Cold Spring Harbor Extends Affiliation With Northwell Health

The CSHL-Northwell Health affiliation aims to enhance biology and cancer research at CSHL’s NCI-designated Cancer Center and more than 60 research labs, as well as the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, the home of research at Northwell Health with 50 research labs and 5,000 researchers and staff systemwide.

The affiliation also seeks to translate basic research into clinical applications, provide access to diverse patient populations, and train the next generation of scientist-clinicians. Over the past 10 years, the affiliation has funded 82 research projects, resulting in more than 100 peer-reviewed publications. Through this integration, CSHL appointed 13 adjunct professors and trained 24 medical students, 27 residents and fellows. Together, they’ve initiated three clinical trials in various stages.

One of the affiliation’s greatest collaborations to date has been the development of more than 200 cancer organoid models through its organoid facility on Long Island. These living three-dimensional tissue models are derived from patient tumor cells and cultivated outside the body, in a clinical laboratory, for disease analysis and drug testing. This revolutionary technology in Phase-II clinical trials enables clinicians to predict favorable patient responses to new drug combinations. The CSHL-Northwell Health affiliation has also led to significant discoveries in pancreatic cancer, leukemia, glioblastoma, and Covid-19 research.

Northwell Health and its Cancer Institute, with its 400 physicians and researchers, have significantly expanded their oncology footprint since the initial CSHL affiliation was announced in 2015. Over the past three years, the Northwell Health Cancer Institute has invested nearly $550 million to open and expand cancer treatment centers throughout Long Island and the boroughs. Major initiatives include the $32 million, 37,000-square-foot outpatient Northwell Cancer Institute at Rego Park, Queens, which serves one of the most diverse communities in the country; and the $43 million, 40,000-square-foot Florina Cancer Center in Staten Island, which provides adult and pediatric care.

The health system is also building a new 200,000-square-foot medical pavilion adjacent to Northwell Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, which will be anchored by an innovative cancer center. Northwell Health treats more than 19,000 people with cancer through its integrated health system and nine cancer centers.