Mesothelioma research foundation creates virtual bank for researchers

The Mesothelioma Research Foundation recently announced that its National Mesothelioma Virtual Bank is now open and operative, thanks to four years worth of scientific and advocacy effort. The Mesothelioma Research Foundation (Meso Foundation) is a collaboration of patients, their families, physicians, advocates, and researchers, and is a non-profit organization. The Meso Foundation provides patients and their families with treatment information, help, and support, and also hosts an annual symposium for people who affected with or by mesothelioma. This year’s symposium is to be held on June 26-28 in Washington, D.C. The Virtual Bank has been create to provide institutions and medical researchers involved in investigating mesothelioma with a resource of mesothelioma tissue samples that are clinically annotated and collected in an accessible database. The new tissue bank is the first of its kind. Christopher Hahn, Executive Director of the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation said, “This is a great accomplishment for those of us in the meso community. We have long advocated for federal research funding and the creation of a mesothelioma tissue bank. It is an important resource, expected to greatly advance the genetic and protein profiling of the meso cancer cell. This will further the development of mesothelioma treatment and the search for a cure. This is truly significant progress, and we are proud of the Meso Foundation’s contribution and initiative.” The National Mesothelioma Virtual Bank is a bioinformation bank with data from mesothelioma specimens. The specimens have been described and annotated and added to a database that mesothelioma researchers can access. In addition, researchers can apply to use specimens from the tissue bank in their own mesothelioma research. The goal of the NMVB is to help in the investigation of treatments, therapies, and ultimately, a cure for mesothelioma. The collection will particularly aid researchers in evaluating diagnostic and prognostic markers. Researchers will be able to search the tissue bank for samples according to the stage of the disease, the types of treatment the patient received, and other categories. The tissue bank currently has more than 600 annotated cases and around 900 specimens. A large number of organizations collaborated in their efforts to set up the tissue bank, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which in association with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health contributed an initial one million dollar donation to set up the bank. Other doctors and institutions who contributed to setting up the bank include Dr. Harvey Pass at New York University Medical Center, and Dr. Steven M. Albelda at University of Pennsylvania Medical Center. Both doctors are members of the Meso Foundation. (Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News)