomics Center, a state-of-the-art $5 million gene sequencing facility at Clark Atlanta.

The partnership, between Clark Atlanta's Center for Cancer Research and Therapeutic Development (CCRTD) and Georgia Tech's Integrative Cancer Research Center (ICRC), will focus on understanding the underlying causes of prostate, ovarian, pancreatic and lung cancers.

An announcement about the new center is expected Wednesday

The roughly 20,000-square-foot genomics center will help researchers find a biomarker to help effectively screen for prostate cancers, said Bill Todd, CEO of the Georgia Cancer Coalition. The non-profit aims to strengthen cancer prevention, research and treatment in Georgia.

The project is being led by Clark Atlanta’s Dr. Shafiq Khan, who has focused his research on prostate cancer in African-Americans.

“It’s a serious problem,” Todd said, “especially in Southwest Georgia, where that population is highly represented.”

The center will house and operate next generation sequencing instruments. The resulting sequence data will be assembled and analyzed at Georgia Tech's Integrative Cancer Research Center.

Patient samples to be examined will be provided by the Ovarian Cancer Institute and St. Joseph’s Hospital’s Translational Research Initiatives in Oncology for the Management of Personalized Healthcare program.

Atlanta has the infrastructure to attract cancer research centers. The American Cancer Society is based in the city. Emory Winship Cancer Institute recently received the prestigious National Cancer Institute designation, making it eligible to host high-profile clinical trial.

The region is also attracting interest from the private sector.

Dendreon Corp., a Seattle-based drug maker, is looking at Atlanta's south side for an $80 million manufacturing facility that could create at least 300 jobs.

Dendreon (NASDAQ: DNDN) is seeking FDA approval for a treatment -- Provenge -- that helps deal with prostate cancer that does not respond to traditional hormone therapy. The drug spurs the white cells to attack the prostate cancer. Companies competing in this space are Cell Genesys and Biovax.

Projects like the planned genomics center will have a “snowballing” effect, helping lure more cancer research facilities, said Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society and an Emory professor.

“The more science we get here, the more science we are going to get here,” Brawley said. “That’s how the Silicon Valley became the Silicon Valley.”