Albert Einstein Cancer Center

THE ALBERT EINSTEIN Cancer Center (AECC) in the Bronx, New York, aims to affect all areas of cancer research—basic, clinical, population-based, and translational. Through seven interdisciplinary research programs incorporating these research strategies, AECC leads clinical trials and community education efforts in order to eradicate cancer.

The Cancer Center belongs to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine on the Jack and Pearl Resnick Campus of Yeshiva University. Yeshiva University began as Yeshiva College in 1927 and opened the medical school in 1955. The College of Medicine is affiliated with several hospitals, two of which, along with their outpatient centers, are associated with the AECC for clinical care. Both these hospitals—the Montefiore Medical Center and the Jacobi Medical Center—are located in the Bronx.

In 1972, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) began funding cancer centers after the passing of the National Cancer Act in 1971. This act, signed by President Richard Nixon, brought cancer research into the national spotlight and declared cancer a national concern. Funds were established to support cancer research across the nation in a variety of fields. The NCI immediately recognized AECC as a Center for Cancer Research and Treatment. The outcome was that AECC subsequently received NCI funding and has been awarded this support ever since.

At AECC, research is divided into seven programs; four programs reflect basic biological research and three reflect clinical/translational research. The programs are in the areas of immuno-oncology, tumor microenvironment and metastasis, cell growth and differentiation, molecular membrane biology, experimental therapeutics, cancer epidemiology, and colon cancer.

Each program has three to four main focal themes, each with multiple investigators. The Immuno-On-cology Program recognizes the contribution of the immune system to both causing and fighting cancer. Thus, this program's research focuses on the genomic instability of immune cells and how this instability may lead to cancer, along with the mechanisms behind the survival or death of these cells. In addition, scientists investigate the immune system responses to cancer and how these responses may be utilized to kill tumors and prevent further spreading.

The Tumor Microenvironment and Metastasis Program is investigating how one cancer cell signals to a noncancerous cell to become cancerous. Understanding this connection may help to explain tumor spread via metastasis, and subsequently how clinical care can prevent such spread. Therefore, researchers in this program focus on cell signaling molecules such as hormones and other growth factors, their specific signal transduction pathways, the subsequent mechanisms for affecting the cell cycle, and a cancer cell's ability to invade other tissues.

Research in the Cell Growth and Differentiation Program specifically focuses on factors that are involved in the processes of cell growth, proliferation, and differentiation. Themes are spotlighting relevant genes and their products, developing animal models and model cell lines to study these genes and gene products, and using functional genomic analysis to find intersections and overlaps among the pathways for proliferation, differentiation, and cell death. Membranes and molecules involved in secretion play important roles in cell signaling and hence potentially in cancer.

Consequently, the chief goals of the Molecular Membrane Biology Program are to study those molecules present at the cell surface and/or involved in secretory pathways, as well as their involvement and interactions with plasma membrane transporters, secretion and membrane trafficking, and signal recognition at the cell surface.

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