Restoring Biospecimen Research Resources Lost Due to Super Storm Sandy

New York University School Of Medicine, New York NY

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): On October 29th, 2012 super-storm Sandy caused extensive damage to the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems ofthe main campus ofthe NYU Langone Medical Center requiring the temporary closure ofthe campus. This affected the Tisch hospital and Its associated outpatient areas and three basic science buildings. In addition, storm-related damage required the closure of two affiliated hospitals, the Bellevue and Veterans Administration (VA) hospitals, which housed a number of our faculty and staff and many of their basic and clinical research operations. Collectively the facility closures resulted in the displacement of over 400 faculty and staff who were relocated to other NYU facilities or facilities at neighboring institutions pending recovery efforts. The past 9 months have seen the reopening of the main campus healthcare facilities and 2 ofthe 3 basic science buildings, with the third in stages of phased reopening this summer. The Bellevue and VA hospitals have also reopened, except for a few remaining areas still in recovery. Despite heroic efforts to hand carry dry ice to areas to maintain biospecimen samples in powerless freezers, and dewars of liquid nitrogen to maintain specimens in liquid nitrogen tanks, until samples could be removed to an offsite commercial cryostorage facility, numerous valuable biospecimens were lost. This application is to restore biospecimen resources, including cell lines, tissues and reagents, lost due to super storm Sandy, that existed at the time ofthe super storm and were part of funded or otherwise active research projects at the NYU Medical School. Since this application supports the research of multiple Principal Investigators, the approach to restoring these resources is dependent on the specific biospecimen types lost and the project- specific preparations of the specimens for the research project they support. This includes obtaining biospecimens from human donors, animals, suppliers and/or other collaborating research institutions for specific active research projects. Details on the approach to recovering biospecimen resources and the associated active research projects are summarized in the Investigator-specific Research Plan sections of this application.