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CDC Plans $5M for Mesothelioma Biobank

By a GenomeWeb staff reporter

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expects to spend up to $5 million over five years to continue funding a specimen and tissue bank for use in mesothelioma research.

Funded by the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the National Mesothelioma Virtual Bank (NMVB) for Translational Research will provide biospecimens, demographic and clinical information, and a library of reagents, as well as genomic, proteomic, and other types of data.

The aim of the NMVB will be to offer a research resource for development of early markers for mesothelioma, biomarkers of stage and prognosis, and improved treatments. To fulfill that goal, the bank will provide access to a range of specimen types, including DNA, white blood cells, tissues, plasma proteins, as well as epidemiologic information, such as occupational history, death certificate information, and clinical research knowledge.

All of these resources at the bank will be made publicly available for free.

The main objectives of the program are to maintain and expand the NMVB for Translational Research by enrolling new mesothelioma patients, collaborating with other institutions, generating more data, and pulling together data from other institutions into a network to create a virtual database.

The NMVB also will promote the mesothelioma patient registry and tissue bank for use by the clinical science community. To that end, the grant recipient will work with partners to establish and maintain a process for applicants to access information in the database and to access samples, and to expand the utility and availability of the biobank as a resource.

The resource also will be charged with maintaining records on its services to the research community and publications and patents that involve its resources. It also will document the usefulness of the registry and tissue bank to the scientific community.

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