Universal Hi-Tech Development

Abstract Although considerable resources in biospecimen research and technological advances have improved overall cancer-associated morbidity and mortality rates, substantial disparities continue to remain among several racial/ethnic populations who have increased incidence, mortality and/or more aggressive disease for numerous cancer types. Information about the genes, proteins, and other features of a person's molecular profile are now being used to diagnose and treat diseases, including cancer. While there have been some well annotated biospecimens from underrepresented patient populations available to The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project and other efforts, the need remains for additional biospecimens to detect moderately common mutational frequencies in racially/ethnically diverse minorities. The overarching aims of this presentation are to identify both regional and national biospecimen-related resources to support cancer health disparities research. It is the hope that these resources, particularly the national NCI-sponsored biospecimen resources, will support collaborative team science approaches among investigators to address cancer health disparities. As part of the NCI/CRCHD-supported Geographic Management of Cancer Health Disparities Program (GMaP), which is a regional strategy to build critical “hubs” for the support and efficient management of cancer health disparities research, training and infrastructure programs, there are a number of regional resources to support biospecimen research. These include a high-quality breast cancer tissue microarray (TMA) repository from diverse populations; a culturally adapted, tested and evaluated resource called “Biospecimen 101,” designed to educate and promote biospecimen research engagement among underserved populations; a biospecimen acquisition and translational pathology (BATP) shared resource core facility; a multi-site cancer disparities research network (CDRN) cohort repository that is solely focused on minorities and underserved; and a regional repository of biospecimen and clinical data under the auspices of Total Cancer Care (TCC) protocol used by the national collaborative of the Oncology Research Information Exchange Network (ORIEN). Nationally, a wide array of biospecimen resources are also available to conduct biospecimen related research among diverse populations. These include NCI best practices for biospecimen resources, and searchable NCI-supported databases, such as the Specimen Resource Locator (SRL), the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (SEER) Residual Tissue Repository (RTR), and NCI-designated cancer center shared resources. In summary, awareness and use of regional and national resources such as these may further strengthen and enhance biospecimen utilization and collaborative research to help address cancer health disparities within underserved communities. Citation Format: Anil Wali. Regional and National Resources to Strengthen Partnerships and Collaborations in Cancer Health Disparities Biospecimen Research. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Ninth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2016 Sep 25-28; Fort Lauderdale, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2017;26(2 Suppl):Abstract nr IA23.

We present sensitive, high resolution observations of neutral hydrogen (HI) in the unusually gas-rich, oval distortion of the Seyfert galaxy NGC4151. The gas dynamics of the oval are found to be consistent with those of a kinematically weak bar, fully confirming previous suggestions for the presence of a fat bar, and, for the first time, individual gaseous features in the bar are spatially resolved. In particular, the two bright regions close to the leading edges of the bar in NGC4151 exhibit kinematics strikingly similar to the signature of bar shocks seen in gas-dynamical simulations, and demonstrate how strong the gaseous response may be even in such a weak bar potential. The residual velocity field, showing deviations from circular motion, is largely consistent with streaming in a bar potential, and, in addition, clearly shows that inflow is concentrated in narrow regions originating in the shocks. This inflow may represent an early stage in the fuelling process of the AGN. The presence and properties of the shocks in NGC4151 indicate that, in addition to the x_1 orbits, the family of x_2 orbits exist and are of significant extent in the bar of NGC4151, with gas streaming from the shocks making the transition between the two families. We therefore suggest that the circumnuclear ellipse, identified optically by previous authors and associated with gas flowing in x_2 orbits, has formed as a natural consequence of the gas flows in the bar without the requirement for a second, inner bar. Observations of HI were previously thought to be ill-suited to the study of bar shocks due to limitations in angular resolution and sensitivity. However, our observations show that, following recent instrumental enhancements, such measurements are now feasible, albeit at the limits of instrumental capability.