Research organizations from ten countries are forming an umbrella group to generate a comprehensive catalogue of genetic mutations in up to 50 types of cancer over the next ten years.

The International Cancer Genome Consortium was announced on 29 April. It will be coordinated by a secretariat at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research in Toronto and will include the UK Wellcome Trust, France's National Cancer Institute, Japan's RIKEN and National Cancer Center and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). Each participant is expected to spend some US$20 million analysing genomic change in at least one type or subtype of cancer in roughly 500 patient samples. The project aims to avoid duplication and waste by coordinating the cancer types studied and by establishing common standards of data collection and analysis.

The NIH contribution will be made by the ongoing Cancer Genome Atlas project, an ambitious effort in its pilot phase aiming to analyse genes from some 50 types of cancer. The consortium is inviting other founding countries to join by 1 September.