NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Northwell Health announced today that it has partnered with German personalized cancer services company Indivumed to create a cancer research biobank to advance its precision medicine and drug development efforts.
Under the terms of the three-year deal, Northwell will collect lung, breast, colorectal, pancreatic, and other cancer tissues for research and storage. Indivumed will contribute its expertise and protocols for tissue recovery, processing, handling, and tracking.
Additional terms were not disclosed.
Northwell said that tissue collection will initially be conducted at three of its hospitals — North Shore University Hospital, Long Island Jewish Medical Center, and Lenox Hill Hospital — with other hospitals joining the program at a later date. Northwell noted that participating cancer patients will have the option to have extra cancer tissue that was removed during their treatment included in the biobank for research.
"Creating a system-wide approach to biobanking of human cancer tissues expands our ability to conduct metabolic, as well as gene-based, cancer treatment research," James Crawford, executive director and senior vice president of laboratory services at Northwell, said in a statement. "It will also facilitate patients being able to participate in and potentially benefit from cutting-edge clinical research without disrupting their routine treatment."
In addition to its partnership with Northwell, Indivumed has forged cancer biobank collaborations with a number of other institutions including the University of Rochester Medical Center and the Geisinger Health System.