The end of 2018 marked a milestone for the MedStar Health Biobank and Clinical Library, with more than 100 participants enrolling in the joint Indivumed- MedStar project. Over 300 samples were collected from patients undergoing surgery at MedStar Washington Hospital Center to build a resource for researchers and the advancement of personalized medicine.
In 2017, MedStar Health announced a collaborative project with Indivumed, GmbH. The purpose of this collaboration was to advance the health of our cancer patients through unique biospecimen collection, preservation, and analysis. Indivumed is a Germany-based physician-led, integrated global oncology research company with a drive to revolutionize cancer treatment through individualized therapy.
In early 2018, we opened the project at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. A team of Research Institute associates worked with Christopher Gallagher, MD, the pathology departments, and a team of surgeons, including Drs. Jennifer Ayscue, Marc Boisvert, Chukwuemeka Ihemelandu, Puja Khaitan, Jennifer Rosen, and Paul Sugarbaker, to collect biospecimen samples from patients undergoing surgery as part of their cancer treatment.
Leveraging Indivumed’s unique biobanking standard, this work has resulted in the MedStar Health Biobank and Clinical Library growing to establish new partnerships with additional surgeons including Drs. Bello, Dainty, Fitzgerald, Lazar, Stahl, Stamatakis, Steves, Wehner, and Watson. The Research Insitute plans to continue expanding this project to include all Hospital Center surgeons in the coming year. The resulting MedStar Health Biobank and Clinical Library is a resource for high quality, annotated blood, urine, and tissue samples available to MedStar researchers interested in advancing precision medicine for cancer prevention, detection, and treatment.
This is a remarkable milestone for the partnership and a tribute to the excellent work of our MHRI - MWHC team. Thank you to everyone on the team who is making this happen!
