The Multi-Consortia Coordinating (MC²) Center supports six NCI Division of Cancer Biology (DCB) funded programs which are made up of interdisciplinary communities of scientists. These scientists are working to integrate approaches, data, and tools to address important questions in basic and translational cancer research.The overarching goals of the MC² Center are to a) use an evidence-based infrastructure to catalyze collaboration and promote a diverse and inclusive research community, b) improve interoperability and usability of DCB program data and tools, and c) support the growth of a strong, stable and diverse cancer research community beyond DCB programs.

The MC² Center is made up of three hubs: the Collaboration Hub, the Resource Coordination Hub, and the Outreach Hub. These hubs are managed by Sage Bionetworks Scientific Community Managers, Project Managers, Scientists and Data Engineers. We also work in partnership with external collaborators at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Wisconsin and UC Anschutz. Through these hubs we support each center or project’s professional cancer researchers, early career researchers, patient advocates, and program directors. 

With the MC² Center community spread out across the country, most collaborative work takes place virtually. The community participates through online steering committees, working groups, special interest groups and in conversation through our slack workspaces. We also hold in-person Annual Investigator meetings, open to all participating members of the MC² Center, for each program, as well as ideation jams, hackathons, seminar series, and more. Participation in the MC² Center, as well as publications, tools and data are shared through the Cancer Complexity Knowledge Portal.

The MC² Center is funded thanks to a five-year U24 grant from the NIH/NCI Division of Cancer Biology (U24CA274494).