NORWALK, Conn. & CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--()--The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF), a non-profit organization dedicated to accelerating research and the development of improved therapeutics leading to a cure for multiple myeloma, and GenoSpace, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based bioinformatics company, today announced a partnership to create a revolutionary information ecosystem that can be utilized by researchers, clinicians and patients to drive discoveries in multiple myeloma. This partnership will create a first-in-class, publicly shared database comprised of a researcher gateway to access data from the landmark MMRF CoMMpassSM (Relating Clinical Outcomes in Multiple Myeloma to Personal Assessment of Genetic Profiles) Study and a patient gateway to enable access to real-time clinical and community support. Centralizing such considerable multiple myeloma patient data may accelerate discovery of individualized treatment approaches, biomarkers, diagnostics and new drug targets.
“Conveying this data openly to clinicians and researchers in pursuit of individualized treatment approaches is critical to our mission.”
“The comprehensive data generated from the MMRF CoMMpass Study will be an invaluable resource for multiple myeloma research, providing a breadth of clinical and molecular data never before captured in this disease,” stated Kathy Giusti, Founder and CEO of the MMRF and the Multiple Myeloma Research Consortium (MMRC) and a multiple myeloma patient. “Conveying this data openly to clinicians and researchers in pursuit of individualized treatment approaches is critical to our mission."
Following an exhaustive search for the optimal IT partner, GenoSpace and its unique technology platform emerged as the most ideally suited to build an unparalleled information ecosystem invaluable to researchers, clinicians and patients. Working with GenoSpace and a diverse range of partners from the pharmaceutical industry, academic, community and government affiliated centers as well as other non-profit institutions, the MMRF aims to establish the largest, consolidated patient information ecosystem accessible to all researchers, overcoming the hurdles in finding new discoveries for myeloma and potentially other cancers sharing the same molecular targets.
“This partnership is exemplary in illustrating how GenoSpace’s proprietary technology can be used to rapidly create a resource that is relevant for research in molecular medicine,” said GenoSpace’s co-founder and CEO, John Quackenbush, PhD. “The next phase in our partnership with the MMRF will be to create tools that empower patients with multiple myeloma to more directly and fully participate in the scientific discovery and clinical research processes. The resources we are creating with the MMRF are state-of-the-art and can serve as a model for conducting integrative molecular research in other diseases.”
Launched in 2011, the MMRF CoMMpass Study is collecting cutting-edge, comprehensive clinical information and molecular profiling of 1,000 newly diagnosed patients over a minimum of five years. CoMMpass will provide researchers insight into patients’ disease progression and their responsiveness to specific treatment regimens, thereby characterizing the subtypes of multiple myeloma and enabling individualized treatment approaches. The MMRF partnership with GenoSpace will support this vision by fulfilling the need to securely store, enable ready access, visualize and allow for analysis of the complex data from the CoMMpass Study and other research initiatives in multiple myeloma for academic and industry scientists worldwide.
About the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF)
The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation was established in 1998 as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization by twin sisters Karen Andrews and Kathy Giusti, soon after Kathy’s diagnosis with multiple myeloma. The mission of the MMRF is to relentlessly pursue innovative means that accelerate the development of next-generation multiple myeloma treatments to extend the lives of patients and lead to a cure. As the world’s number-one private funder of multiple myeloma research, the MMRF has raised over $200 million since its inception and directs 90% of total budget to research and related programming. As a result, the MMRF has been awarded Charity Navigator’s coveted four-star rating for nine consecutive years, the highest designation for outstanding fiscal responsibility and exceptional efficiency. For more information about the MMRF, please visit www.themmrf.org.
About GenoSpace
GenoSpace, LLC, is a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company pioneering a bold and innovative software platform for advancing 21st-century genomic medicine. Founded by John Quackenbush and Mick Correll in 2011 on the principle that individuals should own and control access to their own genomic data, GenoSpace has built a robust software system for securely storing vast amounts of genomic data and making it available to individuals and groups who need to connect with each other and share data. GenoSpace’s “information ecosystem” consists of secure, reliable, user-friendly portals and computational tools that enable individuals, physicians, health-care systems, research scientists, contract research organizations, and pharmaceutical companies to access genomic and other data and to build relationships with other stakeholders in mutually beneficial ways that can accelerate disease research and drive personalized medicine. For more information about GenoSpace, please visit www.genospace.com.
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