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German Government, Cancer Charity to Provide $21.2M for German ICGC Project

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This article was originally published July 16.

By Julia Karow

The German Cancer Aid, a cancer charity, and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, BMBF, are planning to provide €15 million ($21.2 million) in funding over five years for a German research consortium that will participate in the International Cancer Genome Consortium, according to a recent request for applications.

ICGC, an international research network, plans to analyze the genomes, epigenomes, and transcriptomes of up to 50 tumor types (see In Sequence 4/29/2008).

Last fall, the consortium announced commitments from 11 funding organizations in eight countries — the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, China, France, India, Japan, and Spain — to analyze eight types of cancer. Each project will involve approximately 500 patient samples and cost an estimated $20 million. The cancers to be studied are pancreatic, stomach, oral, ovarian, and several types of liver and breast cancer, as well as chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

The German research consortium will focus on pediatric tumors, "given the portfolio of tumor types already studied as part of ICGC, the high mortality for some pediatric tumors, as well as the comprehensive expertise of German pediatric oncology in the therapy of pediatric tumors," according to the announcement.

Applications are due July 31, and more information is available here.

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