The Jackson Laboratory Cancer Center

The Jackson Laboratory Cancer Center (JAXCC) is an independent, nonprofit biomedical research institution established in 1929 under the then-novel premise that cancer is a genetic disease. JAXCC has been an NCI-Designated Cancer Center since 1983, focusing on deciphering the complex genetics of cancer and designing precision models of the disease. It is based in Bar Harbor Maine, with a genomic medicine institute in Farmington, Connecticut, and facilities in Augusta and Ellsworth, Maine, in Sacramento, California, and in Shanghai, China.

JAXCC’s flagship research program, Genetic Models for Precision Cancer Medicine, combines the center’s technical and computational expertise with its unique knowledge of mouse models and human cancer genomics to identify precise therapeutic interventions and prevent and treat cancer.

Research at JAXCC

The multitude of mutations found in each cancer type limits the development of a common therapeutic, and cancer’s genetic diversity and instability leads to resistance to therapies. Moreover, genetic diversity among patients contributes to varied responses to any single treatment. Researchers at JAXCC are developing strategies that use this genetic complexity as an advantage to discover new cancer treatments.

JAXCC’s scientific strengths include cancer genomics, genetics, cell biology, and advanced animal and computational models of human cancer. Its focus on complex genetics and functional genomics, the scale of cancer model creation and experimentation, and the integration of JAXCC researchers’ diverse talents make the center unique in the field of cancer research.

Select Scientific Initiatives at JAXCC

Research at JAXCC focuses on uncovering the mechanisms of genetic complexity in cancer and using natural genetic diversity to discover new cancer drivers. Researchers at the center integrate mouse and human biology through comparative genomics and computational modeling. This work contributes to innovative cancer prevention and treatment strategies. Some of the center’s programs include:

• developing new animal, cellular, and computational models of cancer to accelerate new therapeutic strategies to advance to human clinical trials,
• exploring the genomic instability and genetic complexity of cancer as a novel source of therapeutic targets, and
• investigating how key components of tumor and normal cells interact with and influence the tumor’s response to treatment.