Simon Sherman, Ph.D., professor in the Eppley Institute, has been awarded a five-year, nearly $1.6 million grant by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to enhance a computing platform for research in pancreatic cancer.
The Pancreatic Cancer Collaborative Registry (PCCR), developed in Dr. Sherman’s laboratory, is at the heart of this infrastructure.
The PCCR is a Web-based software system designed to gather, validate and share pancreatic cancer-related data among cancer centers around the world.
The registry is one of the largest, most comprehensive data sources on pancreatic cancer patients in the world.
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Simon Sherman, Ph.D. |
PCCR is used at:
- Creighton University;
- NorthShore University HealthSystem;
- University of Alabama at Birmingham;
- University of Pittsburgh;
- University of Michigan;
- Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center;
- University of Genoa, Italy; and
- UNMC.
The grant will enable the PCCR system to be upgraded, repaired and operational with other related computer systems and ensure the PCCR is compliant with the emerging requirements for data collection, access, mining, management and sharing.
The grant also will let Dr. Sherman’s team enhance the computing platform’s ability to develop novel hypotheses and studies to better identify pancreatic cancer risk factors and predictors of survival, and determine best practices for pancreatic cancer therapies.