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Cancer Research Center

  • Experimental Research Center
  • Radiobiology Laboratory
  • Laboratory Animal Center
  • Post-doctoral Research Workstation

The experimental research center of the Cancer Hospital of the University of Chinese Academy of Science Zhejiang Cancer Hospital evolved from the Zhejiang Cancer Research Institute, which was founded on December 10, 1985 as an institute associated with the hospital by the Health and Family Planning Commission of Zhejiang Province.

The mission of the center is to innovate cancer research and benefit human health, as guided by the national healthcare planning and the current trend of cancer research. The center carries out applied and basic researches driven by clinical needs with research programs focusing on the early detection of cancer and precise multimodality therapy. The major research fields include: early detection and multimodality therapy related research, minimally invasive therapy of cancer, precision radiation therapy and chemotherapy, integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine treatment, and translational medical research.

Presently the center hosts the Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Diagnosis & Treatment Technology on Thoracic Oncology (Lung and Esophagus), Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Radiation Oncology, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Head and Neck Cancer, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Integrated Traditional Chinese & Western Medicine on Cancer, the Key Laboratory of Oncology Pharmacology Laboratory, national post-doctoral training station, the Biospecimen Repository and the research technical support platform.

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The Center employs an innovative team of experts in cancer research and provides training for graduate students and post-doctoral fellows.Among the faculty members, there are 1 Zhejiang Provincial Premium Expert, 4 Zhejiang Province Young or Middle-aged Experts with Outstanding Contributions, 6 Experts with special stipends by the State Council, 1National Excellent Female Worker and 1 national 5·1 labor medal awardee. Multiple members were selected as Zhejiang New Century 151 talent program talent, Zhejiang healthcare system high level talent, new talent in the medical field and Qian Jiang talent of Zhejiang Province.

Ever since its establishment, the center has focused its researches in the fields of epidemiology, etiology and pathogenesis of cancer, early detection, molecular typing and precision treatment. And the majority of the resources are dedicated to clinical and laboratory studies of thoracic cancer, head and neck cancer, digestive tract tumor and gynecological cancer. Significant progress has been made by thecollective efforts of our team. Over the years, the institute has made a series of important findings that were published in well-recognized international journals, and has awarded 52 prizes including: The 1st grade National Prize for Science and Technology Progress; The 1st, 2nd, 3rdgrade Zhejiang Provincial Prize for Science and Technology Progress and etc.

Meanwhile, on the application side, the center actively explores the opportunities to transfer and transform the intellectual properties derived from these studies into medical practice. The aim is to provide scientific and technological support for the formulation of the national public policy regarding cancer illness and healthcare, and to promote the development of the related industry.

The research technical support platform.

The research technical support platform provides technical service for researchers throughout the hospital to carry out basic and translational research. The goal of the platform is to make cancer research more accessible to clinical practitioner by providing expert advices and technical assistance on various aspects of their research projects. The expert team of the platform, with their various research background and sophisticated expertise, can provide service in many fields including cell biology, molecular biology, animal model experiments, proteomics, biochemistry, bioinformatics, etc.


     

At our radiobiology laboratory, the general research interests are in the areas of oncology bioinformatics, multimodality image analysis, and treatment outcome modeling. The primary motivation is to design and develop novel approaches to unravel the response of cancer patients to chemo-radiotherapy treatment by integrating physical, biological, and imaging information into advanced mathematical models. These models could be used to personalize the chemo-radiotherapy treatment of cancer patients based on predicted benefit/risk. We also studied the role of various compounds in reducing radiation pneumonitis, one of the most common side effects observed in lung cancer patients after irradiation. For this, we developed an animal (rat) model of radiation pneumonitis. We are also interested in investigation alternative therapies that potentially will reduce radiotherapy side effects. We screened out potential genetic mutations related to SCLC (Small cell Lung Cancer) chemoradiotherapy resistance, and are conducting functional verification in vivo and in vitro. We are trying to reveal the molecular mechanism of SCLC resistance in radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and provide targets for reversing the resistance effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

The  laboratory animal center is the public service platform of Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, which is developed on the basis of the original animal feeding laboratory. Since the establishment of the Institute, our institute has started animal experimental research. In 1985, the scientific research results of carcinogen induced gastric cancer in rats were identified, and then the SPF level nude mice experiment was started with the opportunity of the in vitro tumorigenesis experiment of the first domestic human colorectal cancer cell line HR-8348. In 1987, SPF level nude mice laboratory was formally established based on mouse laminar flow feeder and super clean bench.  Since then the Institute has successively constructed three xenografted tumor models of colorectal cancer in nude mice, which are used in drug therapy, radiotherapy immunoautoradiography and targeted therapy. In 1995, the Institute built a successful model of ovarian cancer with spontaneous high metastasis, and used the model to screen metastasis genes, anti metastasis treatment and other experiments. In 2004, the Institute moved to its current location, designed and built a new SPF animal laboratory according to the national standard "experimental animal environment and facilities", and equipped with an independent purification feeding system (IVC). Since then, equipment such as small animal irradiator and small animal living imaging device have been added for animal experimental research. During the development period, the experimental animal center set up an experimental animal management committee with the main person in charge of the hospital as the director to manage the ethical approval of animal experiments and supervise the management of animal laboratories. In 2017, the animal laboratory obtained the license for the use of experimental animals.

At present, there are three IVC systems in the standardized animal experiment facilities of 60m2 in the experimental animal center, with a total of 162 mouse cages and 10 rat cages. The center mainly provides all-round services for the hospital and outside, including laboratory animal feeding, animal experiment operation, etc. Since 2017, the center has undertaken more than 20 domestic and foreign animal experiment service projects every year, and participated in many national, provincial and ministerial projects. Our center has standardized management and continuously improved facilities. We will carry out scientific research with professional technology and serve the clinic. If you have any need, please contact us at mouhz@zjcc. org. cn .

Approved by Department of Human Resources and Social Security of Zhejiang Province, Post-doctoral research workstation of Zhejiang Cancer Hospital (pilot unit) was officially inaugurated in November, 2010, and then was certified as National post-doctoral research workstation in 2015 after being reviewed by Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. The workstation is running with the support of Zhejiang Cancer Hospital and conducts basic research on the basis of Zhejiang Cancer Research Institute, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Thoracic Oncology and Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Radiation Oncology. In the past four years, the workstation, along with Zhejiang University, has recruited 7 postdoctoral researchers in total in 2012, 2014 and 2016, 2017 with the first group completing their projects in October, 2014.

Zhejiang Cancer Hospital attaches great importance to the workstation, viewing it as an important way to introduce and foster reserve forces, and strengthen disciplinary construction. Postdoctoral researchers enjoy the same treatment as the staffs officially recruited by Zhejiang Cancer Hospital. Being slack in admission but strict in graduation, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital also lays stress on the appraisal of post- doctoral researchers while offering favorable working conditions for them. The hospital signs cooperative agreements with researchers and their supervisors and formulates a regulation called Zhejiang Cancer Hospital Temporary Regulation for the Management of  Post-doctoral Researchers.

During the past six years since its foundation, two projects have been supported by Natural Science Foundation of China, one by China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, three by Zhejiang Postdoctoral Preferred Special Fund, one by Program for Returned Chinese Scholars in Zhejiang, one by Qianjiang Talents Program; and one has won science and technology award at divisional level. International cooperation with Hawaii Cancer Center and University of Colorado in USA has been established, and 2 postdoctoral researchers have been sent as visiting scholars during their projects. A LC-MS-based metabolomics platform has been developed. In addition, over 20 SCI  papers  have  been  published.