The National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) was established in 2001 with a mission to bring together all the key players in cancer research in the UK to identify where research was most needed and where it was most likely to create progress.
The Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (ECMC) network is a UK-wide initiative jointly funded by Cancer Research UK and the Health Departments of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The network brings £70M of infrastructure and 18 cancer centres connecting scientists and clinicians to drive discovery, research and development of new anti-cancer treatments.
The NCRI together with the ECMC Pathology Network Group set up the Cellular Molecular Pathology Initiative, known as CM-Path (Cellular Molecular Pathology Initiative), which launched in 2016 with £635k committed over five years.
Cellular pathology, the science of understanding disease at the level of tissues and cells within the body, remains crucial to our understanding of cancer. However, the challenges of integrating new technologies (e.g. molecular and proteomic analyses and digital infrastructure) must be addressed by cellular pathology in the next 5-10 years to meet the needs of patients. This requires a culture of innovation and up-skilling of the cellular pathology workforce to transition to Cellular and Molecular Pathology.
In line with this the CM-Path Biobanking Sample Quality Improvement Tool, a free, confidential self-assessment for use by biobank staff, was created to review how current practices impact sample quality. The tool was designed using Microsoft Excel to ensure that anyone with this software package can use the tool securely offline.
The CM-Path Biobanking Sample Quality Improvement Tool is intended to help biobanks ensure their samples are of the highest quality for tissue users. Click the hyperlink here, or link number 2 in the sources section below to visit the tool’s webpage where it can be downloaded.
Sources:
- http://www.ncri.org.uk/about-us/the-history-of-ncri/
- https://cmpath.ncri.org.uk/our-workstreams/discovery/cmpath-biobanking-overview/sample-quality-improvement-tool/
