The SEARCHBreast Portal: A Virtual Bioresource to Facilitate the Sharing of Surplus Animal Materials Derived from Breast Cancer Studies

Phil Carter,Ingunn Holen,Louise Jones,Valerie Speirs,Claude Chelala,Bethny Morrissey,Karen Blyth

doi:10.5334/ojb.21

Abstract

The SEARCHBreast portal (https://searchbreast.org/) provides access to a virtual bioresource enabling researchers to access and share material derived from breast cancer related animal studies on a collaborative basis. By registering as members of SEARCHBreast, researchers can browse the SEARCHBreast platform for relevant tissue and models, and request access to these to help answer their specific biological question(s). SEARCHBreast mediates the collaborations formed from requests for these materials. As of July 2016, the virtual bioresource has received 8 requests for tissue and has sent hundreds of tissue samples saving approximately 400 animals. SEARCHBreast is currently developing a bioinformatics pipeline, enabling users to access and mine published data on animal models of breast cancer, potentially helping to reduce experimental redundancy further, prioritising new relevant research.

Highlights

(1) Overview Description of the initiative SEARCHBreast (Sharing Experimental Animal Resources: Coordinating Holdings – Breast) is a virtual bioresource established in 2014, containing information on a vailable material previously generated and archived during in vivo breast cancer studies
SEARCHBreast members are engaged in the uptake of new technologies that offer alternatives to animal-derived materials, such as using humanised breast tissue models [4]
Context Spatial coverage The SEARCHBreast management is based at the Leeds Institute of Cancer and Pathology, University of Leeds, UK (Latitude: N 53° 48’ 26.2656” Longitude: E −1° 31’ 8.6802”) and the database is maintained by Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London, UK (Latitude: N 51° 31’ 16.7262” Longitude: E −0° 5’ 55.9386”)

Summary

Introduction

(1) Overview Description of the initiative SEARCHBreast (Sharing Experimental Animal Resources: Coordinating Holdings – Breast) is a virtual bioresource established in 2014, containing information on a vailable material previously generated and archived during in vivo breast cancer studies. SEARCHBreast members are engaged in the uptake of new technologies that offer alternatives to animal-derived materials, such as using humanised breast tissue models [4]. Researchers can access and upload information about resources that are available to share to this platform, from anywhere in the world.

Results

Conclusion