Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Establishes Proteomics Research Center with $16.5 Million Gift; Protein Research Put on the Fast Track by Institute's Single Largest Gift Ever from an Individual.

BOSTON -- With a landmark $16.5 million gift from John F. (Jack) and Shelley Blais of Framingham, Mass., Dana-Farber Cancer Institute will establish a world-class protein research facility, the Blais Proteomics Center, where the study of cellular proteins marks the "next frontier" in cancer research.

The Blais Proteomics Center will expand and accelerate the work of Dana-Farber scientists who are focused on developing proteomic techniques for understanding the basic workings of normal and cancer cells. Information generated by this research is crucial to the development of better methods for diagnosing, treating, and preventing cancer.

"The scientists and doctors at Dana-Farber have long established themselves as having the intellectual capacity and scientific foresight to turn laboratory discoveries into cancer treatments," says Jack Blais. "The expanding field of protein research, combined with the diligent work of the Dana-Farber scientists, truly has the potential to unlock the mysteries of cancer in our lifetime and to provide the hope of cures for cancer patients worldwide."

This $16.5 million gift brings to more than $30 million the amount that the Blais family has contributed to Dana-Farber to support protein research and other cutting-edge initiatives.

The gift will enable Dana-Farber to purchase additional new-generation mass spectrometers, which identify proteins within cells, and recruit research scientists and technicians to operate them. It will fund a research and development program to design new experimental methods and improve mass spectrometry technology. And it will support efforts to design efficient mathematical models for high-volume data analysis.

"Proteomics is a uniquely powerful tool that will enable us to understand better how normal and cancer cells function," says Dana-Farber Chief Scientific Officer Barrett Rollins, MD, PhD. "In time, this can lead to more sensitive tests for detecting cancer at its earliest stages, identify new targets for cancer therapies, and speed the development of novel cancer treatments."

John "Jack" Blais is the founder and president of BlaisCo, LLC of Framingham, a holding company specializing in high-technology firms. He is a longtime leader in the precision optics field, having led companies that developed optical and optical-interference technologies for military, medical, and commercial applications.

A trustee of Dana-Farber since 2002, Blais has been a key contributor to the Dana-Farber's High-Tech Multidisciplinary Research Fund, which provides Dana-Farber scientists with access to advanced technologies and encourages collaborations among investigators in related fields. The Blais Family recently gave Dana-Farber the naming rights to the New England Patriots' indoor practice facility, as well.

Proteomics potential

Though not a new field of study, proteomics is poised to have a potentially sweeping effect on cancer research, thanks to recent advances in both technology and the ability to analyze mammoth amounts of data. In recent years, Dana-Farber has made a firm commitment to the field with the purchase of equipment capable of rapidly analyzing the proteins made by cells, and with support of research that aims to identify some of the hallmark proteins associated with cancer. As part of this effort, the Institute recruited Jarrod Marto, PhD, and John Quackenbush, PhD, experts in proteomics and computational biology (which develops computer models to analyze large data sets), respectively. Marto will direct the new center.

While genomics focuses on the activity of the approximately 25,000 genes in human cells, proteomics is concerned with proteins, the "workhorses" of cell life, which carry out a cell's functions, be it transporting oxygen (as in red blood cells), filtering toxins from blood (in liver cells), or secreting digestive acid (in stomach cells).

Genes issue the instructions for protein production, but genomics provides little information on when or how much of a protein is made. Moreover, proteins' function depends on their interactions with other proteins and on modifications they undergo over time -- areas about which genomics is silent. Finally, most drugs, including anticancer drugs, are directed against proteins, so a more complete understanding of the proteins that contribute to the behavior of cancers will result in better and more effective drugs.

Proteomics seeks to identify all proteins produced by cells, as well as their interacting partners and structural changes, as these change over a cell's life cycle and as normal cells become cancerous. Such information may prove invaluable in designing new cancer treatments and diagnostic tests.

New technologies aid research

One of the major challenges facing scientists who study proteins is the enormous amount of data proteomic research generates. Proteomic studies may encompass hundreds of thousands of genes within single cells, and the data output can be multiplied many times over. Technological advances that make it possible to separate and filter out less important proteins have been crucial, as have the development of new computerized data-analysis programs.

"Much remains to be learned about the function of normal and cancer cells at the most basic level," Rollins says. "The Blais Family shows extraordinary foresight and commitment to helping us look at the roles proteins play in the life of cells, and how those roles become disrupted in cancer."

"The new technologies that are going to conquer cancer require us to do research at the very cutting edge of science, often before it is mature enough to qualify for federal funding," says Edward J. Benz Jr., M.D., president of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. "Philanthropy such as the Blaises will play an enormously important role in our efforts to eradicate major forms of cancer over the next decade."

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (www.danafarber.org) is a principal teaching affiliate of the Harvard Medical School and is among the leading cancer research and care centers in the United States. It is a founding member of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC), designated a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute.