Everything old is new again! That’s how I feel as we launch The Latino Cancer Institute’s (TLCI) new, more powerful, and engaging bi-lingual website. Beyond our continuing aims to convene, connect and collaborate, the web team has created a set of tools that allows TLCI to better
serve our network of Latino cancer service agencies, build our base of collaborators and provide timely ways to learn, share and engage.

We added a breaking news page so we can keep you informed about the research, policies and funding opportunities that enhance your work.

We added a calendar so we can share upcoming events, yours and ours, important in the Latino cancer landscape.

We are launching a newsletter – be sure to sign up – to learn more about what we are up to, what we’ve learned from you, and spotlighting issues to be watched.

Along with these features there are other plans on the drawing board. I’ve long proposed to establish a Latino Genetic Registry. The idea and the issue have drawn a lot of interest. The goal of providing a safe, secure place for Latinos to provide and share their health and genetic data, with approved research collaborators who focus on Latino cancer questions, keeps me dreaming about this big lift.

It is a big lift and could be its own stand-alone project.  But we have to start – like Native American tribes, burned by historical research abuse,  establishing their own biobanks, or  women with breast cancer (Susan Love Foundation) who decide which projects to support and when to engage. Latinos need to establish a repository that serves the community’s health and not that of commercial interests.

The idea of control of one’s data is becoming a huge point of conversation and even contention and is not going away in this data driven age. So we need to get ahead of it and on top of it. Watch this site for updates.

Meanwhile I want to give a big thank you to Marcia Brandwynne, The Brandwynne Fund, whose donation made this new website possible. A 2-time breast cancer survivor, Marcia has supported TLCI since its inception, making her contributions in the name of her deceased husband, Al Meyerhoff. An environmental and civil rights attorney, Al died of cancer in 2008, way too soon. She’s also been a dear friend since we were young journalists together in the 1970’s and also serves on TLCI’s Advisory Board.

Finally let me give a tip of the sombrero to the great website team, from Los Angeles, headed by Julie Leifermann of Ivan’s Ark Productions to Brazil, led by Wanessa Rodriques of W Studio, Waleska Santiago, and Marty Thiel, who all burned the midnight oil to make this day possible.

Send me your thoughts and let us know what you think of our new site. Keep your eye on this space as I continue to blog.

Ysabel