US National Cancer Institute signs up to Thomson
Reuters'BIOMARKERcenter
12 September 2008
The US National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National
Institutes of Health (NIH), will use Thomson Reuters' BIOMARKERcenter in
its cancer drug discovery programme.
BIOMARKERcenter is a comprehensive resource for pharmaceutical,
biotechnology, diagnostic, and research organizations with a framework
for assessing and tracking a potential biomarker for use at any stage of
research or development.
The National Cancer Institute's Developmental Therapeutics program
and the associated Biomarker Program will integrate BIOMARKERcenter into
its continuing efforts to investigate novel chemical and biological
agents for their potential to improve cancer therapeutics.
"The NCI's Developmental Therapeutics Program (DTP) and its clinical
counterpart, the Cancer Treatment Evaluation Program (CTEP) have been
using Integrity and it's predecessor, Ensemble, for many years as
sources of current and earlier information on agents at all phases of
discovery and clinical trials related to cancer," said Dave Newman,
Chief, Natural Products Branch DCTD/DTP, NCI. "The availability of
BIOMARKERcenter and its integration with Integrity will now permit
easier integration of animal and human biomarker information at all
stages of the NCI's drug discovery and development programs within the
Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis, the parent organization of
DTP and CTEP."
Using a unique lifecycle approach to indicate the stage of a given
biomarker, BIOMARKERcenter covers individual biomarker usage as
identified in literature, patents, conferences, clinical trial
information, and other sources for all major therapeutic areas. For each
therapy area, it includes not only biomarkers with established clinical
usage, but also emerging uses for the biomarker. Each record is manually
curated and expertly indexed to allow searching by fields such as name,
type, biological process, indication, population, role, measurement
technique, substrate, lifecycle stage, and development status of
diagnostic kits. Each record is further enriched with links to all
supporting source documents, throughout the history of the biomarker.
"The Scientific business of Thomson Reuters was the first to deliver
a truly structured approach to a previously fragmented field," said Dr
Josep Prous, Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, Pharmaceutical
and Chemical Markets, Thomson Reuters. "We feel very proud to work with
the National Cancer Institute, a true leader in the field of cancer
research."
The National Cancer Institute was founded in 1937 with a mandate to
conduct and foster cancer research; review and approve grant-in-aid
applications to support promising research projects on the causes,
prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer; and provide training and
instruction in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Since its
creation, the National Cancer Institute has evolved into one of the
world's pre-eminent cancer research organizations.