CONTINUATION OF THE NATIONAL MESOTHELIOMA VIRTUAL BANK

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of the National Mesothelioma Virtual Bank (NMVB) for Translational Research is to maximize the effectiveness of data and biospecimen collection and sharing for mesothelioma research nationally. The NMVB will continue to serve as a resource that will allow researchers real time access to clinical data associated with blood, DNA and tissue specimens from the registry, thus expanding scientific discovery and effective treatments to benefit the Mesothelioma clinical and translational research and patient communities. Our specific aims are: 1) To expand the NMVB to Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. We will continue to collect patients' clinical data and enroll them in the biospecimen bank at the original NMVB partners: New York University (NYU), the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt). At all sites, we will collect biological samples including (but not limited to) biopsy material (fixed or frozen), blood, serum and white blood cells (for DNA). This will include continuing to accrue prospective cases, retrospective cases and case controls; 2) To expand the NMVB collection sites to the University of Hawaii Cancer Center and the University of California San Francisco through the "SPIRIT of Collaboration" and to facilitate translational research from funded Investigators by the Meso Foundation and proposed Mesothelioma SPORE; and, 3) We will document and continually evaluate the usefulness of the NMVB to the scientific community and measure its impact in studies that address the etiology, mechanisms, diagnosis and treatment of malignant mesothelioma. The advantages of this approach which we call "The SPIRIT of Collaboration" is that it will begin to couple funding sources from the CDC NIOSH to the NCI (through the Meso SPORE) and NCRR (through the CTSA program). This effort will serve as a model for multi-agency funding of synergistic efforts. The NIH Roadmap stresses the importance of collaborative networks of researchers and the sharing of biospecimen resources and the National Mesothelioma Virtual Bank program of NIOSH/CDC clearly alms to facilitate that vision. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Mesothelioma peak incidence is expected in 2020. In the U.S. approximately 72,000 new cases are expected by 2026. There is no cure for mesothelioma and effective treatments are limited. Research efforts like NMVB are key to the discovery of tools to combat this disease. NMVB will greatly facilitate research by providing quality blospeclmens and data to help prevent and eventually cure this uniformly deadly disease.