Research Resource for Human Organs and Tissues

National Disease Research Interchange, Philadelphia PA

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

PROJECT TITLE: HTORR/ NIAID High Priority HIV Human Biospecimen Recovery Program PROJECT SUMMARY The development of effective treatments or cures for a wide range of diseases requires translational studies that are directly relevant to human pathophysiology. The use of human biospecimens address this need by providing scientists with a direct experimental model for their studies. To address several complex issues facing HIV research, including viral persistence, latency and reactivation as well as optimizing preservation methods for human tissues, investigators require access to a unique resource that could provide rigorous and uniform collection of human biospecimens from defined cohorts of HIV positive donors to yield consistent and reproducible experimental results for inventive and groundbreaking studies. As a leading human tissue provider for the biomedical research community, the National Disease Research Interchange (NDRI) is a 501(c)(3), not- for-profit organization that remains at the forefront of coordinating biospecimen procurement to match the needs of advancing scientific experimental methodologies, enabling cutting-edge research. For over 30 years, NDRI has received NIH funding for the parent award to this administrative supplement, the Human Tissue and Organs for Research Resource (HTORR) U42 Grant Number: U42OD011158. To address larger scale and more complex projects in the field of HIV research that are beyond the scope of HTORR, the Administrative Supplement for the HTORR/ NIAID High Priority HIV Human Biospecimen Recovery Program has enabled an expansion of HTORR’s capabilities biospecimen collection to align with unmet or emerging needs in the field of HIV research. Our current Program Year (PY) 4 efforts include providing rigorous, large scale, uniform collection of human biospecimens from highly defined cohorts of HIV+ donors to optimize tissue preservation methods for HIV studies and to study viral persistence, latency and reactivation. The goal of our PY5 proposal is to continue developing and implementing this biospecimen collection program to provide ongoing support for high priority HIV studies for NIAID. To accomplish this goal, NDRI will: 1) lead the development of complex (up to ~30 tissue types per donor) and high priority recovery projects, 2) identify and authorize HIV+ donors from both NDRI’s TSS and NIAID’s HIV+ donor referrals, 3) collect relevant HIV+ donor data from Tissue Source Sites (TSS) and donor families, 4) coordinate standardized biospecimen procurement, processing, and preservation, and 5) distribute all biospecimens to NIAID’s laboratory. In doing so, the biospecimen collection and preservation methods will be optimized to support the generation of high-quality, reproducible data for NIAID’s HIV research objectives. RELEVANCE Improving treatment for HIV infected patients or finding a cure requires access to high-quality human biospecimens that are suitable for analysis using the most challenging experimental techniques. This approach provides scientists with a direct experimental model system to advance understanding of HIV prevention, cure, co-morbidities, and therapeutic strategies. The overall objective of our Program Year 5 proposal is to continue developing and implementing a highly specialized, ongoing human biospecimen collection program for NIAID’s HIV research initiatives.