Tissue donation drives cancer research
By contributing your tumor tissue or fluid through a procedure, you make it possible for researchers to learn more about your disease. Researchers who collaborate with Pattern.org use donated tissue and fluids for several purposes, including but not limited to:
- Making a working copy of your cancer type that will continually grow in a laboratory. This copy is called a "model" and makes it easiest for researchers to study your cancer type and test new treatment ideas.
- Single-cell sequencing, which allows researchers to look closely at differences in gene expression between cells and to understand why certain cells function the way that they do, paving the way for better treatments.
Featured Programs
Developing and interrogating models of rare diseases - The Hong Lab
The Hong Lab at Emory focuses on pediatric high risk solid tumors including kidney cancers such as renal medullary carcinomas (RMC) and Wilms tumors. The objectives are to develop and genomically characterize rare cancer models and use these model systems to better understand each disease. By sharing tissue from your surgery, you could help accelerate this research.
The Hong Lab is developing cell lines, organoids and xenografts which are used as model systems to study diseases. This is particularly important for childhood kidney cancers, where scientists are limited in the ability to do research because there are not enough models of the different cancer types to understand each disease. The ability to create faithful models of disease is critical to the ability to characterize mechanisms of these cancers and identify new therapeutic targets.
All models and data that are generated will remain de-identified and will be shared and distributed to promote broader scientific discovery. Each model generated for these cancers -- like yours -- is a potentially transformative tool that can help scientists better understand cancer.
Boehm Lab at the Koch Institute
The Boehm Lab develops cell lines from patient tumors in order to accelerate research. By sharing tissue from your cancer surgery, you could be a driving force in cancer research.
In the lab we are overcoming major obstacles to research by developing cell lines, which are used as
model systems to study diseases. This is particularly important for rare cancer research, where are significantly limited in the ability to do research because there are not enough models of each type of rare cancer to understand each disease.
Our project, primarily focused on subtypes of sarcomas, will generate cancer cell lines that will enable a variety of studies focused on the causes of cancer, and how to treat cancer. Each cell line built for rare cancers - like yours - is a potentially transformative tool that can be shared by many scientists all over the world to better understand cancer.