Mail

This "new" strategy, in which cancer researchers beat the disease by collaborating in massive projects,1 is bound to fail. Why? Because enforced cooperation for the sake of obtaining research grants is counterproductive to a physiologic matching of research interests, including a viable chemistry between participating scientists. The European grant programs for cooperative research, based on the same intentions as described by the authors, have not only turned out to be bureaucratic nightmares but also fostered wrong motivations for collaborations. There are already numerous cooperative cancer programs in the US, Europe and Asia which take advantage of the great diversity of expertise, focus and motivation without major governmental interference.

Rainer Zahlten
University of Frankfurt am Main Medical School
Frankfurt, Germany
rzahlten@t-online.de

Our small lab has received nearly 30 years of continuous National Cancer Institute support that has allowed the training of both graduate and undergraduate students in molecular biology focused on ...