That's exactly what we're doing: providing all researchers with the tools they need to do the best science possible.
Fred Kolling, PhDWhen you picture cancer research, you may imagine scientists working independently in separate laboratories. But moving science forward requires equipment, technology and specialty services that are often too expensive for even well-funded individual research labs to purchase, maintain, and operate on their own. As a result, research institutions across the globe have fine-tuned methods of sharing resources in pursuit of a common goal.
Supporting investigators across the full spectrum of cancer research
Shared Resources are a central research infrastructure serving as the “connective tissue” of modern cancer research. They make up a library of specialized instruments, expertise and services that all researchers can access, from basic laboratory studies to research involving patient samples and clinical care.
Fred Kolling, PhD, Associate Director of the Shared Resources Program at Dartmouth Cancer Center (DCC), describes the way researchers utilize Shared Resources like how a musician uses a recording studio:
“Musicians rent studio time to access acoustically engineered rooms, high-end microphones, mixing boards, and sound engineers. The engineer shapes the sound and brings technical expertise to the final product, but the artist owns the song. Then another artist comes in and has access to that same quality of equipment and expertise. That's exactly what we're doing: providing all researchers with the tools they need to do the best science possible.”
For example, Kolling describes work by DCC immunology and cancer immunotherapy investigator Yina Huang, PhD, who is re-engineering immune cells to become aggressive cancer fighters called CAR-T cells. Advancement of CAR-T and other cell therapies is part of a rapidly expanding Experimental Cell Therapy program at Dartmouth Health.
Huang’s research has relied on multiple Shared Resources:
- Mouse Modeling Core provides access to unique models of cancer, assists with generating tumors in these models, and prepares tissues for downstream analysis.
- Pathology Shared Resource preserves tumor and other tissues so they can be used for further lab testing and examination. The core also cuts tissue sections and performs staining and imaging—the same techniques pathologists use to examine tumor structure and identify the presence of immune cells.
- Genomics Core analyzes gene expression within individual cells, revealing what cell types are present within the tumor and how they are behaving. This tool also gives Huang important insight into how CAR-T cells attack tumors and how tumors are able to evade or resist treatment.
- Microscopy Core adds a visual dimension, allowing Huang’s genomic data to be made into images that show specific cells in the tumor. Microscopy makes it possible to examine many tumors and treatment conditions at once. Studying a range of samples is important to figuring out why cancer treatments succeed in some cases and fail in others.
- Genomic Data Science Core analyzes and interprets large and complex datasets. The core also helps visualize results and integrates data from all the resources above, creating a complete picture of CAR-T cell treatment in these models.
Precious samples
Above all, Kolling emphasizes how incredibly careful the team is with blood and tissue samples collected from real patients who have consented to donate during their regular clinical procedures.
"All these patient samples are really precious," Kolling says. "We only have maybe one shot at getting this right. It's incredibly important that the process happens correctly and reproducibly every time."
Remarkably, donations made 10 or 15 years ago have been protected and stored so carefully at DCC’s institutional Bio-Repository that they are still actively generating usable data in new research today. "When those samples were collected, technology couldn't do a fraction of what it can do now," Kolling notes.
Scientific "matchmakers"
Beyond the hardware and the data, Shared Resources bring together people. Because these central labs interact with dozens of different investigators, Kolling and his team really have a bird's-eye view of DCC’s research enterprise.
“We frequently work with one investigator and then, a few months later, tackle a similar project for another. Because we've already addressed this issue before, we can apply that knowledge to the current situation and connect the investigators,” describes Kolling. “The number of times that spurs collaboration, I can't even count. It happens all the time."
Kolling also credits an exceptionally eager, open culture at DCC, where scientists thrive on connecting and sharing ideas.
The cost of innovation
Staying on the cutting edge of science requires serious investment. Kolling notes major pieces of equipment can run upwards of $500,000 to $1.5 million, and DCC has several such instruments. Making these purchases requires leveraging federal grants, whenever possible, alongside philanthropic support.
"Every year we're making decisions about what new instruments to invest in, and philanthropic funds from donors and community events such as The Prouty are a huge source of support."
To maximize the impact of these donations, DCC not only pools its resources with financial contributions from Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and Dartmouth College, but is also helping form a new national alliance of Shared Resources to reduce duplication, leverage existing instrumentation and maximize cost-effectiveness.
“Being in a network of NCI-designated cancer centers helps tremendously,” says Kolling, who represents DCC at an annual meeting of the alliance.
A second life for equipment
In addition, equipment that no longer meets DCC's needs can often be donated to smaller colleges and universities around the state. Through New Hampshire's IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE), led by Geisel School of Medicine and the University of New Hampshire, “we can often give equipment a second life at another institution where it helps train the next generation of scientists and supports new research," says Kolling.
Through smart investments, meticulous care of patient gifts, and providing a central hub for collaboration, DCC’s Shared Resources ensure that when it comes to curing cancer, no scientist and no patient is ever truly working alone.