Building Relationships with TSAs

Technical Service Agreements, or TSAs, are the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research’s (FNLCR’s) most frequently used collaborating mechanism. TSAs enable external researchers to conduct important biomedical research with tools, services, or expertise that are not available anywhere else.

Specifically, TSAs are modified contractor Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (cCRADAs), and they are specifically designed to make it simple for collaborators to gain access to the diverse portfolio of services that are exclusive to the FNLCR. In fact, TSAs typically take less than two weeks to execute. This design makes it possible for companies and organizations of all sizes and backgrounds to gain access to FNLCR’s state-of-the-art equipment and services and the expertise of our renowned researchers.

Currently, the Lab offers 18 technical services, including HIV and SIV viral load analysis, unique mouse models, human leukocyte antigen genotyping, and Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA)-certified expression profiling for human B-cell lymphoma on the NanoString platform. These services span across four program areas: the AIDS and Cancer Virus Program, the Basic Science Program, Cancer Research Technology Program, and Laboratory Animal Sciences Program.

Over the past fiscal year, the FNLCR executed 70 technical service requests, bringing the total to 340 since the program started five years ago. These have resulted in important data and numerous publications for our partners, as well as three new full-time laboratory positions at the FNLCR.

These numbers are impressive, but they fail to tell much of the story about the breadth of the Lab’s relationships with its collaborators, so we delved deeper into the data and looked at the scientific impact of some of our biggest collaborations.

Our Collaborators

The FNLCR has partnered with 135 distinct collaborators (defined as unique principal investigators [PIs] and institutions) through the TSA program. These collaborators represent a diverse array of researchers—large and small, private and public. We’ve partnered with small biotech start-ups, hospitals, universities, foundations, and large pharmaceutical companies. Most are from the United States, but we’ve had several international collaborators. The commonality shared by all our partners is that they are engaging in biomedical research accelerating progress in the fight against cancer, cancer viruses, or HIV/AIDS.

One of our largest TSA-based partnerships is with a teaching hospital that is part of a consortium of researchers across the country investigating the mechanisms of promising candidates for preventive and therapeutic HIV vaccines. The ultimate goal of this work is to develop a definitive cure for HIV. Through a TSA, FNLCR’s AIDS and Cancer Virus Program is conducting a variety of analyses to evaluate therapeutic vaccine candidates in preclinical models. Two vaccines are currently being studied, both of which have shown effective in nonhuman primates; however, the mechanisms that make the vaccines effective are poorly understood. This research effort is therefore designed to illuminate those mechanisms, enabling the development of more effective vaccines. The vaccines are currently in Phase I and Phase IIA clinical trials, so the knowledge gained from this work can be immediately applicable to clinical interventions.

Another large TSA partnership with a well-known multinational pharmaceutical company highlights an entirely different set of FNLCR’s technical services. The company is working to develop biopharmaceuticals and small molecule drugs for difficult-to-cure diseases. The FNLCR’s Laboratory Animal Sciences Program has partnered with the company to evaluate toxicity, potency, and pharmacokinetics for treating non-small cell lung cancer, the most common lung cancer, and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, the most common pancreatic cancer. These studies would not be possible without the high-quality mouse models at FNLCR.

Our most recently executed TSA is with another large, multinational pharmaceutical company. For this TSA, FNLCR’s AIDS and Cancer Virus Program will be supporting critical translational research and efficacy studies in preclinical models of HIV as part of a larger effort fighting HIV and AIDS through cutting-edge research and development.

While these large efforts—which together involved millions of dollars in partner contributions for high-quality research—are impressive and clearly represent critical research, the TSA program’s wide portfolio also serves smaller projects. The Lab recognizes that small efforts can yield big results. Hence, no request that aligns with the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI’s) mission is considered too small. Sixty-three TSA collaborations (47%) have been for less than $1,000, and we have done TSAs for less than $40. Yet these partnerships are still valuable relationships. Every TSA collaboration represents a biomedical research effort aligned with the NCI mission.

Long-Term Relationships

TSAs are typically one-year agreements; however, they can be extended, or a new, separate agreement can be created with the same organization and PI. Of our 135 collaborators, 44 (33%) have extended the relationship beyond the standard one-year agreement. As a result, the average length of a collaboration is 1.55 years. In fact, we have three collaborations that started in 2013 and are ongoing in fiscal year 2018—and these may be extended into 2019 or beyond.

These extensions help demonstrate that the FNLCR is delivering value far beyond that of a simple fee-for-service transaction. The FNLCR is becoming a long-term partner to many of these organizations, and these organizations frequently return to us for collaborative work both big and small. They also tell their colleagues about our partnership capabilities—as demonstrated by the fact that we often collaborate on multiple projects with different PIs at the same institution. In fact, at one university we have seven distinct collaborations with various PIs and projects. In addition, some PIs have even continued to use our services when they changed institutions.

Demonstrating the value of the services the FNLCR provides beyond financial numbers is difficult, especially since the program is relatively new. Nonetheless, looking at the high number of repeat “customers” provides a sense of the value that our partners derive from our work. These repeat and extended partnerships also give us time to build stronger relationships, relationships that can lead to more collaborations and more innovative research.

To learn more about the TSA program and collaborating with the FNLCR, visit our website.