Funding from the BRC has been used to develop and support the biorepository and to ensure optimum collection of tissue for translational research into prostate cancer.

We have recently been undertaking collaborative research with Strangeways in Cambridge and the ICR in London, which has led to important discoveries on novel pre-disposition alleles in prostate cancer (Eeles et al., Nat Genetics 2009, Al Olama et al., Nat Genetics 2009, Whitaker et al., Prostate 2010).

The Cambridge component of this research was critically important in defining men with truly low risk disease who were identified during the ProtecT Trial (phase III trial of surgery in prostate cancer).

Reports of other important predisposition alleles are in the process of consideration in Nature Genetics and this collaboration has led to the development of a group which will now take forward in depth DNA sequencing of 500 cases of prostate cancer. The Neal group has carried out the first detailed analysis of how the Androgen Receptor binds to the human genomic using Chromatin Immuno Precipitation (ChIP) and high throughput SOLEXA sequencing, which involved validation of novel targets and genes using the local tissue collections (Massie et al, 2011; EMBO J, in press).