SOUTH BEND —
Two universities are teaming up in the fight against cancer. Notre Dame and the IU School of Medicine put the finishing touches on their partnership for cancer research. The building dedication for Harper Hall and tour was Tuesday afternoon. Researchers and scientists will work together, in the labs, to study major cancers.
There's 55-thousand square feet of hallways and offices, labs and of course--- hope, inside Harper Hall.
"We have a lot of hope for the future," said Rudy Navari, Clinical Director of the Harper Cancer Research Center at Notre Dame.
The Harper Hall addition connects to Wacklin Carmichael hall, across the street from Notre Dame's main campus. The university and the Indiana University School of Medicine formed a partnership and cancer-research is at the forefront.
"This is very important for the community, region and nation," aid Navari.
Notre Dame received a 10-million dollar donation for the school's cancer research initiative. The state gave Indiana University a 10 million dollar match.
Each lab features the goals established by the team of researchers.
"Distinct pep-tide driver mechanisms" "melanoma antigents" and "crystallography"--- these $50 words are a mouthful for most of us, but people in the labs will be putting these concepts to work.
Researchers, like Cassie Xu, will collaborate with others in the state-of-the-art labs to develop drugs to treat various cancers.
She spent most of the morning, cleaning and preparing slides to examine under a microscope.
"We have people unique to this area who came here to work with each other, work on various cancers like colon cancer, lung cancer ovarian cancer," said Navari. "We're going to be doing the whole gamut here."
Navari said scientists will then test drugs and look for ways to use them in human trials.
"I think we're realizing that people need to talk to each, collaborate, share ideas so we can get to the end, faster," said Navari.
