NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The National Cancer Institute said today that it has struck an agreement with a South Korean hospital to partner on the development and application of proteomic tools in a clinical environment.
NCI's Office of Cancer Clinical Proteomics Research (OCCPR) and Seoul National University Cancer Hospital (SNUCH) have inked a memorandum of understanding under which SNUCH will test proteomic technologies, standards, workflows, and protein assays developed by NCI's Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC).
CPTAC was created to identify proteins linked to alterations in cancer genomes by leveraging data from initiatives such as the Cancer Genome Atlas to eventually link genotypes and proteotypes with cancer phenotypes.
The research the partners plan to undertake through this agreement will address how proteomic technologies may be applied in active clinical settings, and they will seek to generate, interpret, and translate data for physicians and patients. They also will examine the ethical, legal, and psychosocial implications of using proteomic data in the clinic.
Also under the agreement, OCCPR and SNUCH will share protein targets that are associated with cancer, train and exchange scientists and information, and disseminate new products and data to the research community.
The new MOU is an extension of an agreement from 2010, under which the NCI and the Korean Institute of Science and Technology worked to optimize proteomic technologies and implement standards for large-scale international programs.