Cancer biobank project
The cancer biobank project at Tishreen University
Our biobank is based in Tishreen University Hospital in Latakia city in Syria. This project is a collaboration with the Cancer Research Center in Tishreen University (CRCTU). The project started in 2017 under the generous mentorship of a US-based Syrian pathologist and cancer reseracher, Dr. Yahya Elshimali.
The main goal of the biobank is to study the cancer biomarkers in the Syrian population. Doing so, we aim to boost cancer research in Syria and to pave the way for personalized medicine. Considering the growing burden of cancer in Syria and the lack of the current available data on the subject, we hope that our work would contribute to expanding our knowledge based on cancer in Syria and structuring effective cancer control and treatment programs in the future.
In the biobank, we are collecting and storing plasma and tissue samples different tumors. The samples are being collected by volunteer members of the team for further analysis in the future.
This project is pioneering, being the first of its kind in Syria, and one of a few similar projects in the region. We laid the basic fundamentals for our project and we hope to grow and expand it in the future.
