Principal Investigator Sarah M Farrington
Project Website https://ki-sbcfocus.mit.edu/
The SBC is a public square for research, both figuratively and literally. Figuratively, each laboratory houses specialized equipment and instruments that are too expensive for one lab to afford, maintain, and upgrade as the technology advances, and are too complicated for most researchers to use to capacity. When using these common resources, our researchers learn what the technology can do and how to apply it to their studies far beyond what they originally envisioned. Experts in the centers can help design the experiment to provide the maximum useful information and can teach researchers how to use the resources themselves. Physically, SBC laboratories are common spaces where a geneticist or molecular biologist may encounter a chemical engineer or materials scientist using the same facility. They may discuss each other’s work and discover areas for collaboration that may lead to unexpected discoveries.
The SBC brings together talent, tools and MIT ingenuity to transform cancer research. It comprises 13 distinct operating units and 60 dedicated scientists, providing tools and expertise seldom available to academic researchers. SBC resources enable Koch Institute members’ research, help develop and deploy new technologies and make it a technology connector in the heart of the world’s largest biomedical cluster.