Puerto Rico BioBank Core

Ponce School Of Medicine, Ponce PR

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

The Puerto Rico BioBank (PRBB) Shared Resource of the Ponce Health Sciences University-Moffitt Cancer Center (PHSU-MCC) Partnership collects, processes, annotates, stores, and distributes biospecimens and clinical-demographic data for investigator-initiated translational cancer research. As of August 2022, the PRBB has consented 4,097 subjects representing 42 different cancer types and healthy individuals. From these subjects, 1,899 clinical history and demographic surveys were completed, and 8,453 biospecimens were collected. Tissues, derivative analytes (e.g., DNA/RNA), data, and tissue microarrays have been distributed to research projects supporting publications and grant submissions. The PRBB contributed to the development of a Biobanking clerkship for medical students in collaboration with the Research Education Core (REC) and contributed to education efforts in both Tampa and Ponce in collaboration with the Outreach Core (OC). Together with the Quantitative Sciences Core (QSC), the PRBB has consented 142 patients to the ORIEN-Avatar network (https://www.oriencancer.org), improving the representation of tissues from our catchment area populations in this network, which is dedicated to accelerating the discovery of novel targeted cancer treatments. The PRBB also participates in several consortia, including the Prostate Cancer Association Group to Investigate Cancer Associated Alterations in the Genome (PRACTICAL) and the Confluence Project for Breast Cancer Genetics. The objective of the PRBB is to address the critical unmet need in cancer health in patients in our catchment areas with comprehensive molecular datasets aligned with the prevalence of cancer in this population. The aims are: 1) Support research projects by targeted recruitment of patients of selected cancer types along with noncancer controls. Recruitment is both broad to build a comprehensive database for future projects and focused on the current full research projects. We will continue to optimize the logistics of patient education and consenting at collaborating physicians’ offices and San Lucas Hospital (SLH), and by maintaining constant contact with Project PIs. 2) Support research by developing innovative resources and services. We will focus on developing new resources and services that can be rapidly accessed by researchers. This includes building well-annotated tissue microarrays representing cancer types that significantly impact the population in our catchment areas, expanding molecular phenotyping in collaboration with ORIEN, tapping into the potential for identifying clinical trials that are matched to a patient’s molecular profile, and leveraging our emerging expertise in organoid and patient-derived xenografts models to support projects. 3) Collaborate with partnership components in education, outreach, and community education on the importance of tissue donation and improving data availability with the QSC.