Biorepository & Precision Pathology

Duke University, Durham NC

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

The BioRepository & Precision Pathology Center (BRPC) provides catchment area-representative patient tissue and blood-based research support for the Duke Cancer Institute (DCI). The BRPC operates as a College of American Pathologists’-accredited biorepository. Major service areas are Biobanking (BRPC broad consent administration, procurement of tissue, blood and fluid biospecimens, storage, quality control and distribution including release of fresh tissue for patient-derived models of cancer), Sample Processing (tumor enrichment through macrodissection, DNA/RNA extraction, digital spatial profiling), regulatory (new research protocol review, scope of work creation, budgeting, integration with broad consent if possible), and ImmunoHistology (traditional histology, single and multiplexed immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, tissue microarray creation, whole slide imaging and image analysis). The BRPC administers Duke’s largest broad consent protocol for specimen collection for research, which has consented >7,400 patients since 2012. BRPC leadership meets at least quarterly with DCI’s Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) team to ensure adequate representation of all populations within the biobank. Across all consented patients, BRPC participation rates across populations approach the demographic mix of DCI’s analytic cancer patients. Continued efforts to optimize community engagement are ongoing. BRPC can provide normal and diseased samples representing a range of solid and hematolymphoid pathologies. Sample procurement activities occur in conjunction with blood draws, standard-of-care biopsy and surgical procedures and clinical trial-supported tissue acquisitions. Often a single biobanking event can simultaneously supply multiple ongoing research efforts as well as stock the biobank for future needs. BRPC biospecimens were previously used to support The Cancer Genome Atlas project and are currently being used in Phase III of the National Cancer Institute’s Clinical Proteomics Tumor Analysis Consortium project. The BRPC also serves as the administrative and regulatory backbone for DCI’s Precision Cancer Medicine Initiative (PCMI), which links genomic information, clinical annotation, and biospecimens. As the gateway to the paraffin tissue archives in the Department of Pathology, these clinicopathologic data elements allow precise patient cohort identification for retrospective studies using those archives. BRPC also rapidly retrieves and prepares patients’ paraffin archival tissue samples for submission to clinical trial sponsors. Finally, the BRPC provides specialized tissue processing and experimental services including basic histology, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization assays, tissue microarray creation, tumor enrichment by macrodissection, whole slide imaging, image analysis algorithms and digital spatial profiling. In 2022, the BRPC provided services to 246 investigators, 57% of whom were DCI members who represented all 7 DCI Research Programs. Use of BRPC by DCI Members, contributed to 115 publications over the current project period, of which 51 were in high impact journals.