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Cancer Genome Atlas |
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NIH Announces Two
Integral Components of The Cancer Genome Atlas Pilot Project
Other Topics:
Medical Informatics Management
Solutions, Computer
Personalized Medical Treatment,
Regenerative Medicine,
Web-based Drug Withdrawal Warnings
National Institutes of
Health
October 16, 2006
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Human
Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), both parts of the National
Institutes of Health (NIH), today announced another two of the
components of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Pilot Project, a
three-year, $100 million collaboration to test the feasibility
of using large-scale genome analysis technologies to identify
important genetic changes involved in cancer. Lung, brain (glioblastoma),
and ovarian cancers have been chosen as the tumors for study by
TCGA Pilot Project. |
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Awards have been made to seven institutions in five states to
establish Cancer Genome Characterization Centers (CGCCs). The
Cancer Genome Characterization Centers will work as a network,
with each center using advanced genome analysis technologies to
identify major changes in the genomes of the cancers chosen for
TCGA pilot program. NCI awarded a total of $11.7 million per
year to support the CGCCs. The institutions receiving CGCC
awards are:
- Broad Institute of MIT and
Harvard, Cambridge, Mass. Using the Affymetrix platform, this
center will identify changes in expression and copy number
alterations that occur in cancer.
- Harvard Medical School and
Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Mass. Using the Agilent
platform, this center will characterize tumor samples for
alterations in chromosome segments copy number. This center
will also develop new technologies to analyze expression
profiles.
- Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, Berkeley, Calif. Using an Affymetrix Exon 1.0
array platform, this center will identify changes in the
transcription profiles that occur in cancer.
- Memorial Sloan-Kettering
Cancer Center, New York, N.Y. Using Agilent arrays, this
center will provide characterization of chromosome segment
gains and losses. This center will also develop new approaches
to detect novel genetic rearrangements.
- The Sidney Kimmel
Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University,
Baltimore, Md. This is a joint project with the University of
Southern California/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center to
detect changes in methylation profiles associated with
transcribed genes in cancer samples.
- Stanford University School
of Medicine, Palo Alto, Calif. This center will use
high-throughput whole-genome genotyping technology to identify
chromosome segments copy number variation found in cancer.
- University of North Carolina
Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, Chapel Hill, N.C.
Using an Agilent array platform, this center will identify
changes in the transcription profiles that occur in cancer.
Additionally, SRA
International Inc. of Fairfax, Va., has been selected to develop
the Data Coordinating Center (DCC) for the TCGA Pilot Project.
The DCC will track data produced by components of TCGA, ensuring
that this data meets quality standards set for the project, and
make TCGA data publicly accessible through databases supported
by NCI’s Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG™) and the
National Library of Medicine’s National Center for Biotechnology
Information (NCBI). The DCC will establish public data resources
that scientists can use in their research to generate new
insights into the causes and potential targets for interventions
in cancer. Access to all TCGA data will be provided in a manner
that meets the highest standards for protection and respect of
the research participants.
TCGA was launched in December 2005. When fully operational, it
will consist of four integrated components: the CGCCs and DCC
announced today, as well as the Biospecimen Core Resource (BCR)
announced last month, and the Genome Sequencing Centers, which
will be selected in the coming months.
“We are, today, gaining new insights into the genetic changes
that accumulate over a lifetime and are associated with
malignancy,” said NCI Director John E. Niederhuber, M.D. “TCGA
holds the potential to help turn what we know into what we can
harness — to be able to study changes in a patient’s genetic
sequence over time and then use that information to design
highly targeted, individually based interventions.”
“TCGA will analyze genomic changes in lung, brain, and ovarian
cancers with a goal of identifying all alterations in genes for
these three tumors — especially those that can serve to
differentiate cancer subtypes. The Cancer Genome
Characterization Centers will identify genomic aberrations, such
as copy number changes and/or chromosomal translocations that
will enable the development of targeted diagnostics and
therapies for cancer patients, and provide a path to more
personalized cancer medicine,” said NCI Deputy Director for
Advanced Technologies and Strategic Partnerships, Anna D.
Barker, Ph.D.
“The Cancer Genome Atlas Pilot Project will generate large
quantities of data that will require an immense amount of
expertise and coordination,” said NHGRI Director Francis S.
Collins, M.D., Ph.D. “The Data Coordinating Center is an
essential component of The Cancer Genome Atlas Pilot Project and
will help researchers take advantage of the molecular
information describing the genomic changes in the cancers
studied. The integration of these data will enable individual
researchers throughout the world to discover new cancer targets
and inform the design of a new generation of cancer drugs.”
NCI and NHGRI are two of the 27 institutes and centers at NIH,
an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
For more details about The Cancer Genome Atlas, please visit
http://cancergenome.nih.gov.
For more information about cancer and the National Cancer
Institute, please visit the NCI Web site at
http://www.cancer.gov or call NCI’s Cancer Information Service
at 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237).
For more information about the National Human Genome Research
Institute, please visit the NHGRI Web site at http://www.genome.gov.
For information about caBI ™, please visit http://www.cancer.gov.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's Medical
Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a
component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting
basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it
investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common
and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its
programs, visit www.nih.gov. |
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