UPMC to host first tissue bank branch

Source: Pittsburgh Business Times, November 2014

UPMC will house the first branch of the Melanoma Tissue Bank, an effort to speed research into the disease by collecting tumor samples.

Chicago-based nonprofit Skin of Steel will hold a forum Thursday in Shadyside to announce opening of the tissue bank’s first branch. Speakers include University of Pittsburgh Professor of Medicine, Dermatology and Translational Science John Kirkwood.

The Melanoma Tissue Bank will acquire and freeze tissue samples from patients’ initial melanomas so that DNA and RNA can be preserved for study. This research tool does not yet exist on a national level, so the collection and analysis of tissue samples is expected to help better predict susceptibility to the disease and help identify diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers.

Once the tissue bank is operational, researchers from around the world will be able to access the samples and related bioinformatic data for study. The Shadyside event Thursday is intended to raise awareness of the disease and raise funds for operation of the branch office.

Founded in 2010, Skin of Steel’s mission is to fund the first national Melanoma Tissue Bank to improve treatment of the disease..

Some 120,000 new cases of melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer, will be diagnosed in the U.S. this year, according to the American Cancer Society.