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Spring Summer

Frozen Assets

The Biorepository and Biospecimen Shared Resource (BBSR) collects, stores and distributes biospecimens obtained during clinical visits or surgery. Standarized best practices are used to process (frozen, fixed and RNA-inhibitor) and store biospecimens as a high-quality collection.

Frozen Assets

    Biorepository and Biospecimen Shared Resource

    The Biorepository and Biospecimen Shared Resource (BBSR) collects, stores and distributes biospecimens—tumor tissue, normal tissue, serum, plasma, whole blood, white blood cells, urine samples and other body fluids— obtained during clinical visits or surgery. Standarized best practices are used to process (frozen, fixed and RNA-inhibitor) and store biospecimens as a high-quality collection.

    The BBSR obtains patient informed consent for the collection of biospecimens that includes the annotation of their medical and healthcare information in collaboration with The Ohio State University’s Information Warehouse. The biospecimens are distributed to members of Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute.

    “Investigators can review the inventory of biospecimens prior to their research and then apply for the use of the biospecimens with assistance from the staff to foster hypothesis-driven cancer research,” says BBSR Director Scott Jewell, PhD, associate professor of Pathology.

    Biospecimens Collected

    • The BBSR began operation in February 2009. In its first year, 2,500 patients were consented to the program.
    • 1,368 patients provided blood specimens—plasma, serum, WBCs—for a total of 9,725 specimen aliquots.
    • Cancer tissue has been collected from 569 patients with a total of 2,856 specimen aliquots.
    • About 30 anatomic cancer tissue types were donated in the first year.