The SEARCHBreast portal: A virtual bioresource to facilitate the sharing of surplus animal materials derived from breast cancer studies

The SEARCHBreast portal (https://searchbreast.org/) provides access to a virtual bioresource enabling researchers to access and share material derived from breast cancer related animal studies on a collaborative basis. By registering as members of SEARCHBreast, researchers can browse the SEARCHBreast platform for relevant tissue and models, and request access to these to help answer their specific biological question(s). SEARCHBreast mediates the collaborations formed from requests for these materials. As of July 2016, the virtual bioresource has received 8 requests for tissue and has sent hundreds of tissue samples saving approximately 400 animals. SEARCHBreast is currently developing a bioinformatics pipeline, enabling users to access and mine published data on animal models of breast cancer, potentially helping to reduce experimental redundancy further, prioritising new relevant research.