Biorepository and Biospecimen

Ohio State University, Columbus OH

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

PROJECT SUIVIMARY (See instructions): In 2008 the OSUCCC reorganized the OSUCCC Tissue Procurement Shared Resource into the Biorepository and Biospecimen Resource (BBR). The goal of the Biorepository and Biospecimen Resource is to provide a well-organized and centralized biorepository that meets the best practices of the NCI for high quality biospecimens for cancer research. The BBR is directed by Dr. Scott Jewell who has extensive experience in the policy, management and operations in tissue procurement and banking. The BBR oversees the procurement of malignant, benign, diseased and uninvolved (normal) tissues from solid tumors for OSUCCC researchers and has expanded into a centralized biospecimen banking system with universal patient informed consent for the donation of biospecimens (tissues, bloods, and fluids) and annotated clinical data for future research. Using caGRID technology, these specimens are linked with annotated patient health and medical information, thereby enhancing the quality and usability of these biospecimens for research. The BBR has collected over 10,000 samples in the last 10 months .since the inception of patient informed consent and an additional 2,500+ tissue specimens for immediate use to investigators. During this reporting period (2004-2009) the BBR provided all six OSUCCC Scientific Programs with more than 11,000 tissue specimens. Valued features of the BBR include: a consent team that obtains patient informed consent at the point of registration; patient medical and health information that is annotated to the biospecimen; centralized management of the collection; processing and storage of the biospecimens; and security and protection of the resource, such as empty backup freezers, diesel generator for electrical backup protection, 24/7 monitoring of all freezers, and an emergency response team. The BBR utilizes caTissueSuite (a caBIG application) to record and monitor the biorepository inventory. A web-based application has been developed that will allow researchers to determine if tissue exists in the BBR with particular phenotypic characteristics. As informed consent expands to all clinical sites, this will create a vast repository of viable research biospecimens linked with annotated clinical data, providing an unparalleled resource for OSUCCC investigators. Outstanding institutional support has been critical to the implementation of the universal informed consent process and has ensured the continued growth and success of this highly valued shared resource. This past year, although 75.26% of the BBR usage was from CCSG peer-reviewed, funded OSUCCC investigators and overall OSUCCC usage was 96.77%, only 24.9% of the BBR budgetary support came from the CCSG.