The Convergence Institute at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (SKCCC) aims to leverage multi-disciplinary team science to solve a problem: cancer.
The past decade witnessed exponential advances to cellular and molecular profiling technologies, artificial intelligence, and cancer therapeutics. These new and innovative techniques for understanding the biology of many cancers have yet to be translated into in-human studies to advance the treatment of advanced cancer.
In medicine, convergence is defined as the integration of life sciences, physical sciences, engineering sciences, and information sciences. At SKCCC, the Convergence Institute is where doctors, nurses, astronomers, atmospheric scientists, engineers, computer scientists, physicists, bioethicists, biologists, materials scientists, and mathematicians work side by side to apply the convergence of their knowledge. Experts from all disciplines and specialties must work together to invent technologies; create the algorithms; develop safer, less invasive, and more effective ways to prevent, detect and treat cancers; and overcome the metastatic barrier, converting even advanced cancers to chronic or curable diseases.
Our mission is to accelerate progress in the fight against cancer by building, training, and catalyzing convergence teams who will utilize their diverse scientific disciplines and technologies to foster innovation. We believe that these teams will discover and develop new and more successful ways to treat and prevent cancer. We will support this mission by developing new technologies for first-in-human research, funding pilot studies, by creating new training programs for graduate students, postdocs, and by offering innovative education opportunities for faculty and staff. The multidisciplinary mission of the Institute is reflected by joint leadership blending translational cancer research and computational biology with co-Directors Dr. Elizabeth Jaffee and Dr. Elana Fertig.