Project Accelerate
CBTN recently was named recipient of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) X01 Program dubbed “Project Accelerate.” Over the course of 2022 researchers funded by NIH will molecularly characterize every child enrolled in CBTN by Fall 2022. The data from more than 8,400 kids will be processed as part of Project Accelerate.
Project Accelerate turbo charges research to save kids. It empowers research by significantly increasing the size and scale of information available to researchers, scientists, and healthcare providers worldwide. And, it will advance personalized medicine, ensuring that doctors and clinicians can deliver the right diagnosis and treatment for each individual child.
The more data available to researchers, the higher the potential for new insights that lead to
breakthroughs in treatment.
THE CHALLENGE
Childhood brain tumors are not common enough for any single research center to encounter enough patients with the same diagnosis to gather the amount of samples or data needed to conduct substantive research. Thus, collaborations like the Bridge To A Cure Foundation alliance play a crucial role in advancing the pace of progress. The more data available to researchers, the higher the potential for novel insights that lead to breakthroughs in treatment.
THE OPPORTUNITY
As the NIH X01 program recipient, Bridge To A Cure partner Children’s Brain Tumor Network (CBTN) can now unleash information concealed in thousands of tissue samples across all pediatric brain tumor types that have been collected by 31 CBTN member institutions since 2011.
TURBO CHARGING RESEARCH
Project Accelerate researchers are prioritizing the most aggressive tumor types, supporting discoveries for those cancers where there is a lack of existing data. Within the next year, approximately 4,000 patient samples within the CBTN biobank will be characterized at the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. CBTN will then make this flood of new information available to all researchers everywhere, around the world.
Children’s Brain Tumor Network
CBTN is a collaborative research effort to discover more effective treatments for childhood brain tumors. The organization includes more than 31 member institutions located across Europe, Asia, Australia, and the United States. Collectively, these member sites create the world’s most comprehensive repository of childhood brain tumors, available by request for laboratories across the globe. CBTN’s suite of informatics and analytics platforms enable researchers to collaborate together in real-time on behalf of all children diagnosed with a brain tumor. Learn more at CBTN.org.
Your support
is desperately needed.
While the NIH’s X01 program provides scientific investigators to process the data, support materials, supplies, and staffing to prepare and release the tremendous amount of data generated over the next 12-18 months needs to be funded.
CBTN needs $1.35 million to propel Project Accelerate data out to scientists and researchers across the globe. In the meantime, the clock continues to tick for ailing children and devastated families.
Please give today to help us accelerate cures for childhood brain tumors.
