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Dear Colleagues:
June has been a busy and successful month for our international collaborations. This newsletter includes updates on the consortium's progress from meetings to the formation of our Steering Committee. In addition, we have provided a description of the Canary Fund, the sponsor of our October meeting.
We have also provided a report on the Pacific Health Summit which is one of the forums we are using to engage government officials within interested countries to promote resource allocation to biomarker discovery.
We are very encouraged with the increasing activity in the Consortium and are looking forward to our meeting in October.
Best regards,
Lee Hartwell
President and Director
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Pacific Health Summit
The first of a series of annual meetings, the Pacific Health Summit, began in Seattle on June 8, 2005. The meeting was attended by leaders in healthcare, research, government and industry from 16 countries surrounding the Pacific Rim. The Summit engaged participants in communicating about new paradigms in global healthcare policy and emphasized the need for collaboration in order to meet the challenges of global disease according to remarks made by keynote speakers William H. Gates, Sr. and George F. Russell, Jr.
"We can no longer solve the threat of disease by working in regional or local silos," said Hartwell. "We must collaborate across borders and implement strategies across the globe. These Summits are the first steps in a joint education on how we can be more effective working together." Our goal is to launch a collaborative dialogue on healthcare policy that emphasizes international teamwork on research, technology and treatment.
The International Cancer Biomarker Consortium was well-represented at the Summit with members of from teams from Korea, China, and Taiwan. In addition, during the course of the meeting a team from Singapore agreed to join the Consortium.
The Summit is breaking new ground by convening thought-leaders from China, Japan, Korea, Canada, the United States and other Pacific Rim countries. It is supported by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum and sponsored by leading international organizations and companies including the National Cancer Institute. GE Healthcare is the lead sponsor for the Summit and other major multinational corporations including Intel and Coca-Cola are providing major multi-year sponsorships.
Canary Fund supports early detection research in the U.S. and on an international level
Canary Fund, a non-profit organization founded by Don Listwin, is sponsoring the first International Biomarker Discovery Team meeting in October 2005 to be held in Seattle, Washington, USA. At this first gathering of international teams engaged in biomarker discovery for cancer, scientists will have an opportunity to network, exchange big ideas and detailed laboratory protocols, and discuss collaborations and strategies for their research.
This October meeting will follow a successful first annual Early Detection Symposium and Workshop, also sponsored by Canary Fund, held this past May in Palo Alto, California, USA. The symposium included sessions on the current state-of-the-art in early detection research and panel discussions led by top cancer researchers from industry and academia. In addition, representatives of the U.S. National Cancer Institute and cancer advocacy foundations were in attendance, and all were strongly in support of early detection research. The focus of this annual symposium will be to build a roadmap to guide participating researchers towards a new platform for early cancer research through cross-scientific communication and collaboration. From the symposium proceedings, an Early Detection Roadmap will be published for dissemination.
Canary Fund is dedicated to reducing the impact of cancer by supporting efforts to establish new tools for early detection of the disease. Founded in 2004 by high technology executive Don Listwin, and supported by scientists, doctors and philanthropists, Canary Fund is committed to assisting the next generation of cancer fighters on the frontlines of early detection research. Canary Fund has been established to address a notable lack of balance in cancer research. While billions of dollars are spent annually on cancer research in the United States, the vast majority is allocated to developing new cancer treatments and caring for patients. Surprisingly, little funding is available to researchers investigating new ways to prevent cancer, or to detect it at its earliest, curable stages. Canary Fund provides funding to researchers who are engaged in developing cancer early detection technologies and protocols. Specifically, Canary Fund is supporting researchers working towards a standardized family of biomarker signatures for the effective and accurate early detection of all forms of cancer through collaborative, coordinated efforts.
The research efforts of Canary Fund are guided by a Scientific Advisory Board, which includes Nobel laureate Dr. Lee Hartwell, Dr. Pat Brown, Dr. Sam Gambhir, Dr. Samir Hanash, Dr. Peter Laird, Dr. Frank McCormick, and Dr. Nicole Urban.
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Informatics: Computational Proteomics Analysis System (CPAS)
Dr. Martin McIntosh at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center is leading a team in the development of an informatics platform. Computational Proteomics Analysis System (CPAS) is an open source analysis system that organizes and controls the analytic process for proteomics. The system is designed to facilitate data sharing and remote use to be easy for others to extend by adding features. The CPAS website offers both open source analysis tools as well as administration and communication features to facilitate project management.
In an e-mail to teams, Dr. Martin McIntosh proposed an informatics meeting, prior to the October Consortium meeting, to discuss how to collaboratively improve CPAS by integrating the substantial informatics expertise among all of the Consortium sites. The goal of this pre-meeting would be to introduce each other to our own respective informatics capabilities, our informatics needs, address issues surrounding data sharing, and produce a set of informatics development priorities for our consortia efforts. Such a meeting could be small and highly focused, with one or two representatives from each team. If you have an interest in participating in a pre-meeting, or a suggestion for a location, please e-mail Karma Kreizenbeck at kkreizen@fhcrc.org.
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Steering Committee
The Consortium Steering Committee is currently comprised of the principal investigator from each team and Drs. Steve Carr, Ruedi Aebersold, Richard Smith, Leigh Anderson, Richard Caprioli, Martin McIntosh and Lee Hartwell.
Report on June 10, 2005 Biomarker Discovery Consortium Dinner
Immediately following the Pacific Health Summit (PHS), a biomarker discovery consortium dinner was held in Seattle at the Bell Harbor Conference Center for PHS participants involved in or interested in the consortium. We had a successful turnout with representatives from the National Cancer Institute, team leaders and representatives from Korea, China and Taiwan as well as representatives from emerging teams in Singapore and Australia.
Informatics Meeting
We are still working on details for a possible informatics meeting. Please contact Karma at kkreizen@fhcrc.org with any questions or suggestions.
Save the Date: First International Biomarker Consortium Meeting – October 11-12, 2005
The International Cancer Biomarker Consortium Meeting is planned for October 11-12, 2005 in Seattle, Washington. Please contact Karma Kreizenbeck (kkreizen@fhcrc.org) with any questions.
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