How are the various partner institutions involved in TRANSBIG?
Each of the partner institutions brings with it specific expertise, falling into different categories. For example, several of the TRANSBIG partners are specialised in microarray technology, and they had tumour resources essential to the validation phase of the MINDACT study. Others are top European institutions with regard to technologies and techniques that will be focussed on at a later stage in the project (e.g., proteomics, RT-PCR). Two partners participate as experts in bioinformatics and biostatistics, without which the data generated from trials like MINDACT could not be properly analysed. A majority of the TRANSBIG partners are well known cancer research and treatment hospitals that have extensive experience with clinical and translational research as well. Many of these are “national coordinating centres/groups”, which means they serve as the key contacts for the countries involved in MINDACT, including for the recruitment of patients. Still other partners are collaborative r
