INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center’s unique healthy breast tissue repository, the Susan G. Komen Tissue Bank, has been awarded a two-year, $750,000 grant from Susan G. Komen®, the world's leading breast cancer organization.
"We are so grateful for Susan G. Komen’s ongoing support of the Komen Tissue Bank," said Michele Coté, PhD, director of the tissue bank. "This grant allows us to continue to maintain the only source of healthy breast tissue available to researchers around the world."
The Komen Tissue Bank is a resource within the cancer center's Vera Bradley Foundation Center for Breast Cancer Research, which includes physicians and scientists who are focused on preventing, treating and curing breast cancer.
Since its founding in 2007, the tissue bank has collected healthy breast tissue from more than 5,600 women. In all, more than 11,000 women have donated DNA and blood to the tissue bank. In 2023, the tissue bank began collecting tissue donations from men.
"Komen's support helps to ensure researchers have access to normal breast tissue from diverse populations, enabling them with a resource to better understand how cells in disease-free breast tissue differ across ethnicities, age, menopausal status and reproductive history," said Glendon Zinser, PhD, senior director of scientific strategy and programs at Susan G. Komen. "This understanding of normal breast cells, combined with follow-up survey data from participants, can serve as a critical reference point for studying the biological mechanisms underlying the onset of breast cancer."
Researchers at IU and elsewhere have already made new discoveries about breast cancer using samples donated to the Komen Tissue Bank, including the most extensive mapping of healthy breast cells to date. These findings offer an important tool to understand how breast cancer develops and the differences in breast tissue among genetic ancestries.
To date, the tissue bank's donors are represented across 45 states and the District of Columbia. There have been more than 30 breast tissue collection events in Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, California, Arizona, New York and Texas. Most recently, in July, 400 women donated healthy breast tissue during All-Star Cure, a partnership between the WNBA All-Star 2025 Host Committee and the tissue bank. The two-day event was held the weekend before the AT&T WNBA All-Star Game was held in Indianapolis.
According to Komen, the grant was one of 25 cutting-edge projects at 17 prestigious institutions that it supported to help propel innovative science and deliver hope to those facing breast cancer. Komen has awarded nearly $14 million to IU’s tissue bank since 2007.
About the Indiana University School of Medicine
The IU School of Medicine is the largest medical school in the U.S. and is annually ranked among the top medical schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. The school offers high-quality medical education, access to leading medical research and rich campus life in nine Indiana cities, including rural and urban locations consistently recognized for livability. According to the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research, the IU School of Medicine ranks No. 13 in 2023 National Institutes of Health funding among all public medical schools in the country.
Writer: Michael Schug, maschug@iu.edu
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