Overview
The NFGC's period of performance for its first year of funding was from 9/1/02 – 9/30/04, thus one year of funding encompassed two years of research. Funding was provided per the FY'02 Defense Appropriation.
In 2001, Congress established the National Functional Genomics Center, through the passage of Public Law 107-117, to accelerate nationally coordinated cutting-edge research on cancer.
Funds received in the first year were used to plan and design new and expanded infrastructure at the Moffitt Cancer Center to pave the way for state-of-the-art genomics research. Investment in high quality shared resources staffed with trained technical personnel minimizes the costs of equipment outlay for individual researchers and maximizes efficiency and reproducibility of research. The NFGC helped establish a dedicated Proteomics Core Facility featuring state-of-the-art equipment at Moffitt in 2003.
A substantial amount of the NFGC award was used to fund pilot projects by Moffitt investigators to “jump start” genomics research projects that could lead to larger extramural grant awards. These projects ranged from basic science examining molecular mechanisms and pathways using microarray technology, to prospective clinical studies correlating the molecular signatures of tumors with prognosis, response to therapy, and survival.
In 2002, the basic infrastructure of the NFGC was also established. An External Advisory Board, chaired by General John Parker, M.D., (former Commanding General at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command at Ft. Detrick , MD ) and consisting of the top internationally recognized experts in various disciplines of genomics was instituted. This board was designed to oversee the activities of the NFGC and to provide recommendations for its future development.
In October of 2003 the External Advisory Board convened its first annual meeting in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Board reviewed the progress of the NFGC, provided the NFGC administrators with a set of ambitious goals for the following year, and discussed the future direction of the center. The External Advisory Board members emphasized the need for expansion of the NFGC's bioinformatics infrastructure in preparation for the large amount of data the NFGC scientists will be generating. They also recommended implementing a bioinformatics research platform for investigating more efficient methods of analyzing microarray and proteomics data to propel rapid validation of new molecular signature discoveries. A separate proposal was submitted to the Department of Defense in support of this endeavor and additional funds were awarded in 2004. With these funds, the NFGC established the Bioinformatics Resource for Computational Applications (BRCA) cluster computer system in late 2005, under the direction of Dr. Mary Edgerton and Dr. Steven Eschrich.