Introduction
Dr. Robert H. Wiltrout, Director Center for Cancer Research
The Center for Cancer Research (CCR), an Intramural Research Program at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), has evolved over the past two decades into a premier comprehensive translational research center within the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Our evolution has been patient-focused and persistent.
Seeds of reformation were first planted with the 1994 Marks/Castle Report on “The Intramural Research Program.” This report was released at a time when the intramural research community faced unprecedented opportunities for significant progress yet had little opportunity for budget expansion. The bottom line of this report advised that outstanding science at the NIH should be supported at the expense of less productive programs and efforts. Thus, a strengthened peer review process became a critically important component of ensuring that taxpayers’ dollars supported outstanding projects, and it ensured that progress to improve human health would continue.
A subsequent assessment of intramural research in 1995, the Bishop/Calabresi Report, resulted in decisions that shifted the program’s culture from one with large organizational units assembled around complex research problems to a highly individualized and decentralized scientific workplace. While this reorganization produced much outstanding investigator-initiated research, the new organizational approach failed to maximize the intramural program’s collective scientific wisdom, disciplines, and expertise across the research enterprise.
As knowledge of cancer and HIV/AIDS grew exponentially, it became imperative to establish a culture that could connect our critical pieces of knowledge and leverage our results across the entire research community. Toward that end, NCI leadership created CCR in 2001 with the initial goal of bringing basic and clinical scientists in closer proximity, both physically and organizationally. As CCR has evolved since then, we have added infrastructure to deepen and increase the breadth of our collaborations and partnerships beyond CCR and NIH, and out to academia, foundations, pharmaceutical companies, and industry.
This overview will describe CCR today, including its organization, constant evolution, and distinctive culture. After taking this "glance," should you want to know more about our research enterprise, I invite you to visit http://ccr.cancer.gov for a tour of our labs, accomplishments, and ongoing clinical trials.
Dr. Robert H. Wiltrout, Director
Center for Cancer Research
