# Core 1: Biospecimen and Data Management Core

> **NIH NIH U54** · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $315,569

## Abstract

ABSTRACT/SUMMARY: Biospecimen and Data Management Core
Our Biospecimen and Data Management Core will be utilized by all the Research Projects in our Center. All
three proposed Research Projects aim to identify mechanisms by which tumor cells, metastatic to regional
lymph nodes, interface with the host immune system to perturb systemic immunity to induce global immune
tolerance. While we will methodically study this process in murine models (Project 1), analysis of human tumor
and lymph node specimens is paramount for two primary reasons. The first reason is to ensure the translation
of the murine discovery approach to human disease. The second reason is to facilitate the discovery of critical
mediators of tumor-induced immunosuppression directly from the human samples, and then follow with
functional validation in our murine models. Hence it is critical that we establish the necessary infrastructure to
procure viable human tumor specimens and autologous tumor-infiltrating immune cells. Importantly, matched
sets of fresh primary tumor cells, metastatic tumor cells, tumor-infiltrating immune cells (from the primary tumor
and the lymph nodes) and circulating immune cells will be collected to address the hypotheses and goals of
the Research Projects. Furthermore, in this shared core, a database of clinical annotation (aka clinical
metadata) for these matched samples will be created and maintained. This clinical metadata is critical for
interpretation of our molecular and imaging data, given tumor and patient heterogeneity, and will likely provide
important insights into how the data generated by the proposed projects may be used to guide treatment and
predict outcome. Our proposed Biospecimen and Data Management Core will focus on collecting tissue and
collating all the molecular data on our two index cancer models: melanoma and head and neck squamous cell
carcinoma (HNSCC). The specific aims of our Core are: (1) Establishment of a fresh tumor and lymph node
biorepository; (2) Establishment of disease-specific clinical and pathologic databases; (3) Establishment of a
repository for data generated by the three proposed projects. Although we will focus on establishing this core
for two diseases (melanoma and HNSCC), we envision that our core will enable expansion to future projects in
these cancers and to different cancers.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9982078
- **Project number:** 5U54CA209971-05
- **Recipient organization:** STANFORD UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** JOHN B SUNWOO
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $315,569
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** — → 2023-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9982078

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9982078, Core 1: Biospecimen and Data Management Core (5U54CA209971-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-28 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9982078. Licensed CC0.

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