La Jolla

The La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation has received redesignation as one of the federal government’s Basic Cancer Centers, a distinction that comes with a $5-million grant over the next five years.

The private research center is one of only three basic cancer centers in California, and one of only 15 in the nation designated as such by the National Cancer Institute.

The grant will allow the foundation to continue its study of some of the fundamental biomedical processes that lead to cancer’s proliferation in the body. This includes looking at the molecular mechanisms involved in fibronectins, adhesive proteins that are thought to play a key role in allowing cancer cells to spread throughout the body.

California’s other two basic research centers on cancer are at the Salk Institute and the California Institute of Technology.