NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Moffitt Cancer Center and M2Gen today said they have been awarded a seven-year, $7.3 million contract from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to coordinate a central laboratory and biorepository for research into myelodysplastic syndromes.
The study, called the National Myelodysplastic Syndromes Natural History Study, includes a cohort of 2,000 adults with MDS and up to 500 age-matched participants not diagnosed with the disease. Biospecimens will be collected from patients at least twice a year during the course of the study and shipped to Moffitt and M2Gen for processing and storage. More than 150 sites throughout the US are expected to participate in the study in collaboration with the National Cancer Institute's clinical study programs, the partners said.
Pearlie Epling-Burnette, senior member of the malignant hematology and immunology programs at Moffitt, will be the principal investigator on the contract.
The central laboratory and biorepository for the study will be modeled after Moffitt's Total Cancer Care protocol, which Moffitt and M2Gen said is a standard system for tracking patient molecular, clinical, and epidemiological data and follows the patient throughout his or her lifetime.
M2Gen is a wholly owned subsidiary of Moffitt and provides informatics solutions.
MDS is a group of blood disorders that affect bone marrow. Over time it often progresses to serious or fatal anemia and can transform into acute leukemia.