Collaborative Research to Enhance Understanding and Reduce the Burden of Disease
At Dana-Farber's SHE Center, we are committed to facilitating collaborative MENA region-specific research that:
- Identifies and strengthens research collaborations between Dana-Farber and MENA-region scientific communities.
- Addresses key health gaps in MENA countries through cutting-edge research, with the goals of better understanding and reducing the region's disease burden.
The SHE Center provides opportunities for scientific exchange and networking. Connections can be piloted through our education and training programs, or can be established based on investigator proposals.
Future research projects facilitated by the SHE Center can include:
- Epidemiology of rare cancers.
- Establishment of tissue banking protocols.
- Establishment of clinical trial protocols.
- Drug discovery: specimen collection, target validation, assays, data collection.
- HIV/AIDS regional genotyping: to enable understanding of laboratory protocols, as well as identify resistant mutations regionally.
- HPV screening and care: cervical cancer screening by point of care; HPV diagnostic testing to reduce cervical cancer in targeted countries.
- Breast cancer awareness and screening: workshops on breast cancer awareness, education, and screening.
Expanding Possibilities and Horizons
The SHE Center's efforts represent an opportunity to expand the horizons of cancer research, education, care, implementation, and clinical trials through collaborations with MENA countries. By mobilizing our resources and capitalizing on knowledge-exchange opportunities, we are contributing to development programs that will prevent and treat cancers and infectious diseases. Our projects will also provide access to region-specific resources, such as patient populations and tissue samples that will advance the understanding of cancers, especially the rare forms that exist in the MENA region.
SHE Center-facilitated projects will have robust scientific and epidemiologic relevance to both the MENA region and the Dana-Farber mission. Projects are initially focused on oncology and infectious diseases such as HIV/HPV. These initial areas of focus will utilize the strengths of the Dana-Farber research community in meeting the dire need for understanding MENA-region issues.