With cancer rates top of mind for Iowans — given the state’s fastest-rising and second-highest cancer rate in the nation — the University of Iowa’s College of Pharmacy and Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center are partnering to create a new UI Institute for Cancer Drug Discovery and Development.

The “CANDID” institute’s mission is to “accelerate the discovery, development and early clinical translation of novel cancer therapeutics.”

“Iowa consistently experiences some of the highest cancer incidence rates in the nation, with rurality, agricultural and environmental exposures, and limited access to specialty care contributing to a substantial and persistent cancer burden across the state,” according to a UI request to create the center, which received unanimous Board of Regents approval Thursday. “Notably, rural Iowans experience higher cancer incidence and mortality and are more likely to be diagnosed at later stages, underscoring the urgent need for improved prevention, early detection and treatment options tailored to the state’s population.”

The institute comes as UI researchers project another 21,700 new invasive cancers will be diagnosed among Iowans this year, plus another 6,400 cancer-related deaths — making it a leading cause of death in Iowa.

And while the university has expertise in cancer biology, pharmaceutical sciences and biomanufacturing, those resources are distributed across a range of units and disciplines “without a unified structure to support end-to-end translational drug development from target identification through Phase I-II clinical trials.”

“The proposed institute addresses this gap by integrating expertise, shared resources and training programs into a coordinated institute focused specifically on cancer drug discovery and development, directly responding to the pressing cancer needs of Iowans,” according to the UI proposal.

It responds to persistent inefficiencies in the drug development pipeline, high attrition rates for therapeutic candidates, and the lack of a unifying structure supporting translational oncology across disciplinary and collegiate boundaries.

“By creating an institute with dedicated leadership, core capabilities, shared governance and interdisciplinary partnerships, CANDID would substantially enhance Iowa’s ability to translate basic discoveries into clinically meaningful therapies and reduce cancer mortality.”

In launching the institute, the university aims to appoint a director with cancer drug discovery experience and expertise and hire a cluster of faculty with backgrounds in artificial intelligence-enabled drug discovery, drug delivery, and clinical pharmacology.

The university expects to need $5.5 million for the center’s first five years — with funding coming from UI College of Pharmacy and Cancer Center investments, donors, departmental reallocations, and institutional support. Campus partners also plan to “aggressively” pursue external funding options like federal grants and awards through the National Institutes of Health, foundations, industry partnerships, and commercialization.

“Senior faculty recruited to the institute are anticipated to have large, funded portfolios which would also support institute operations,” according to the university.

The money would go toward faculty recruitment, a pilot projects program, administrative support, and programmatic investments needed to launch and scale the institute.

“Over the initial five-year period, the proposed institute is expected to transition toward financial sustainability through growth in extramural funding, industry partnerships and commercialization activities,” officials said.

Beyond facilitating interdisciplinary drug discovery, formulation, and clinical trials, the new institute aims boasts a range of goals and key activities.

• It will coordinate shared resources to enhance screening, clinical pharmacology, manufacturing and analyses.
• It will enhance cluster hire efforts — focused on AI-enabled drug discovery and delivery.
• It will advance education and training opportunities in partnership with the National Cancer Institute.
• It will build a sustainable cancer-focused workforce of scientists, clinicians, and biomanufacturing professionals.
• It will catalyze multi-investigator grants in hopes of commercializing discoveries with help from the UI Office of Innovation.

“The overarching objective of the proposed institute is to translate cancer discoveries into effective, novel therapies while simultaneously developing the next-generation workforce needed to sustain innovation in cancer drug discovery, development, and manufacturing.”