(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- In an effort to foster progress in cancer research, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is releasing detailed and comprehensive data about the entire genetic content of a pancreatic cancer cell. Scientists can use it to research tumors, improve cancer diagnostic tests, and develop new cancer treatments.

The NIST data on this cancer genome—that is, the full set of genetic instructions from the cell, including the mutations that caused the disease—is several terabytes in size. The genome came from a 61-year-old pancreatic cancer patient who explicitly consented to making the genetic code of her cancer cells publicly available for research and clinical use.

Previous cancer cell lines had been released without the explicit consent of the donors, creating potential legal and ethical impediments to their use in research and drug development.

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