The proposed Mesothelioma Virtual Bank (MVB) for Translational Research will create and maintain infrastructure to support a national virtual patient registry and tissue bank. MVB proposes to create and maintain a set of resources through a cooperative working group that will make available their independent stores of mesothelioma tissue for public access. MVB will use a centralized internet-based database or registry modeled after the virtual tissue bank registry created by the Pennsylvania Cancer Alliance Bioinformatics Consortium (PCABC, see http://pcabc.upmc.edu). The MVB registry will be used for data recording and collection related to each tissue sample (serum, tissue or DMA). Each participating institution will be responsible for the data entry and updates into the registry for each of their samples. The registry will be established and managed by the University of Pittsburgh team in collaboration with, and guidance from the CDC and NIOSH via this cooperative agreement. Marketing and outreach efforts of the MVB will be accomplished by partnering with Translating Research Across Communities (TRAC). In addition to actively publicizing the availability of this resource to prospective users in the research community, TRAC will capitalize on its deep linkages to the Patient Advocacy Community to create a dialogue with this deeply vested population. Education and direct involvement of this Community will garner general as well as fiscal support for the MVB that will be necessary to sustain the tissue bank, informatics tools and patient registry staff critical to the long term viability of this important program. ? ? ?
