Shared Resource: Northwest Bio

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle WA

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY: NORTHWEST BIO SHARED RESOURCE (NWBioSR) Northwest Bio Shared Resource (NWBioSR) provides patient consenting, human research biospecimen procurement, and annotation services. Patients are consented for (1) research use of biospecimens and electronic medical records-derived data and (2) enrollment in a registry of patients who consent to future contact for potential enrollment in clinical studies. All biospecimen and data handling is done under Institutional Review Board (IRB)-approved mechanisms. NWBioSR is organized under a Governance Committee with Consortium-wide representation and support. State-of-the-art information systems support operations, allowing broad Consortium access to: • Registration of studies, associated IRB, and consent information • Prospective identification of clinical samples, from which research biospecimens likely may be obtained, based on characteristics determined electronically prior to actual arrival of the clinical specimen in the hospital laboratory: 1. at the patient level, such as demographic information 2. at the visit level, such as tumor type and stage information 3. at the biospecimen level, such as aliquot stabilization time • Procurement of research-only biospecimens, including blood draws obtained specifically for research and research-only biopsies • Retrospective identification of clinical samples that pre-exist in the hospital laboratories and which may be used/subdivided for research (e.g., archival pathology blocks and slides as well as remnant blood “leftover” in the laboratory medicine department from earlier clinical draws); • Detailed annotation information including extensive extraction of medical records data as needed • Generation of tissue microarrays as well as digital pathology image annotation and analysis of whole slide images • Dissemination of biospecimen and annotation information through informatics efforts NWBioSR is a heavily-utilized facility, supporting a large number of clinical trials, translational research studies, Consortium biorepository collections, and external projects.