Florida Atlantic University’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Science (FAU CESCoS) has entered into an affiliation agreement with H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute (Moffitt), Tampa, to engage in collaborative research of new cancer drugs and technology, seek funds to underwrite these cooperative efforts and create educational activities of mutual interest.

“FAU’s new partnership with Moffitt is a great honor and an opportunity for the university to make a significant contribution in the development of lifesaving cancer drugs,” said FAU President Frank T. Brogan. “This will serve to advance FAU’s reputation as a major research university, while creating new educational and research opportunities with this highly esteemed institution for the faculty and students within our scientific academic community.”

“We are very excited about Moffitt’s affiliation with FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Science and the group of research scientists headed up by Dr. Gregg Fields,” said William S. Dalton, Ph.D., M.D., CEO/ Center Director of H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center. “As a cancer hospital and research institution, we are dedicated to early stage translational research aimed at the rapid translation of scientific discoveries to benefit patient care. The work that Dr. Fields is doing in the field of cancer drug research and the new technology to deliver them is in direct synergy with our goals for expediting development of drugs for future clinical trials. Through this collaboration, there is potential for groundbreaking discoveries in the fight against cancer. My colleagues and I, including Moffitt Deputy Director Dr. Jack Pledger, look forward to this endeavor.”

In conjunction with this affiliation announcement, it was confirmed today that Gregg B. Fields, Ph.D., professor and chair of FAU CESCoS’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, who heads up the FAU team, has been awarded a four-year, $1 million research grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The grant, which will be applied to this collaboration, is specifically for the development of a new class of cancer drug delivery vehicles utilizing nanotechnology to target specific cancer cells.

“The new affiliation with an institution of Moffitt’s caliber creates a fast-track opportunity for FAU’s CESCoS scientists to rapidly take lab-tested drugs through clinical trials and turn them into medicine,” said Dr. Larry F. Lemanski, FAU vice president of research and graduate studies.

“The new pharmaceuticals in this collaboration creates new opportunities for marketable discoveries that will, in turn, help fund further drug research at FAU,” said Dr. Nathan Dean, dean of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science.

“We look forward to a long and productive relationship with Moffitt which will enable FAU to aggressively pursue our goals to develop new ways to attack cancer using nanotechnology for targeted delivery of drugs at the cellular level,” said Dr. Fields. “Moffitt offers us a venue for a seamless approach to take cancer drug development from the lab to testing at the clinical level. This partnership also allows us, at benchmarks throughout clinical trials, to quickly return to the lab to refine the drugs to make them more tolerant in the body based on continuous analysis of the results. This proactive response would not be available to Moffitt or to FAU CESCoS in the standard drug R&D clinical testing process.” Dr. Fields is also affiliated with the Center of Excellence in Biomedical and Marine Biotechnology within CESCoS.