Pediatric Oncology Preclinical Protein -Tissue Array Project (POPP-TAP)
A collaborative project of the NCI and the Children’s Oncology Group Phase 1 Consortium Seeking potential investigator collaboration

The POPP-TAP is seeking researchers who will submit childhood cancer cell lines and/or xenografts for inclusion in the array project. The array project and the application process for submitting cell lines and xenografts are briefly described below. Applications for submitting cell lines and xenografts are due by January 15, 2002. Selection of cell lines and xenografts for inclusion in the array project will be completed by February 1, 2003 with submission of materials to be completed as quickly as possible afterwards.

The array project follows two meetings sponsored by the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) Phase 1 Consortium and the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP), NCI: one meeting addressed the role of preclinical models in pediatric oncology drug development (June, 2001) and the second meeting addressed the application of tissue microarrays and proteomic methods to childhood cancer drug development (April, 2002). Recent methodological advances have facilitated the identification of molecular targets and the determination of the activation state of signal transduction pathways, thereby providing opportunities to develop cell signal profiles for different types of childhood cancer. Array methods (e.g. expression arrays, tissue microarrays, antibody arrays, and reverse protein microarrays) are central in this process, allowing large numbers of samples to be analyzed simultaneously for specific molecular characteristics.

The three main objectives of POPP-TAP are:

(1)  To identify a panel of pediatric cancer models (xenograft and cell lines) that most closely resembles the cancer(s) of origin

(2)  To develop tissue and cell microarrays and protein lysate arrays of this preclinical panel, for the purpose of identifying cancer-related molecular targets and signaling pathways that may be therapeutically exploited to improve the outcome for children that suffer from cancer and

(3)  To provide these tissue and protein arrays as reagents to qualified investigators in the extra- and intra-mural research community.

In summary, POPP-TAP seeks to facilitate pediatric cancer drug development by creating a resource to use in identifying molecular targets and cell signal profiles in cell lines and xenograft models that are used in testing new anti-cancer agents for their potential activity against childhood cancers. If successful, this resource has the potential to increase the pace of new therapeutic target discovery for childhood cancers and to facilitate the clinical use of new molecularly targeted agents active against childhood cancers. Provider responsibilities and benefits and NCI/COG responsibilities are described on the following page. For copies of the submission form, please click on one of the links below. Several different formats are provided for your convenience.

Thank you for your interest,

Peter Adamson, MD; COG Phase 1 Consortium
Barry Anderson, MD; Pediatric Section, CTEP, NCI
Stephen M. Hewitt, MD, PhD; TARP Lab, NCI
Peter Houghton, PhD; COG Phase 1 Consortium
Javed Khan, MD; Oncogenomics Section, Pediatric Oncology Branch, CCR NCI
Malcolm Smith MD, PhD; Head, Pediatric Section, CTEP, NCI

Inquiries may be made to SmithM@ctep.nci.nih.gov

SUBMISSION FORMS (choose one of 3 options)

• Click here for a Word 97/2000 version of the Submission Form. This form may be printed and returned by mail or fax (see below).The form cannot be modified while open in Word.

• Click here for an Adobe PDF document version of the Submission Form.This form may be printed and returned by mail or fax (see below). If you do not have Acrobat Reader installed on your computer, click here for instructions to download the latest reader.

• Click here to fill out the Submission Form online in your web browser.This requires Internet Explorer version 4 or more recent web browser adn an e-mail client installed. Your responses will be automatically created in the body of an e-mail message, which is addressed to pedarray@emmes.com. You must still manually click the Send button for the e-mail message to be sent. Receipt will be acknowledged with an auto-reply message.

Mail submission forms to:
Robert Gore-Langton, Ph.D.
The EMMES Corporation
401 N. Washington Street, Suite 700
Rockville, MD 20850
U.S.A.

Fax submission forms to:
Robert Gore-Langton, Ph.D.
301-251-1355.
If needed, the country code prefix is 1.

Description of Provider and NCI/COG Responsibilities

Provider responsibilities:

• Submit frozen viable cells from early passage of cell lines.
• Submit dissected snap-frozen xenografts (with no extraneous tissue).
• Ship the cell lines and xenografts in dry ice and follow other appropriate shipping instructions.
• Provide greater detail about cell lines and xenografts beyond that requested in the submission form if requested by NCI/COG.
• Address Intellectual Property issues related to the cell lines or xenografts and sign Materials Transfer Agreement (MTA) if selected to submit cell lines or xenografts.
• A copy of the model MTA for submission of a cell line or xenograft for inclusion in POPP-TAP is available (pdf file).

Provider benefits:

• Xenograft providers will receive reimbursement to support costs of providing tissue.
• Results of gene expression profiling will be provided to providers for all cell lines and xenografts that they submit.
• Providers will be included as an author or appear in the acknowledgements section (depending upon journal regulations) on the first publication describing the tissue arrays or gene expression profiles for the POPP-TAP cell lines and xenografts.
• Providers will receive limited numbers of tissue arrays for testing (with requirement to provide results obtained using the arrays to POPP-TAP after a defined period).

NCI/COG responsibilities:

• Grow and process cell lines for gene expression profiling and for tissue/protein arraying (to be done in the laboratory of Dr. Javed Khan).
• Perform gene expression profiling on the POPP-TAP cell lines & xenografts.
• Provide gene expression profiles to providers for the cell lines & xenografts that they contribute.
• Prepare the tissue/protein arrays of cell lines & xenografts.
• Prepare publication of the gene expression profiles of the POPP-TAP cell lines and xenografts.
• Make gene expression profiling data for the POPP-TAP cell lines and xenografts publicly available following the initial gene expression profiling publication.
• Prepare publication describing tissue arrays for the POPP-TAP cell lines and xenografts and advertise the availability of these to the research community.
• Provide a limited number of tissue arrays for testing to providers.
• Maintain inventory of tissue arrays and distribute to qualified investigators.
• Distribute tissue/protein arrays of cell lines & xenografts to qualified investigators. A copy of the model MTA that will be used for distribution of tissue/protein arrays to qualified investigators (pdf file) is attached.
• Maintain database of the clinical and biological characteristics of the POPP-TAP cell lines and xenografts.

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