Mission:
“The Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research is a global non-profit organization committed to improving the understanding and control of cancer through integrated laboratory and clinical discovery. Leveraging its worldwide network of investigators and the ability to sponsor and conduct its own clinical trials, the Institute is actively engaged in translating its discoveries into applications for human benefit.”
Summary:
The Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR) is an international non-profit research institute dedicated to the fight against cancer. Through its nine Branches, its Centre for Clinical Sciences and affiliated laboratories and clinical trial sites, the LICR research enterprise spans the globe with activities in Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, and North and South America. LICR is distinguishable from other cancer research institutes, not only by its size and global reach, but also by two fundamental attributes: its reliable, long-term funding perspective and the fact that it takes responsibility for the entire discovery continuum from the laboratory to the clinic.
LICR is not a grant-giving body; we employ our own staff and fund their research. The majority of the research is fundamental investigations in the molecular mechanisms of cancer. Currently, the main areas of laboratory research can be categorized broadly into growth factor signaling, cytokine signaling, DNA repair mechanisms, chromosome segregation and cancer genomics. LICR also has ‘Programs,’ in which multiple groups work together in a strategic, goal-oriented, centrally managed (by our scientists) manner to explore and develop laboratory findings. We appoint ‘Affiliates’ to work with LICR staff in our Programs. These are investigators who have similar or complementary interests and technologies or expertise not found among the LICR staff. As Affiliates, they receive support in one or more forms of funding or access to the Institute’s infrastructure for tissue banks, intellectual property and licensing, or clinical trials management.
Each of the LICR Branches is physically and functionally associated with a university or research institute and/or a non-profit hospital. This arrangement guarantees an academic environment conducive to laboratory discovery and provides access to local institutional resources and expertise in both the laboratory and the clinic. Our senior staff have joint appointments within the host institutions and our Branches are well-recognized in their local communities. Similarly, our Affiliates are integral parts of their own institutions, thus LICR has a mutually beneficial relationship with many leading academic institutions around the world. The list of Branches and Affiliates is at the end of this document.
LICR Programs combine multiple disciplines and also conduct ‘clinical discovery’ - the elucidation of the scientific principles of a candidate therapeutic modality or agent in the human setting. For example, we have conducted our own early-phase clinical trials of many variations of therapeutic cancer vaccines and have monitored the immunological response - rather than simple assessment of patient survival - to each vaccine variable. These results have shown us how and which vaccine components can be combined to give the best anti-cancer immune response. On the basis of this clinical discovery groundwork, a large portfolio of our vaccine reagents was this year licensed to GSK for clinical development.
LICR is well-known for its collaborative international Programs. One example is the Cancer Genome Project, which harnessed a network of over 30 sequencing laboratories in Brazil to clone and sequence expressed sequence tags (ESTs) in cancer. LICR is the second-largest contributor of EST data to publicly-available databases; second only the US National Cancer Institute. Another example is the International Breast Cancer Study Group (IBCSG, formerly the ‘Ludwig Breast Cancer Study Group’), which was started by LICR in 1976. The IBCSG has conducted large, international clinical trials assessing chemoendocrine therapy, adjuvant treatment and quality of life issues for breast cancer patients.

Facts-at-a-glance:

• Operating budget of USD 100 million in support of cancer research in 2006;
• USD 30 million - 30% of 2006 operating budget - in competitive grants awarded to LICR investigators around the world;
• 43 sites of activity - laboratory and clinical - in 15 countries: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, China, Finland, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, Ukraine, USA;
• On June 30, 2006, there were 221 students being trained in LICR laboratories and a total of 888 LICR employees;
• One of twenty international organizations recognized as producing research articles of extremely high impact in the only study of its kind
  (Da Pozzo et al. “List of the Worldwide Champions League of Research Institutions 1994 - 1999.” 2001. Center for Science and Technology Studies, Bern, Switzerland)
• Non-profit organization with highest number of patented genes; fourth highest holder of gene patents
  (Jensen & Murray “Intellectual Property Landscape of the Human Genome.” Science 310:239-40, 2005)