SRA Supports Groundbreaking Cancer Research

Main Category: IT / Internet / E-mail
Also Included In: Cancer / Oncology
Article Date: 21 Dec 2008 - 1:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions  

SRA International, Inc. (NYSE: SRX), a leading provider of technology and strategic consulting services and solutions to government organizations and commercial clients, has announced that it collected and managed all of the research data associated with a groundbreaking brain tumor study recently released by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). The study, which uncovered three significant genetic mutations believed to be linked to the most common type of brain cancer, was conducted by The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) - a collaborative, pilot cancer-research project for which SRA serves as the Data Coordinating Center (DCC).

Through a contract awarded by SAIC-Frederick - the Operations and Technical Support Contractor for NCI at Frederick - SRA is one of more than 60 organizations that make up the network of laboratories, universities, cancer centers and private companies that contribute to the TCGA program. As the DCC, SRA was responsible for collecting, transforming, disseminating and conducting quality assurance on the research study data generated by the TCGA network. This effort included developing software that controlled data submission, reviewing the data for quality control, developing an online portal, and using the portal to share the data with research and medical communities and the entire cancer community. SRA also helped write a portion of the study.

"TCGA is poised to generate unprecedented data sets, tools and technologies that will ultimately benefit all fields of cancer research," said Susan Castillo Ph.D., SRA senior principal for bioinformatics. "This study proved to be a significant first step toward achieving that objective, and we look forward to supporting the many other groundbreaking projects that will be conducted through this program."

The full results of TCGA's comprehensive brain tumor study are published online in the September issue of Nature.

(SRA's support of this program has been funded, in whole, with Federal Funds from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, under Contract No. NOl-CO-12400.)

About SRA International, Inc.

SRA and its subsidiaries are dedicated to solving complex problems of global significance for government organizations serving the national security, civil government and global health markets. Founded in 1978, the company and its subsidiaries have expertise in such areas as air surveillance and air traffic management; contract research organization (CRO) services; cybersecurity; disaster response planning; enterprise resource planning; environmental strategies; IT systems, infrastructure and managed services; logistics; public health preparedness; strategic management consulting; systems engineering; and wireless integration.

FORTUNE® magazine has chosen SRA as one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For" for nine consecutive years. The company and its subsidiaries employ more than 6,400 employees serving clients from headquarters in Fairfax, Va., and offices around the world. For additional information on SRA, please visit http://www.sra.com.

Source:
Sheila S. Blackwell
http://www.sra.com

• Additional
• References
• Citations