Two research giants of Houston’s Texas Medical Center are teaming up on a massive new research project focusing on the genetic abnormalities that cause cancer.
This Todd Ackerman Houston Chronicle article reports on the planned collaboration of Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center on the proposed Human Cancer Genome Project, which is an extension study to the Human Genome Project, a recently completed 10-year Baylor-led study. The goal of the cancer project is to determine the DNA sequence of tumor samples in hopes of identifying the mutations that are key to the development of cancers.
Inasmuch as Baylor has already developed the genome-sequencing research infrastructure and M.D. Anderson can contribute the tumor samples, the collaboration on the research project is a natural for both institutions. The estimated cost of the complete project is roughly $1.35 billion, which is yet another example of the huge impact that such Medical Center research projects have on the local Houston economy.