CCNE Strategy

The newly established CCNEs will serve as hubs of the NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer to develop and apply nanotechnology and nanoscience solutions to the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

The CCNE network will focus unswervingly on the technology development necessary to accelerate the pace of product approval, commercialization, and delivery to cancer patients. Each of the eight CCNEs is linked to a regional, NCI-funded Comprehensive Cancer Center and one or more Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPOREs).

In addition, each of the eight CCNEs includes biomedical researchers and investigators from engineering and physical science departments. All eight CCNEs also have advanced biocomputing capabilities and have forged partnerships with colleagues in the not-for-profit community and/or private sector to accelerate work related to the nanotechnologies they are working to develop.

The eight centers are listed below in alphabetical order. For more information on each center, click here.

• Carolina Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. This center will focus on the fabrication of "smart nanoparticles" and other nanodevices for cancer therapy and imaging. Principal investigator: Rudolph Juliano, Ph.D. (University of North Carolina)



• Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence Focused on Therapy Response, Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif. This center will use nanotechnology-enabled diagnostic tools to advance cancer detection and therapy techniques. Principal investigator: Sanjiv Sam Gambhir, M.D., Ph.D. (Stanford University)



• Center of Nanotechnology for Treatment, Understanding, and Monitoring of Cancer, University of California, San Diego, California. This center will focus on a "smart" multifunctional "all-in-one" platform capable of targeting tumors and delivering payloads of therapeutics. Principal investigator: Sadik Esener, Ph.D. (UCSD)



• Emory-Georgia Tech Nanotechnology Center for Personalized and Predictive Oncology, Atlanta, Georgia. This center will aim to innovate and accelerate the development of nanoparticles attached to biological molecules for cancer molecular imaging, molecular profiling, and personalized therapy. Principal investigators: Shuming Nie, Ph.D., and Jonathan Simons, M.D. (Emory University and Georgia Institute of Technology)



• MIT-Harvard Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence, Cambridge, Massachusetts. This center will focus on diversified nanoplatforms for targeted therapy, diagnostics, noninvasive imaging, and molecular sensing. Principal investigators: Robert Langer, Ph.D. (MIT), and Ralph Weissleder, M.D., Ph.D. (Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital)



• Nanomaterials for Cancer Diagnostics and Therapeutics, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. This center plans to design and test nanomaterials and nanodevices to improve cancer prevention, detection, diagnosis, and treatment. Principal investigator: Chad Mirkin, Ph.D. (Northwestern University)



• Nanosystems Biology Cancer Center, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California. This center will focus on the development and validation of tools for early detection and stratification of cancer through rapid and quantitative measurement of panels of serum and tissue-based biomarkers. Principal investigator: James Heath, Ph.D. (California Institute of Technology)



• The Siteman Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence at Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri. This center has a comprehensive set of projects for the development of nanoparticles for in vivo imaging and drug delivery, with special emphasis on translational medicine. Principal investigator: Samuel Wickline, M.D. (Washington University)