NEW YORK (Diya TV) — The new Kavita and Lalit Bahl Center for Metabolomics and Imaging advances, a new, one-of-a-kind translational research center for cancer at Stony Brook University was dedicated in December after the Indian American couple made a combined $13.75 million donation in its construction.
It’s the first laboratory in the university’s new health sciences tower.
“The Bahl family’s vision is to elevate Stony Brook Medicine to the cutting-edge of personalized cancer research, diagnostic imaging breakthroughs and evolving individualized cancer care far beyond where it currently exists,” a press release read.
Metabolomics is an emerging field in cancer research. Some experts regard it as the most promising approach to individualized cancer treatment, uncovering metabolic pathways is a key to unlocking their influence on the development and proliferation of cancer cells. Yusuf Hannun and Lina Obeid will lead the research, which merges experts working in the fields of metabolomics, cancer biology, medical imaging, and computational oncology.
Dr. Hannun, director of the Stony Brook Cancer Center, is a well-respected physician-scientist who has worked in cancer research for more than three decades. He has published more than 500 papers on the subject, edited seven books and holds seven patents in the field.
The Bahl’s got things started at the imaging center by making an initial donation of $3.5 million for the purchase of a cyclotron — an instrument used to create novel tracers for PET scanning, a technique that allows molecular imaging within the human body. That was followed up with another $10.25 million pledge which allows the cancer center to conduct revolutionary research and recruit top faculty experts in all related fields.
“These gifts establish the Stony Brook University Cancer Center as home to a revolutionary new metabolomics and imaging center devoted to cancer research which will lead to translational breakthroughs,” said Stony Brook University President Dr. Samuel L. Stanley Jr., in a statement. “The totality of these two incredible gifts from Kavita and Lalit Bahl, both generous and visionary, will have a decades-long impact on cancer research, medical treatments and patient care. At the hub of all this is our Cancer Center — connecting a multi-disciplinary team that spans across main campus and the Medicine campus.”
The Center will also involve collaboration with leading university faculty in areas such as the computational sciences and biomedical informatics to advance metabolomics and imaging research for cancer.
