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Asterand Awarded $6.5M Contract to Provide Tumor Samples, Data to NIH

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Asterand Bioscience announced today that it has received a five-year, $6.5 million contract from the National Institutes of Health to provide oncology specimens and associated clinical data to the National Cancer Institute's Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC).

Launched in 2006, the CPTAC is tasked with leveraging quantitative proteomic technologies and workflows to better understand the molecular basis of cancer. Its first stage focused on establishing reproducible and reliable methodologies with high-throughput proteomics approaches. In November, the agency began soliciting research applications for its next phase, which involves using those methodologies to analyze tumor samples with the support of an anticipated $65 million in funding.

This contract extends Asterand's relationship with the NIH, which began in 2010. The company has already provided the CPTAC and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project with more than 1,500 unique tumor specimens and over 2,500 individual clinical data sets.

"We are delighted that the NIH recognizes our ability to provide high-quality and well-annotated tissues with matching biofluids and has elected to extend our partnership," Michael Button, Asterand's principal investigator for the TCHA and CPTAC projects, said in a statement.

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