The Convergent Science Virtual Cancer Center (CSVCC) Video (Text Version)

2023 PRCRP Vignette

Title: The Convergent Science Virtual Cancer Center (CSVCC)

Investigators: Peter Kuhn, Ph.D., University of Southern California; Dan Theodorescu, M.D., Ph.D., Cedars-Sinai Medical Center; COL Kenneth Bertram (Ret.), M.D., Ph.D., The Geneva Foundation; Berkley Gryder, Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University; Hae Lin Jang, Ph.D., Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Nilay Sethi, M.D., Ph.D., Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Min Xue, Ph.D., University of California – Riverside.

NARRATOR: In fiscal year 2020, the Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program changed the way it approached cancer research funding, with a new initiative to establish a Convergent Science Virtual Cancer Center, or CSVCC. The CSVCC focuses on the complex issues associated with cancer research and patient outcomes by advancing the idea of convergent science to early career investigators or scholars.

The director and deputy director of the CSVCC, leaders in the field of convergent science, introduce and mentor scholars to the concepts and principles of this innovative environment, enhancing their repertoire to attack research projects and problems with new tools and resources.

KUHN: Cancer is a wicked problem where suboptimal solutions currently exist, but neither the problem space nor the solution space is owned by a particular discipline. That is where convergent science really comes to shine because it, by its very principles, brings everybody together around the table, around one point of convergence.

THEODORESCU: Convergent science, very much like multidisciplinary research, brings in various fields. But the difference is that convergent science actually has two very fundamental emphases, which is it converges on one thing, which is, in our case, acceleration and patient benefit of the patient who has cancer. The other thing that it does very, quite, somewhat differently than multidisciplinary research is that it brings up areas that are not traditionally associated with health sciences.

BERTRAM: If you've been brought up within an institution for too long, you establish – whether you think you do or not – blinders to the right and the left. And I think one of the advantages of the Convergent Science program is to go above and beyond those barriers and those blinders and get new perspectives, new ways of asking questions and new ways of answering them.

GRYDER: We have to have teams of people, each of whom has to have a deep expertise in something that's – it takes a lifetime to learn – coming together across various disciplines in order to have the critical mass of expertise necessary to really make sense of all of the new technologies and data that are at our fingertips, if we bring the right teams together.

NARRATOR: The CSVCC offers the opportunity for scholars to pursue their own projects while learning about the advantages of convergent science so that they may implement and or collaborate toward the goal of transforming cancer research. In turn, the scholars present opportunities to view the vexing challenges of cancer research through fresh eyes and new ideas.

THEODORESCU: I think, regardless of the stage of career you're at, I think you benefit immensely by mentorship, by others that are more knowledgeable. And the mentors don't have to be necessarily people that are older or more experienced. I think of mentorship also as people that provide orthogonal views, so I get inspiration and ideas from people that are younger than I am less experienced but see things differently.

JANG: We need biomedical engineering field, materials science, and also biology and immunology or pharmacology and drug delivery field. And we also can engage clinical insight, so we have to think about every aspect of our cancer during their progression.

SETHI: I have always been someone who wants to engage in collaborative science. I think the more minds on a problem, the better. Especially one such as cancer, which is difficult to tackle.

XUE: I don't have the complete toolbox to bring the science in my group into the market to help the patients, which is the ultimate goal. Sooner or later we would need other activities to help to make sure that the product can get out of the pipeline. And I think the convergent way is probably the only way that's doing it efficiently.

KUHN: I truly believe that this program of the DOD (Department of Defense) is actually groundbreaking. It is incredibly needed. It’s really needed to advance cancer research in maybe some new ways by allowing us to really break out of the traditional structures. Sometimes we talk about how we have these intellectual silos, and of course, in convergent science, we take these silos, we convert them into pillars and then build bridges across them. And I truly believe that the CSVCC and that next generation of research enterprise approach at the DOD is taking on is actually that bridge building. So that's where I think actually the future is just incredibly bright.