Research Themes

1. Target Validation: TO houses multiple platforms to perform comprehensive analyses of patients and primary specimens that inform therapeutic development, both at the level of individual patients and across larger cohorts. We use custom-built, integrated analytical platforms. These leverage trans-programmatic collaborations and expertise, create new datasets that improve our understanding of cancer, provide the basis for pre-clinical therapeutic validation, and inform Theme 2, the design of high-impact interventions. Examples of our integrated advances include Beat AML, the largest multi-omic and functional dataset on primary tumors to date, and a translational platform focused on solid tumors that feature implementation of real-time analytics with unparalleled breadth and depth to facilitate deployment of novel drug combinations in a clinically relevant timeframe. Additional work is focused on precision early detection with novel diagnostic and monitoring tools and innovative, cancer-agnostic early detection workflows.
    
2. High-impact Interventions: Seminal advances derived from investigator-driven identification of new biological opportunities drive intervention strategies with novel therapeutics. Examples include standard of care-changing therapeutic advances in the treatment of sarcoma, prostate cancer, and hematologic malignancies. Theme 1 research has spawned clinical trials addressing fundamental questions related to therapeutic resistance, inclusive of combination therapies and newly identified targets. Theme 2 activities translate KCI research findings into clinical interventions that improve outcomes for patients with cancer, meet community needs, and broadly educate and inform the field. Further, biologic specimens collected during Theme 2 clinical interventions reciprocally provide prospective opportunities for Theme 1 and other KCI investigations.