Recipient: Professor Glenn Marshall
Institute: Kids Cancer Alliance
Funding: $240,000 July 2015 to June 2016
New software will allow researchers to access to a greater number of clinical samples for studies.
Cancer research relies upon high quality clinical samples from patients, in order to investigate the true nature of the disease. Clinical samples are provided to researchers through the process of bio-banking, or tumour banking. This is particularly critical in childhood cancer research, where a comparatively low number of cases are diagnosed each year, and every individual sample is valued.
This new computer software will enable a single combined database to be shared between the tumour banks at the Children’s Cancer Institute and the Kids Research Institute within The Children’s Hospital at Westmead. The database will allow tumour bank staff to manage sample information more efficiently and to better advise prospective researchers about sample availability.