On Apr. 16, 2026, the Cancer Center at Illinois (CCIL) announced it has been designated as a Basic Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). This national recognition places CCIL among the nation’s most elite cancer research institutions and affirms the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s excellence in merging oncology, engineering, and basic science.

Rather than treating patients, Basic Cancer Centers focus on the discovery and development of innovative approaches to cancer detection, treatment, and prevention. This milestone marks the first new Basic Cancer Center designation in nearly 40 years, underscoring CCIL’s national significance. Of 74 NCI-designated cancer centers nationwide, CCIL will be only the eighth center recognized as a Basic Cancer Center, and the only one in Illinois, highlighting the university’s leadership in interdisciplinary cancer research.

The CCIL was founded in 2011 by a small group of faculty who believed that engineering and the use of modern science and technology could transform cancer research. Over the years, this innovative approach has grown into a cross-disciplinary collaborative of more than 125 faculty members and hundreds of trainees. At the CCIL, engineers, biologists, behavioral scientists, chemists, and computational experts work together to advance understanding of cancer and accelerate innovation that can ultimately ease the burden of the disease. CCIL advances are applied not only to humans but also to our pet cats and dogs. By learning from how we treat our pets, CCIL researchers are improving therapies for humans.

NCI designation represents the culmination of more than a decade of investment and collaboration and creates new opportunities to transform CCIL’s fundamental discoveries into real-world impact – advancing the university’s mission to serve the state, the nation, and the world.

The designation provides the CCIL with multi-year support to expand research capacity, increase collaboration with other centers, and accelerate the translation of laboratory findings into medical use. The designation also strengthens CCIL’s potential to contribute its engineering and scientific expertise and innovations to other cancer centers. Some examples of these innovations are new magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging technology that can monitor the effectiveness of treatments, molecular measurement technology to detect cancer through a simple blood test, laboratory mimics of human cancers so that personalized therapies can be developed, new imaging to diagnose cancer using artificial intelligence, and new drugs that promise faster and safer treatments. These advances are poised to reshape how cancer is detected, monitored, and treated worldwide.