Melanoma Tissue Bank Consortium

A Melanoma Tissue Bank of annotated fresh frozen primary Melanoma Tissue is a fundamental research tool that is desperately needed for research. MTBC spent over ten years creating the infrastructure needed to open this bank. With the help of our research investigators,their institutional staff, and our attorneys, this process has entailed designing the bioinformatics, writing the research protocol, creating the underlying manual, generating the Consortium contracts and in general creating the underlying structure needed to function as a Consortium. Four sites have been operating in the United States since 2021 and all collect Tissue unless staffing changes or other site issues force a pause. MTBC is currently deciding the topic and goals of the first research project(s), to be completed by the Consortium's principal investigators. MTBC will open the bank, its data, and its Tissue to outside researchers once it collects approximately 500 tissues.