The concept of SEBTA was originally conceived by Professor Geoff Pilkington (University of Portsmouth), who approached other professionals within the South of England with a strong interest and involvement in diagnosis, treatment and research in the field of Neuro-oncology, in order to consider the merits of this alliance. The idea was based upon a similar initiative by Professor John Darling and colleagues who formed Brain Tumour North West. In late 2010 Professor Pilkington and Professor Oliver Hanemann of the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry met during the annual NCRI conference in Liverpool and agreed to take the plan further. On March 10th 2011 representatives from 7 regional bases in the South met at the University of Portsmouth to discuss the merits of SEBTA in facilitation of increased collaboration between centres. The meeting was also attended by members representing various charities within the area who were supporting work at the 7 centres as well as by people with expertise in ethics, grant applications and University/NHS contracts. Issues including ethics, cell storage, brain tumour banking, research collaborations and joint grant applications were discussed and the decision was taken to activate the proposal for the formation of SEBTA without due delay. A subsequent meeting was hosted by Professor Hanemann in Plymouth in June 2011 and an official Launch event planned in Portsmouth on 12th July 2011.
STRATEGIC AIMS:
a) Derivation of maximal data from minimal tissue resources by shared work programmes
b) Researchers – use of each other’s facilities/equipment
c) Joint work programmes using facilities/techniques/equipment/expertise from each centre
d) Trials fast-track
e) Ethics – “rubber stamp” to cover use across centres for multiple research activities
f) Cell culture repository
g) Brain Tumour Bank(s)
h) NIHR portfolio inclusion(research nurse posts)
i) Joint grant applications (eg MRC Partnership)
j) Joint publications
k) Patient database
l) Research activity database