The Irish Cancer Society Collaborative Cancer Research Centre BREAST-PREDICT integrates key components of several pre-existing entities in the cancer research arena in Ireland. The translational activities within the Centre owe their origins in significant part to two Science Foundation Ireland-funded programmes, namely Molecular Therapeutics for Cancer Ireland (www.mtci.ie) and Systems Biology Ireland (www.ucd.ie/sbi).

S BI, which is led by Prof. Walter Kolch, was also established in 2009 via funding under the SFI CSET programme and has successfully developed an integrated mathematical modelling and experimental research programme focusing on the design of new therapeutic approaches to cancer, degenerative and inflammatory diseases based on a systems level, mechanistic understanding of cellular signal transduction networks. In addition, the Irish Cancer Society Collaborative Cancer Research Centre BREAST-PREDICT is further strengthened by investigators from the population-based health arena, such as Prof. Kathleen Bennett from Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Trinity College Dublin, as well as links with the National Cancer Registry.

MTCI, with Prof. John Crown as Co-Ordinator and Prof. William Gallagher as Deputy Co-Ordinator, was established in 2009 under the SFI Strategic Research Clusters programme and brought together four academic entities within Dublin (Dublin City University, University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, and the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin), their affiliated teaching hospitals, and Cancer Trials Ireland (Formely ICORG), as well as other academic and industrial collaborators, with a focus on understanding molecular determinants of response and resistance to molecularly targeted anti-cancer agents.

The Irish Cancer Society Collaborative Cancer Research Centre BREAST-PREDICT will bring together experts from around Ireland to tackle problems facing breast cancer patients and their doctors. Our aim is to harness the information from hundreds of Irish women with breast cancer, in order to better understand this disease and develop new and better therapies.