How do you fight cancer? Succinctly described as a “many-headed monster, which, each time a neck is severed, sprouts a head even fiercer and cleverer than before. You are fighting that which is unfixed, mutating, indestructible.”¹ With the advent of new technologies that allow us to resolve cancer down to individual cells, we are beginning to appreciate the heterogeneity of cancer that facilitates the ever-changing interactions between cancer cells, their niche, and the surrounding environment. Our hope is that cancer is not indestructible and the scientists in the Cancer and Cell Biology (CCB) Focus Area In CMB actively investigate ways to stop cancer by exploring all aspects of cancer initiation and progression, early detection, environmental causes, and response to therapies baked in-house and abroad.

Backed by the National Cancer Institute-designated UCI Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and the UCI Cancer Research Institute, the CCB Focus Group provides an abundance of resources to gain expertise in many areas of cancer research and a forum to share our research with the community. With access to scientists and clinicians from more than 32 departments across six schools at UCI, many opportunities exist for interactive and collaborative research in cancer discovery, clinical investigation, and population-based cancer research.