The International Genomics Consortium's centerpiece program, expO, the Expression Project for Oncology, recently completed its first phase of annotating the genetic profiles of rare tumors. The 60 tissue specimens collected and profiled are the initial set in what IGC hopes will become the largest public database of genetic expression information. They have been published online at the National Center of Biotechnology, a division of the National Institutes of Health.

The announcement signifies that the expO researchers, who hope to collect and analyze between 2,000 and 3,000 tumor tissue samples over the course of the three-year database project, hit their first-year milestone ahead of schedule.

"We are very pleased with the significant successes the project has achieved in our first year," said expO director Robert Penny in a news release.

Committed to adhering to strict standards of patient privacy, the database will codify the rapidly growing body of genetic data in efforts to provide physicians and researchers across the nation and globe with information that could lead to effective tissue-specific therapies, new prognostic and diagnostic tests, and potential preventive strategies for a wide range of cancers.

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For more information:

IGC news release

National Center for Biotechnology Information