$691,930 awarded for in silico center of excellence
PHOENIX, Ariz. - Oct. 9, 2009 - SAIC-Frederick Inc., under its
prime contract with the National Cancer Institute, has named the
Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) as one of five
national centers selected to conduct cancer experiments using
advanced computer simulations.
The award of the "In Silico Research Centers of Excellence"
contract partners TGen with 5AM Solutions, a Virginia-based life
science software development firm. The award of $691,930 for the
first 12-months includes two 12-month option periods that if
executed amount to an additional $1,373,582 for a total of
$2,065,512 over three years.
The Center of Excellence will use computer tools developed as part
of the NCI Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG®), which is a
data-sharing network for researchers, physicians and patients. The
caBIG® program is designed to accelerate methods for detecting,
diagnosing, treating and preventing cancer.
"At TGen, we will use this unique opportunity to focus with our
collaborators on new ways to quickly and more effectively treat
patients with brain cancer," said John Pearson, the project's
Principal Investigator and Head of TGen's Bioinformatics Research
Lab.
William FitzHugh, Chief Science Officer for 5AM Solutions, will
handle the Center's operational direction.
"We're thrilled to be given the opportunity to apply powerful
computational techniques to analyze the data available on the
caBIG® network," said FitzHugh. "In combination with significant
new data developed by TGen, we will use informatics to further the
goal of personalized medicine, creating specific treatments for
individual patients."
TGen researchers will use in silico research in a program called
"Test to Best.'' It will use comprehensive genomic data involving
40 brain tumor models and 20 proven types of targeted therapies to
create treatment programs for brain-tumor patients.
"This will be a very unique data set, representing the largest
collection of patient brain tumor models and the widest variety of
therapies applied in a controlled setting," said Dr. Michael
Berens, Head of TGen's Brain Tumor Research Lab.
"Now that you have this data, how can you best exploit it for the
next patient who walks into the neuro-oncologist's office?" Berens
said. The answer should be revealed through analytical tools
developed by the TGen and 5AM Solutions team through the in silico
research project, he said. "We hope to create a process where a
patient's tumor would align with one of these models, and we would
know which of the 20 treatments was the best one against that
tumor. It's a path to evidence-based personalized therapy."
The tumor models and therapies have been developed through the Ivy
Genomics Based Medicine (Ivy GBM) Project; a program directed by
Dr. Berens at TGen and funded through a $3 million grant from the
California-based Ben and Catherine Ivy Foundation.
The Ivy GBM Project is a nine-institution consortium, led by TGen,
working to categorize tumors by molecular profiling and to test
each tumor against a wide spectrum of treatments to match
differences in response with the profiles.
"We see data sharing among researchers and medical institutions as
an essential part of the Ivy GBM Project, as well as a vital
component to moving the field of patient-focused research forward,"
said Catherine Ivy, founder of the Ben and Catherine Ivy
Foundation.
According to the NCI, the Centers of Excellence also are envisioned
as ways to promote investigator-initiated in silico research
projects, leveraging caBIG® tools and data along with a broad range
of other tools and data available to the bioinformatics, medical
informatics and cancer research communities: "The primary goal of
the ISRCE (In Silico Research Centers of Excellence) will be to add
scientific value to the large-scale datasets developed as part of
the caBIG® program, and currently accessible through the
caGrid."
Besides TGen, the other four centers are at Columbia University,
Emory University, Georgetown University and the Fred Hutchinson
Cancer Research Center.
Solicitation for the contracts was open to academic or commercial
organizations with "expertise in computational biology, informatics
analysis, statistics, genomics, proteomics, or image
analysis."
The NCI Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information
Technology and SAIC-Frederick, an NCI contractor, announced the
contracts.
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About TGen
The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) is a Phoenix,
Arizona-based non-profit organization dedicated to conducting
groundbreaking research with life changing results. Research at
TGen is focused on helping patients with diseases such as cancer,
neurological disorders and diabetes. TGen is on the cutting edge of
translational research where investigators are able to unravel the
genetic components of common and complex diseases. Working with
collaborators in the scientific and medical communities, TGen
believes it can make a substantial contribution to the efficiency
and effectiveness of the translational process. TGen is affiliated
with the Van Andel Research Institute in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
For more information, visit: www.tgen.org.
About 5AM Solutions
5AM Solutions develops innovative software solutions for academic,
government, commercial, and non-profit life sciences organizations.
The company helps evolve the way biomedical researchers work and
collaborate by using software to reveal new insights hidden in vast
amounts of data, facilitate translational research, and solve
workflow challenges. The company's solutions can overcome IT-based
roadblocks to discovery and accelerate progress toward the ultimate
goal of better health and improved patient outcomes.
www.5amsolutions.com.
About The Ben and Catherine Ivy Foundation
The Ben and Catherine Ivy Foundation is the nation's largest
foundation dedicated to funding patient-focused research on gliomas
leading to the development of better diagnostics and treatment that
offer long-term survival and a high-quality of life for patients
with brain tumors. In its inception year, 2008, the Ben and
Catherine Ivy Foundation awarded $10.4 million to patient-focused
research on brain tumors.
The Ben and Catherine Ivy Foundation is committed to funding
research projects, which embody the concept of Patient-Focused
Research. Patient-Focused Research (PFR) keeps the patient and
relevant clinical issues at the center of every research project
and encompasses three main components:
- Exchange - Fosters collaboration between institutions and disciplines and creates an ongoing, back and forth dialogue between the lab and the clinic.
- Urgency - Each Ivy Foundation project expedites processes to get results focused on improving the lives of patients.
- Personalization - PFR also addresses the genetic differences among tumors with the aim of improving diagnostics and treatments for each patient diagnosed with a brain tumor.
For more information visit www.ivyfoundation.org.
About caBIG
caBIG® stands for the cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid. It is an
open-source, open-access, voluntary information network that will
enable cancer researchers to share tools, standards, data,
applications, and technologies according to agreed-upon common
standards and needs. caBIG® is dedicated to enabling the
development of an informatics infrastructure that will link teams
of cancer and biomedical researchers as part of a collaborative
network, or grid.
For more information about the cancer Biomedical Information Grid,
visit the caBIG® web site at cabig.nci.nih.gov.
For more information about cancer, visit the NCI Web site at
www.cancer.gov or call NCI's Cancer Information Service at
1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237).
About SAIC-Frederick
SAIC-Frederick, a wholly owned subsidiary of SAIC, is speeding the
delivery of new technologies and treatments to patients with cancer
and AIDS. We operate the laboratories at the National Cancer
Institute at Frederick (NCI-Frederick) under the largest contract
awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Our
staff of more than 1,700 scientific, technical, and support
professionals conducts basic and applied research in cancer and
AIDS, operates and manages the federal government's only vaccine
manufacturing facilities (VPP, BDP), operates the high-performance
Advanced Biomedical Computing Center, and supports more than 300
clinical trials treating patients in the United States and around
the world.
This project has been funded with Federal funds from the National
Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health under Contract No.
HHSN261200800001E. The content of this publication does not
necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of
Health and Human Services, nor does mention of trade names,
commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S.
Government.
Press Contacts:
TGen
Steve Yozwiak
602-343-8704
[email protected]
5AM Solutions
Leslie Power
202-359-0990
[email protected]
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