GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) announced plans on Friday (June 20th), to donate genomic profiles of more than 300 cancer cell lines to the caBIG database, a government bioinformatics initiative. Data from these cell lines will be freely available to researchers around the world.

The cell lines were derived from breast, prostate, lung, ovarian, and other tumors. "We hope this data will further drive the identification of predictive biomarkers and lead to shorter, more directed clinical trials allowing us to bring drugs more quickly to patients who need them," Richard Wooster, Director of Translational Medicine Oncology at GSK said in a prepared statement.

In our April issue, Kenneth Buetow, associate director for Bioinformatics and Information Technology at the National Cancer Institute and founder of caBIG, describes the origins of the project and how it's driving cancer research.