EDRN Reference Set Call

Wednesday, September 2, 2026

Present (Attendees at meeting in BOLD):

NCI: Guillermo Marquez, Indu Kohaar, Christos Patriotis, Matt Young 

DMCC: Ziding Feng, Jackie Dahlgren, Royce Malnik, Yingye Zheng

GI:

• Colon: MD Anderson: Robert Bresalier (Chair)
• Pancreas: NYU Langone: Anirban Maitra
• University of Minnesota: Tim Church

Lung:

• Vanderbilt: Stephen Deppen (Co-chair)
• Boston University: Marc Lenburg
• Meso Scale Diagnostics: Martin Stengelin
• University of California, Los Angeles: Tran Linh

Prostate:

• Eastern Virginia Medical School: John Semmes
• Johns Hopkins: Hui Zhang
• University of Michigan: Javed Siddiqui

Breast/GYN:

• Arizona State University: Karen Anderson
• Massachusetts General Hospital: Steven Skates
• Johns Hopkins: Zhen Zhang
• Meso Scale Diagnostics: Martin Stengelin

Current Action Items:

1. DONE: William Hsu/LTP2 Response: Steve Deppen will draft a letter for Dr. Hsu explaining why he can’t use the LTP2 reference set right now but he could apply for it after the study analysis is completed.
2. DONE: Pilar Navarro/Medrano: Royce Malnik will send Ying Huang all the information resulting from this application for Dr. Huang to decide whether we should lend Dr. Navarro the reference set.
3. ONGOING: Ashkan Afshin/Novelna: The application will be sent to the Breast Collaborative Group for their review first, then the RSWG will review it at the October call.
4. DONE: The Committee will send an approval letter for Stacy Malaker and a response letter to William Hsu explaining why the LTP2 specimens can’t be released to him yet. Update: The letter to William Hsu is done—Stacy Malaker still needs an approval letter.
5. DONE: Prostate Discovery Set: Liang Zhao: Robert Bresalier will send a response letter to him regarding his application.
6. DONE: Sally Mackenzie/EpiMethyl: Robert Bresalier will draft a letter regarding their application.
7. Participation by All Working Group: Robert Bresalier will email the working group and remind those who don’t attend the calls to make a point to attend in the future.

Discussion:

• William Hsu/LTP2: Sent a response to the determination letter. The group felt that this is still problematic as there is ongoing analysis by study group. Steve Deppen will send Dr. Hsu a letter stating that once the study analysis is complete and the data is publicly available, apply again to use it.
• Prostate Discovery Set/Liang Zhao: Dr. Zhao sent a response to the original determination letter.  Will approve release of discovery samples, pending approval by the DMCC. The prostate collaborative group had already reviewed the application.
• Pilar Navarro/Medrano: Approved but wanted them to work with the DMCC on the sample size and analysis.
• Ashkan Afshin/Novelna Inc.: This is for the Breast Reference Set (not BRS-I).  Asking for plasma. Will ask the Breast/GYN Collaborative Group to review before it comes to the Working Group.

Next Call: Wednesday, October 7, 2026 at 8 a.m. Pacific/11 a.m. Eastern.