| Dear Friend: With this year's launch of the Multiple Myeloma Research Consortium (MMRC), families facing a myeloma diagnosis have more hope than ever before. The MMRC thanks all of you for your continued support and wishes you a wonderful holiday season. Sincerely, The MMRC |
The MMRC is pleased to announce that it has begun accruing bone marrow biopsies and blood samples into the MMRC Tissue Bank. All samples will be collected, analyzed, and stored following Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) standards. This centralized repository will enable MMRC researchers to rapidly identify and validate new molecular targets for myeloma and drugs active against these targets, as well as conduct key correlative studies to determine patients' responses to current and emerging therapies. "The MMRC Tissue Bank has tremendous potential to advance drug development efforts in myeloma," said Rafael Fonseca, M.D., Director of the MMRC Tissue Bank. "The establishment of the MMRC Tissue Bank is truly a milestone in myeloma research."
The MMRC is pleased to announce that it has received a donation of $100,000 from Genentech, Inc. These unrestricted funds will be used to support pivotal projects in drug development. "Genentech is pleased to support the MMRC in its research efforts into multiple myeloma. The institutions participating in the Consortium are prominent in pre-clinical and clinical investigation in multiple myeloma. They are in a position to leverage their strengths in the performance of correlative studies in the context of clinical trials and in the establishment of tissue and data banks with a critical mass of samples to facilitate vital research into this devastating disease," said Gwen Fyfe, M.D., Vice President Clinical Hematology/Oncology, Genentech, Inc. The MMRC extends its deepest gratitude for the receipt of this generous grant.
MMRC President and Founder Kathy Giusti appeared on CBS Sunday Morning on Dec., 12, 2004. In a segment profiling cancer survivors, Giusti joined Lance Armstrong and the National Cancer Institute's Julia Rowland to discuss how the MMRC's innovative model is advancing myeloma research and accelerating drug development in myeloma.
