Nationwide Children’s Receives $11.5M to Continue Biospecimen Research Project

The National Cancer Institute announced it will continue funding a project at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital that supports The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). With this $11.5 million grant, Nationwide Children’s will continue its role as one of two Biospecimen Core Resources (BCR) for TCGA.

The goal of TCGA is to perform cutting-edge genetic testing of tumors from more than 10,000 patients with one of 20 different cancers, thereby improving the ability to diagnose, treat and prevent the disease. As a BCR for the project, Nationwide Children’s is central to the process of acquiring both tumor and normal tissue samples and their accompanying clinical information from contributing medical and research centers.

"TCGA has already yielded scientific discoveries that are now being used in clinical trials. We are excited to contribute to future research into breast, endometrial, melanoma, and other cancers," said Julie Gastier-Foster, PhD, principal investigator of the BCR.

Nationwide Children's was awarded an initial $7.7 million contract starting in November 2009 to begin operating in this role. Since establishing the BCR at Nationwide Children's, more than 40 full-time jobs have been created in areas such as informatics, laboratory technology and clinical trials development. An additional 15 jobs are expected to be added.

For more information, see the release from Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

Also read the story as covered in Business First.