Quality Assurance and Translational Science Group: Call for committee members and other exciting opportunities

18 Oct 2017
Announcement

Do you have an interest and passion in translational science applied within ECMC network cancer clinical trials? If so, the Quality Assurance and Translational Science Group (QATS) Network group needs you 

The QATS Network group is seeking volunteers to join its steering committee and help deliver their mission to ‘support and enable ECMCs to conduct translational research to the appropriate levels of quality and regulatory compliance, utilising validated, cutting-edge techniques’.

The QATS Network group 

The QATS Network group has two working subgroups:

  • The Quality Assurance Subgroup - chaired by Alex MacLellan, Edinburgh
  • The Translational Science Subgroup - chaired until recently by Karen Swales, ICR, but now by Bill Greenhalf, Liverpool

Both groups work together aiming to conduct innovative translational science within the ECMCs using cutting-edge technologies, applying appropriate quality standards whilst maintaining regulatory compliance.

Read more about the QATS group and its aims here

Addressing the common challenges 

In March 2017 the Translational Science Subgroup organised an inaugural conference ‘Opportunities and challenges with emerging biomarker technologies and their application in early phase trials’.  Conference participants expressed interest in further guidance from the ECMC network on the requirements for biomarker validation. This topic was also a subject of discussion at the 2017 ECMC Annual Network Meeting during the session ‘How do we create a conducive regulatory environment for experimental cancer medicine?’.

This was the most highly attended parallel session, chaired by Wendy Fischer and featuring speakers from the QATS group, MHRA, HRA Research Ethics Committee, and Radiotherapy clinical lead. The topic has been ratified by the ECMC Programme Office and the Centre leads and is now a key priority over the first years of the new ECMC funding quinquennium.

At the request of the ECMC Leadership, the QATS group aim to provide the network with guidance on validation and quality management of biomarkers within clinical trials. The group will engage with all ECMC centres in this work, and will organise workshops to address solutions to these common challenges in early 2018. The outcome of this analysis will be published in a consensus paper on the challenges which are faced in validation of biomarker assays for early phase experimental cancer medicine.  

How can you get involved? 

In the immediate term we are looking for more committee members to help push this and other initiatives forward. Please email Aga for more information and if you are interested in joining the QATS committee.

We are welcoming applications until the end of October 2017.