AACC Launches a New Competition to Support Innovative Research in Diagnostic Testing

WASHINGTON – AACC, a global scientific and medical professional organization dedicated to better health through laboratory medicine, is pleased to announce a new competition that will support cutting-edge research that could significantly improve diagnostic testing and patient care. Winners of the competition will each receive a sample set from AACC’s Universal Sample Bank, which includes blood samples from hundreds of healthy individuals that were collected to aid medical studies. 

Learn more and apply for the competition here: https://www.aacc.org/science-and-practice/universal-sample-bank/usb-research-prize-competition 

As the COVID-19 pandemic has so strikingly illustrated, high quality clinical tests are essential to both patient care and public health. It is therefore crucial that scientists in the field of laboratory medicine have the resources they need to research and develop these tests. This is not only integral to improving the diagnosis and treatment of existing medical conditions across the board, but also to ensuring that the world is better prepared the next time a new public health crisis emerges. Laboratory medicine research is facing many new challenges due to the ongoing spread of COVID-19, however, one of which is that scientists are now having difficulty obtaining large numbers of samples from healthy individuals for their studies. AACC’s Universal Sample Bank can help to fill this need because all of the samples it includes were collected before the current outbreak. 

The 2020 AACC Research Prize Competition will award up to three winners with sample sets from the Universal Sample Bank, each of which has a value of up to $25,000. These blood samples were collected from an ethnically and geographically diverse adult population of more than 700 individuals, and each set comes with comprehensive de-identified health screening information for the sample donors. The competition is open to all laboratory medicine professionals who are both AACC members and affiliated with an academic institution, as well as any academic research teams that include at least one AACC member and whose work aims to advance clinical laboratory diagnosis and patient care. Though scientists in all stages of their careers are welcome to apply, the competition will give preference to early-career researchers.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a spotlight on the importance of the work of AACC members, and how crucial laboratory science is to solving challenging patient care and public health problems,” said AACC CEO Janet B. Kreizman. “However, the pandemic is also presenting labs with unprecedented challenges. In the face of these, AACC hopes this competition will provide the support our members need to continue their vital research, even as they also continue to provide the testing that is so essential to containing the outbreak.”

Those not eligible to participate in the competition can buy sample sets from AACC’s Universal Sample Bank here. 

About AACC

Dedicated to achieving better health through laboratory medicine, AACC brings together more than 50,000 clinical laboratory professionals, physicians, research scientists, and business leaders from around the world focused on clinical chemistry, molecular diagnostics, mass spectrometry, translational medicine, lab management, and other areas of progressing laboratory science. Since 1948, AACC has worked to advance the common interests of the field, providing programs that advance scientific collaboration, knowledge, expertise, and innovation. For more information, visit www.aacc.org.

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