About

Vision

To impact healthcare and improve quality of life through biomedical and translational research.

Mission

To improve patient care by advancing cancer research through excellence in biobanking, informatics infrastructure, bioinformatics and translational research, while valuing team science through collaboration with other leading organizations.

History

Windber Research Institute doing business as Chan Soon-Shiong Institute of Molecular Medicine at Windber, was founded in the year 2000, with the inception of the Clinical Breast Care Project (CBCP). CBCP is a US Congress mandated research program resourced by late Congressman Mr. John Murtha. There are five pillars of the CBCP, and our Institute is responsible for Biobanking, Biomedical Informatics, and Focused Research activities.  Clinical Care and Risk Reduction are led by the clinical teams spearheaded by the Murtha Cancer Center Research Program (MCCRP) of the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences. The Institute has over the years supported other major research programs of the DoD including a cardiologic disease study, a gynecologic disease program, and pan-cancer studies. The Institute has since developed its expertise in biobanking and biorepository sciences, informatics infrastructure system development, bioinformatics, and translational research in breast cancer. Our biobanking and infrastructure systems are now supporting major consortium research programs such as the Applied Proteogenomic OrganizationaL Learning and Outcomes (APOLLO), as well as the Oncology Research Information Exchange Network (ORIEN) as part of the MCCRP. Our research has provided insights into the understanding of breast cancer racial disparity, breast cancer in young women, and the importance of high-quality clinical data in cancer studies.