To address the need for better tools to study cancer, NCI?s Office of Cancer Genomics (OCG), Center for Cancer Genomics, together with international institutions, has established a consortium, the Human Cancer Models Initiative (HCMI). HCMI?s goal is to make available to the scientific community large numbers of ?next generation? in vitro cancer models from up to twelve organs that are not encumbered with excessive intellectual property (IP) constraints. The in vitro cancer models and the clinical and molecular characterization data will be broadly accessible to scientists from academic, industry, and/or non-profit organizations. The models, the tumor from which they are derived, and matched ?normal? tissue will be characterized by sequencing. This task order aims to fund one vendor to distribute 100 ?next generation? cancer models generated by three or more different technologies to test the process to 1. acquire frozen cultures from the laboratories which generate the models, 2. authenticate, produce, preserve, develop, evaluate quality for quality assurance and 3. distribute globally the models and information to support high quality research in the life sciences. The distributor should be ready to work with models from up to 12 organ sites. It is expected that in the future, the distributor would provide this activity for the benefit of the research community.
