Because of the urgent need for widely available research models of fibrolamellar carcinoma (FLC) to improve our understanding of this rare cancer, the Fibrolamellar Cancer Foundation (FCF) is offering incentive prizes for new FLC tumor lines. Cell lines and model systems are vital to biomedical research since they allow scientists to make biological discoveries and test potential therapeutics in a pre-clinical setting, bridging the gap between clinician scientists and basic researchers. These experimental systems form the basis to investigate the biochemical or genetic pathways of cancer and can be used for drug screening and therapeutic discoveries. However, the scarcity of valid FLC models has been a major obstacle for research.
To overcome this problem, FCF will award $10,000 per model to laboratories or organizations that make patient-derived xenografts (PDX) or stable cell / organoid lines of human FLC available to the research community.
The specific requirements of each of these incentive prizes are attached below. The downloadable forms include the specifications for the lines, terms of agreement, and plans for distribution of the FLC PDX and cell culture models.
For further information about the program, please contact:
- Patty Cogswell, FCF’s Biobank Consultant at pcogswell@fibrofoundation.org, or
- Mark Furth, FCF Scientific Director at mfurth@fibrofoundation.org.