The greatest barrier to finding therapies to slow or stop LAM is the inability to effectively test and compare candidate drugs. The small number of LAM patients worldwide further complicates this process. The goal of the Center for LAM Research and Clinical Care is to connect women with LAM, expert clinicians, and leading researchers in the LAM field, to accelerate transitional research focused on clinical studies including trials. The Center for LAM Research fosters research and community coordination globally.
The Center for LAM Research and Clinical Care prioritizes the following basic, translational and clinical projects aimed at overcoming barriers to research that are critical to treating and curing LAM:
- Development of more predictive biomarkers of disease progression and response to treatment taking advantage of leading edge imaging and circulating cell capture techniques, among others;
- Creating a source of real or surrogate LAM cells accessible to the global research community; Development of models for LAM that can be used to systematically and efficiently test candidate drugs;
- Creation of community pathology resources to overcome project delays associated with time-consuming efforts such as Laser Capture Microscopy;
- Creation of global networks of information sharing to enable aggregation of patient data from throughout the world;
- Using innovative clinical trial design to test multiple candidate drugs in LAM within record time.
With robust Institutional commitment and top-level leadership support across the institutions involved, the Center for LAM Research and Clinical Care concentrates and aggressively catalyzes multi-disciplinary research and globally renowned clinical expertise in order accelerate the pace of LAM research. Our over-riding aim is to ensure that treatments reach patients faster.
The Center for LAM Research and Clinical Care Tissue Repository: Specimens Available
The Center for LAM Research and Clinical Care Tissue Repository has specimens available to investigators both internal and external to Mass General Brigham, including serum, plasma, buffy coat, and DNA.
This tissue repository was established in 2008 in collaboration with and is funded by the LAM Treatment Alliance.
To see if we have specimens to meet your needs, please contact:
Shefali Bagwe, MBBS
LAM Research and Clinical Coordinator
Phone: 857-307-0784
Email: sbagwe@bwh.harvard.edu
Fax: 617-394-2769
All specimen requests are reviewed by the Tissue Bank Steering Committee to ensure appropriate and equitable distribution of limited tissue resources. To request specimens complete the tissue bank request form and send to Shefali Bagwe via email at sbagwe@bwh.harvard.edu or fax to 617-394-2769 .
