The Dean of the Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Professor Carlos Gilberto Carlotti Junior, announced in January this year the creation of four interdisciplinary study centers at the institution. They are: the Center for Sustainable Amazon Studies; the Center for the Study of Carbon in Tropical Agriculture; the Center for Sustainable Agriculture Studies; and the Center for Studies and Convergent Technologies for Precision Oncology (Comprehensive Center for Precision Oncology, or C2PO). Following the trend of the main universities around the world, they will bring together researchers from different units to carry out activities related to research and innovation, teaching, and extension.

Assigned to coordinate C2PO, Prof. Doctor Roger Chammas, Titular Professor at Radiology and Oncology of Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo (FMUSP), will be responsible for promoting research on new diagnostic technologies and treatment against cancer.

“The goal of precision oncology is to offer the best treatment for each group of patients over time”, says Prof. Roger Chammas, highlighting the evolutionary nature of the disease. In addition to the commitment to discoveries, the professor believes in lines of research that increasingly sophisticate the effectiveness of current procedures. “We have the opportunity to identify new targets for treatment and new ways to reach them with the different forms of therapy that we already have, such as the use of medication, radiation and molecules and cells that favor immunity.

”A collaborative network within USP will work to carry out this set of studies in partnership with companies and external academic groups. Researchers from several units, including the FMUDP, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Institute of Biosciences, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Dentistry, Veterinary Science, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Engineering, as well as the Butantã Institute and units in São Carlos, Ribeirão Preto and Piracicaba will be involved in multidisciplinary efforts. The group also has collaborations with UNIFESP, Fiocruz and the National Biosciences Laboratory, among other national institutions.

The Study Center will have an administrative headquarters at Instituto do Câncer do Estado de São Paulo (Icesp), located in the FMUSP Hospital das Clínicas complex, while another will be built in the oncology center of the Hospital das Clínicas in Ribeirão Preto. The initiative aims to encourage collaboration between physicians and professors, who will have the opportunity to work with patients from both hospitals.

Prof. Roger Chammas points out that USP already has a consolidated structure in its units dedicated to cancer research, and that the Center for Studies and Convergent Technologies for Precision Oncology should start operating effectively in the coming weeks. Focusing on types of cancer that are a priority for public health, the novelty aims to deepen projects within this collaborative logic. “The set of research that we will promote will accelerate the process of discovering new ways of diagnosing and treating cancer, combined with the mission of training human resources in this environment, which will prioritize education for communicating the results of scientific research to various sectors of society. society”, says the coordinator.