MIMM

The Maui Institute for Molecular Medicine (MIMM) is a novel collaborative research effort between the Maui High Performance Computing Center (MHPCC), the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center (MCC), and Vanderbilt Medical Center. The mission of MIMM is to develop and validate molecular signatures (RNA and protein based) that will provide diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic response predictions for cancer patients. The rationale for the consortium is based on the unique strengths that each institution provides:

• MHPCC – supercomputing and data storage and retrieval facilities and computational expertise .
• MCC – patient tumor samples derived via a statewide affiliate network and gene expression profiling and bioinformatics expertise
• Vanderbilt Medical Center – proteomics profiling and bioinformatics expertise.

Together, the consortium will seek to identify and validate gene and protein expression signatures that will enhance the management of the cancer patient as a critical component of a process called “Total Cancer Care (TCC)” whereby patients are followed from the date of diagnosis throughout their lifespan to ultimately determine which interventions have been effective. MIMM will provide the principal operating components for TCC by storing vast amounts of clinical data and gene and protein expression data for analysis with supercomputing tools and other computational resources. This proposal seeks to develop a working prototype database for MIMM that will be based on the analysis of nearly 400 human colorectal cancer patients and their associated tumor samples.