Cancer research gets physical

Cancer research has traditionally been the realm of biologists, and, more recently, engineers. Now, physicists are getting in on the action. MIT has been awarded a five-year grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to start a new Physical Science-Oncology Center. The funding, approximately $3.5 million per year, will support four cancer research projects led by MIT physical scientists. "The overall goal is to use principles and techniques from physics to attack important problems in cancer biology," says MIT physics professor Alexander van Oudenaarden, who will direct the center. "We want to develop tools to really look at how single cells change as they progress in cancer." The NCI announced yesterday that 12 institutions, including MIT, will host the new centers. The Physical Science-Oncology Centers will take new, non-traditional approaches to cancer research by studying the physical laws and principles of cancer, and applying those principles...

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