TOOLS, PRODUCTS, AND RESOURCES

Repository of Molecular Brain Neoplasia Data

http://rembrandt.nci.nih.gov

The REpository of Molecular BRAin Neoplasia DaTa (REMBRANDT) is a public database that houses biological and clinical data from several thousand primary brain tumors for a variety of purposes, including the development of novel molecular classification systems. This effort is an important step toward an era of individualized cancer treatment based on the molecular genetics of each patient’s tumor. REMBRANDT will house two sets of valuable data.

The first data set comes from the prospective Glioma Molecular Diagnostic Initiative (GMDI) study, which is collecting tumor specimens from patients enrolled in NCI-sponsored clinical trials. GMDI will generate data from the tumors on gene expression, chromosomal alterations, and presence of single nucleotide polymorphisms, as well as proteomic data from patient serum.

The second type of REMBRANDT data includes a wide array of molecular and genetic information regarding all types of primary brain tumors generated by NCI-funded investigators. REMBRANDT will allow huge amounts of disparate data types to be housed in a single place and will also supply the bioinformatics tools critically necessary for the useful analyses of such data.

The new molecular glioma classification system that will result from GMDI and REMBRANDT will be biologically based, giving insight into the pathology of glioma cells and helping physicians pre­dict responsiveness to specific therapies.