A cancer cell subverts existing signaling and developmental pathways in order to survive, proliferate, and metastasize. The cellular circuits that enable an organ to develop from a few progenitor cells, the cell cycle checkpoints that prevent the replication of damaged DNA, and the molecules that facilitate the migration of cells from one geographical site to another during normal development are commonly disrupted in tumorigenesis.

Basic research under way at the Center for Cancer Research, within the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, is focused on identifying novel genes that are central to both normal development and cancer, exploring the fundamental pathways that are critically altered in tumor cells, and taking this knowledge from the bench to the bedside.

The Center for Cancer Research draws from a multidisciplinary faculty within the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, dedicated to basic research on cancer. Laboratory interests range from developmental biology and the study of model organisms, to mouse and human cancer genetics, signal transduction and experimental cancer therapeutics, cell cycle checkpoints and the cellular response to DNA damage, gene expression and transcriptional regulation, and genomic approaches to the study of cancer. The faculty play significant roles in the teaching and training of graduate and medical students, postdoctoral research fellows and Massachusetts General Hospital residents and clinical fellows. Graduate program affiliations at Harvard Medical School include Biological and Biomedical Sciences (BBS), Neuroscience, Immunology and Virology.

Consistent with its mission, the Center for Cancer Research aims to maintain a unique and highly interactive program of excellence in the field of cancer research.