This is about the most Tim Duncan thing ever.
The Spurs iconic big man has donated $247,000 to San Antonio 1000 Cancer Genome Project, the team announced. That’s an open science collaborative using gene sequencing in the fight against cancer, where doctors share all kinds of data for free. Why Duncan did it was the involved surgeons and medical professionals are being Spurs-like.
“The idea that a group of cancer researchers were willing to set aside egos, to make the information freely available and work strictly for the greater good of curing cancer was exactly the type of cancer project I was willing to support,” Duncan said in a released statement.
Here is what the organization does, from the press release.
Through the support and involvement of these participating surgeons, START researchers are collecting fresh tumor tissue from 1000 patients with the 10 most common cancers in San Antonio. The project then aims to perform whole genome sequencing on both the cancerous and normal tissue from each patient. Then, for the first time anywhere, researchers will link this genetic information to the patient’s clinical outcomes. Most significantly, all data will be made available publicly at no cost to researchers worldwide. The project’s promise to make all data freely available is built on the belief that no single investigator or institution has all of the answers and encourages the involvement of outsiders who might bring fresh ideas to the urgent and complex problem of gene abnormalities and cancer.
So to sum up: collect big data then share it freely to come up with the answers that no one person working alone can get.
Yup, this is about the most Tim Duncan thing ever.