Press Releases
The Arizona Biomedical Research Commission and 5AM Solutions Announce Agreement to Develop a Virtual Tissue Bank Serving Arizona Hospitals and Bioresearchers
The State’s First Virtual Tissue Bank Will Foster Greater Collaboration and Facilitate Clinical Research
February 25, 2009 Phoenix AZ and Reston, VA — The Arizona Biomedical Research Commission (ABRC) and 5AM Solutions today announced that they have entered into an agreement to develop a centralized, web-based biological specimen tracking software system. This virtual tissue bank, the first of its kind in the state, will provide a single, consolidated view of the tissue samples stored in repositories in a number of Arizona hospitals and research facilities. Awareness of and access to high quality tissue and the corresponding, de-identified data is critical for understanding the causes of major, complex diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s.
“What most people do not realize is the critical role that tissues play in researching the cause of disease and how to prevent and treat it,” said Brent Gendleman, CEO and President of 5AM Solutions. “The ability to collect, manage, and share standardized information about tissue samples is an absolute requirement for accelerating research and the development of new therapies.”
5AM Solutions, a company that develops innovative software solutions for life sciences organizations, will customize, extend, and host caTissue Suite – a comprehensive, standards-driven, web-based system for tissue inventory, tracking, and annotation. caTissue Suite is an open source product from the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid® (caBIG®) program. Tissue data will be structured in a standardized format allowing researchers to easily browse and query the virtual collection to determine which samples may be suitable for their needs. Consolidation of tissue data from several institutions will offer researchers access to a much larger catalog of samples than had been previously available.
“We believe that creation of this virtual tissue bank will offer significant advantages to the researchers in our state and ultimately the citizens of Arizona,” said David Landrith, Commission Chairman, ABRC. “With this virtual tissue bank, researchers will have improved visibility of what tissue samples are available as well as access to a much larger number of samples which is critical in supporting their studies. The tissue bank will help facilitate research and foster greater collaboration which will ultimately contribute to improving the health of our citizens.”
“With this virtual tissue bank, the ABRC is addressing one of the most fundamental needs for making biomedical research a more efficient and productive enterprise,” Gendleman continued. “The caTissue Suite that we are customizing for the ABRC will help speed the pace of research and foster increased collaboration across a number of institutions.”
The virtual nature of the bank will help protect the integrity of the tissues, as samples will remain in the repositories of the participating institutions rather than being shipped to a central repository. This will minimize transport and handling of the samples until they are needed by researchers, thereby reducing damage that may occur during shipping.
“An important factor that led us to partner with 5AM Solutions and adopt caTissue as the platform is our state’s Native American population,” said Dr. Dawn Schroeder, Executive Director of the ABRC. “Of the 22 Native American tribes in Arizona, many have religious beliefs that require any tissue samples they donate be tracked in such a way so that should the donor die, that tissue can be returned to the tribe.”
“By customizing the caTissue platform, we will know where these samples are, how much was used, what is left, and what can be returned to the tribe,” Dr. Schroeder continued. “The ability to do this is critical to enabling Native American participation in clinical studies as either a donor of tissue or as a human subject.”
About ABRC
The Arizona Biomedical Research Commission was established in 1984. The Commission has nine members appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate and is charged with establishing research programs, evaluating research proposals, and awarding funds. The Commission has approximately $11 million invested in research contracts and currently manages 74 research contracts. In addition to individual investigator projects, the Commission funds the Arizona Parkinson Disease Center, the Alzheimer’s Disease Collaboration, and the Bio-Specimen Web Based Tracking System.
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.
Contact:
Lynn Blenkhorn
Feinstein Kean Healthcare
Lynn.blenkhorn@fkhealth.com
508-851-0930