Director: Chung Lee, PhD
Co-Directors: William Catalona, MD, Walter Stadler, MD
Scientific Program Director: Robin Leikin, PhD
Program Administrator: Michelle Pattison
The Administrative Core maintains a central and active role in guiding the SPORE Program, providing strong leadership and effective program management to all participants in the SPORE to assure the highest quality in scientific productivity in translational/interventional prostate cancer research. The Administrative Core has an active command structure that makes the difficult decisions, with the sole focus of optimizing and aligning research to high priority areas and goals that it identifies both independently (as a function of the established expertise of its membership), as well as in a cooperative fashion with the NCI leadership and the Internal and External Advisory Committees. The Administrative Core facilitates interactions between the different projects and cores and provides appropriate administrative assistance and budgetary oversight to investigators in the SPORE. The Core is responsible for the administration of the Developmental Research and Career Development Programs, including the advertisement of the availability of funds, assembling the ad hoc review committee and disbursement of funds. The Administrative Core coordinates SPORE monthly meetings, meetings of the Internal Advisory Committee and the External Advisory Committee and an annual SPORE retreat. The Core encourages intra-SPORE interactions between Northwestern University, the University of Chicago and NorthShore University Health System and inter-SPORE interactions with other SPORE programs.
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Directors: Karen Kaul, MD, PhD
Co-Director: Ximing Yang, MD, PhD
Since 2001, the Specimen Procurement Core of the SPORE in Prostate Cancer has been successfully procuring tissue samples, blood samples (serum, plasma, cells and blood spots), and urine samples from patients who consent to participate in the IRB approved SPORE sample procurement. Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue is available on each case. As of January 2010, 2,900 patients have consented to participate in SPORE sample procurement at Northwestern University (Northwestern Memorial Hospital) and NorthShore University Health System.
All requests for specimens by SPORE and outside investigators must be approved by the SPORE Tissue Review and Disbursement Committee. In addition to the specimen repository, all of the patient clinical data including demographic information, clinical history, and laboratory test data are entered into a secure web based prostate SPORE database designed by the SPORE bioinformatics group. Tissue specific data is entered into a linked pathology database. The SPORE Database Committee conducts quality control of tissue and database information monthly.
Services provided by Specimen Procurement Core include:
- Immunohistochemical staining
- ELISA
- PCR based analysis
- Tissue microarray (TMA)
- Laser capture microscopy (LCM)
Procedure for Requesting Data or Specimens from the Northwestern University Prostate SPORE
For help and more information prior to making a request please contact:
Michelle Pattison, Program Administrator, Prostate SPORE at
m-pattison@northwestern.edu
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Director: Borko Jovanovic, PhD
Co-Director: Warren Kibbe, PhD
The Biostatistics/Bioinformatics Core consists of PhD and MS level biostatisticians, PhD and MS level bioinformaticists. The expertise of key members of this core facilitates planning, development and analysis of SPORE clinical trials, biomarker studies, molecular diagnostics and high throughput technologies such as DNA/RNA microarray, tissue microarray, proteomics experiments and retrospective studies. The Core has developed a fully operational, web-based biorepository for the SPORE that houses the clinical and pathology data of consented prostate cancer patients seen at Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) and NorthShore University Health System sites. Procedures are in place whereby a standardized set of data are collected, checked, edited and entered from the various components of the SPORE. The Core provides support for investigators, as they address the specific aims of their projects, through databases, informatics and computational models of biological systems. The Core also provides expertise in study design, research methods, data quantification, statistical methods and statistical computing. By providing joined and where appropriate, de-identified views of medical record, tissue sample pathology annotation and laboratory data, the Core provides the necessary support for the translational analyses linking data on tumor and disease markers, with clinical determinants of outcome such as tumor response, recurrence/progression-free survival and overall survival.
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Director: Timothy Kuzel, M.D.
Co-Directors: Walter Stadler, M.D., Daniel Shevrin, M.D.
The Clinical Trials and Advocacy Core provides a much needed resource for the successful advancement of prostate SPORE translational research projects. In addition to supporting the existing SPORE clinical trials, the Core brings the expertise of designing and completing clinical trials to other laboratory investigators who wish to contribute translational concepts to the SPORE. The active participation of the patient advocates in trial design and accrual strategies represents a unique aspect of the Clinical Trials and Advocacy Core. The Clinical Trials and Advocacy Core has 4 specific aims: 1. To design, activate and monitor the four SPORE trials/projects. The Director and Co-Directors supervise all aspects of personnel and study management and assist in the ongoing regulatory processes required for novel translational/interventional studies across multiple institutions within and outside of the SPORE. 2. To provide clinical insight and mentorship to junior faculty and laboratory scientists receiving SPORE pilot and career development funding to aid in the writing of trials and to provide appropriate assistance with regulatory and sponsorship hurdles to more rapidly develop the next generation of translational prostate cancer clinical trials. 3. To work with the Biostatistics/Bioinformatics and Specimen Procurement Cores to provide oversight and quality control to SPORE specimen and clinical databases. 4. To support our Advocacy/Outreach Program that assists with clinical trial development and accrual of patients, functions as ambassador between the SPORE and various patient advocacy constituencies, and oversees community outreach activities. These goals are accomplished through meetings of the Core, SPORE investigator meetings, Database Committee meetings, meetings with individual investigators, community outreach activities and attendance at the National SPORE meetings.
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