Mar. 1, 2006 — Stanford University School of Medicine was named one of the National Cancer Institute’s Centers for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence, according to a news release.

The institute has allotted approximately $20 million over five years to the Stanford-based center, which will be led by professor of radiology and bioengineering Sanjiv Sam Gambhir, who also directs the molecular imaging program at Stanford.

The Stanford center is slated to receive $3.83 million in its first year. It will aim its efforts at imaging diseases in vivo and determining what is going on within patients’ bodies through blood or tissue sample analysis.

Participants at Stanford will include faculty from a variety of disciplines with the intention of combining their expertise to develop new ways to detect cancer and evaluate therapies. UCLA, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the University of Texas-Austin, General Electric Global Research and Intel Corp will also participate.

Seven other Centers for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence were announced last October. Each of the eight centers has its own focus in seeking to eliminate suffering and death due to cancer.

– David Forman