CCR Grand Rounds February 14: Dr. Anthony Atala, William H. Boyce Professor and Chair, Department of Urology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine. "Regenerative Medicine: New Approaches to Health Care in the 21st Century." February 21: Dr. Richard R. Love, Professor of Medicine Hematology/Oncology; Professor of Public Health, Epidemiology/Biometrics, Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. "The Case for a Paradigm Shift from Tumor to Host in Adjuvant Treatment of Breast Cancer." CCR Grand Rounds are held 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. at the NIH campus in Bethesda, Md., in the Clinical Center's Lipsett Amphitheater.

SNP500Cancer Data Now on caGrid
The SNP500Cancer database is now available on the caGrid - the result of a collaborative effort between NCI's Core Genotyping Facility (CGF) and the NCI Center for Bioinformatics. The SNP500Cancer project seeks to validate known or newly discovered single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and other classes of genetic variants of potential importance to molecular epidemiology studies of cancer and other diseases. SNP500Cancer is a combined effort of NCI's Cancer Genome Anatomy Project and CGF.

The project provides enabling technology to cancer researchers and molecular epidemiologists in the form of data (polymorphism sequences, population frequencies, haplotype estimations, and validated assays) and DNA samples with sequence-verified genotypes. The presence of this dataset on the caBIG™ Grid is a major step in the creation of the data resources and analytical services that is the goal of the caBIG™ program. For more information, go to https://cabig.nci.nih.gov.

Leaf Proposes Electronic Marketplace of Cancer Data
Clifton Leaf, senior editor at large of Fortune Magazine, spoke at CCR Grand Rounds on January 31. In his talk, "Cancer Epidemiology, Google, and the Dangerous Legacy of GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out)," Mr. Leaf described the Google search engine as the most efficient marketplace of ideas in the world. He called for a medical research enterprise based on Google that would include all available biomedical research data. The new marketplace would allow researchers to integrate and cross-check data currently found in small, segregated "markets." Enormous, open-access marketplaces correct themselves, he said, and in such environments concerns about "garbage in, garbage out" are no longer relevant.

Scholarships Available for Breast Cancer Conference
Scholarships based on need are now available for the National Breast Cancer Coalition Fund's annual training conference, April 29-May 2, in Washington, D.C. Attendees will participate in 3 days of plenary sessions and workshops on cutting-edge breast cancer research, quality health care efforts, and public policy developments. Breast cancer advocates will hear from more than 70 leading researchers and policy makers. For more information, go to www.stopbreastcancer.org.