Welcome to Issue 12 of the Biological Studies Newsletter.

Data Centre

The new IT post in the Data Centre has now been filled. Colin Gibbs has joined the IT team and Jim Charvill will now be able to press forward with IT improvements to the tumour bank process.

Tissue Registration Update

• There are 2854 specimens within the tissue bank
• Over 80% have evidence of consent (or LREC archival consent) and so are available to researchers
• I will be contacting centres individually regarding their samples without consent in the next couple of weeks
• Congratulations to Cambridge who now join Leeds with 100% of samples consented!

Tumour Bank Protocol

We are now close to getting revised MREC approval for the tumour banking protocol, which will substantially improve the process for tumour banking, to include leukaemia and solid tumour samples. This will be covered in more detail in the next issue of the newsletter.

Biological Studies Application Process

The process for applying for access to samples for Biological Studies has been under review. It was apparent that there were frequently considerable delays in returning decisions on applications, which was extremely frustrating to researchers! We have therefore revised the application process and hope that the ‘streamlined’ new system will result in more rapid responses to your applications.

The main changes are:

• Fixed dates for review of submissions: Applications to the Biological Studies Group will be reviewed 3 monthly. The closing dates each year will be: 15 ^th February; 15 ^th May; 15 ^th August; 15 ^th November.
• External Review of applications: Applications will not be sent for further external review if, at the time of application, they have been approved for funding by a recognised national grant awarding body and therefore has approved been by an external panel of experts, without major amendments.

• Approval process: All applicants will receive a response to their application within 12 weeks of the closing date for submissions.

Full details of the revised application process can be found on the UKCCSG website. We will audit the new process in 12 months and see if we are achieving our targets!

THE FIRST SUBMISSION CLOSING DATE IS 15TH MAY 2005....(there will some degree of flexibility for this first closing date as it is short notice.........please let me know as soon as possible if you are planning to submit an application)

Pam Kearns, Scientific Co-ordinator, Biological Studies Committee

UKCCSG Neuroblastoma Biology Meeting

The Inaugural Meeting of the UKCCSG Neuroblastoma Biology Group was held at Newcastle University on 8th February 2005. This was a very successful meeting with around 45 people attending and over 20 abstracts were submitted. A mixture of talks and poster presentations were given and the meeting included a European colleague (Gian Paolo Tonini and colleagues from Genoa, Italy). We hope to hold these meetings on a bi-annual basis during the year in which there is not an International Advances in Neuroblastoma Research Meeting.

For anybody who is interested but was unable to attend the meeting, further copies of the abstract booklet are available from Gillian.Walker@ncl.ac.uk.

Diary Dates 2005

26 ^th April – Biological Studies Conference Call
11 ^th May – Division of Therapeutics, Cambridge Terrace
15 ^th June – Biological Studies, 44 Lincoln’s Inn Field
13 ^th July – Division of Therapeutics, Cambridge Terrace
16 ^th August – Biological Studies Committee conference call – details to be confirmed
8 ^th November – Biological Studies Committee followed by Division of Therapeutics, 44 Lincoln’s Inn Fields
14 ^th December – Biological Studies Committee conference call – details to be confirmed

NEXT EDITION ... The next issue will be sent out at the end June. If you have any items that you would like to include, please send them to Sue Thornton at st22@le.ac.uk by 22 ^nd June 2005.

Chair Division of Biological Studies Dr Richard Grundy Birmingham Children’s Hospital Tel: 0121 333 8243 Fax: 0121 333 8241 e-mail: richard.grundy@nottingham.ac.uk

Biological Studies Coordinator Gavin Whyman UKCCSG Data Centre, Leicester Tel: 0116 249 4471 Fax: 0116 254 9504 e-mail: gjw11@le.ac.uk

Biological Studies Admin Sue Thornton, UKCCSG Data Centre, Leicester Tel: 0116 249 4463 Fax: 0115 254 9504 e-mail: st22@le.ac.uk