Source: Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center
Written by: Office of International Collaboration and Public Relations, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (SYSUCC), strong partner of the internationally renowned MD Anderson Cancer Center, is to work on 3 collaborative research projects through the 2015 Sister Institution Network Fund (SINF).

The SINF, Sister Institution Network Fund, is a Global Academic Program initiated in 2010 by the MD Anderson Cancer Center – United States –in order to seed collaborative oncology research projects between MD Anderson Cancer Center and its Sister Institutions, extensions and other global partners, which will, in turn, lessen cancer impact.

The projects require collaboration between at least one MD Anderson Cancer Center Faculty/Staff and principal Investigators from one or more of the 34 Sister Institutions located in 21 countries, prestigious cancer centers across the world.

Each application is to be scored following the NIH review criteria, considering the significance, investigators, innovation, approach and environment of the submitted research project. For the fifth round of SINF funding, 57 applications were submitted and received scientific peer review by an MD Anderson study section, and program review by the SINF Program Committee, which includes one representative from each Sister Institution.

The Global Academic Program finally selected 20 projects to receive funding form the SINF, including 3 collaborative projects between SYSUCC researchers and MDACC faculty members, emphasizing projects involving multiple institutions and projects relevant to the Moon Shots Program and Platforms.

The three SYSUCC professors whose projects were selected are: Professor Zhongping Chen (Department of Neurosurgery), Professor Hui Liu (Department of Radiation Oncology), and Professor Qingqing Cai (Department of Medical Oncology).

Each project would gain from this international collaboration for geographical and ethnical comparison, expanded research, utilization of newly instituted tissue banking effort, acquired knowledge on basic molecular biology and treatment of cancer patients.

We hope that by all of those collaborative projects on going, we can strengthen our relationship with MD Anderson as well as the other Sister Institutions, in the war fighting cancer.

List of the 3 SYSUCC projects selected for funding:
A non-neural origin for the mesenchymal subtype of glioblastoma
Development of a multiparametric predictor for radiation-induced lung damage after lung cancer therapy
Genomic MicroRNA profiling, as a biomarker for therapeutic target investigation, in MYC-driven aggressive non-hodgkin lymphoma