What is a Biorepository?
A biorepository is an organization that collects, processes, stores, and distributes tissue samples for clinical research or other scientific investigations. They assist in maintaining and managing specimens such as tissue samples from humans, animals and other living organisms. A biorepository functions to maintain biospecimens, collect relevant information and assure the quality of the samples in their collection. They follow standard operating procedures (SOPs) that reduce anomalies in samples and which also provide guidelines for storage and maintenance. SOPs also ensure that biospecimens collected closely resemble that of their natural state. It helps biorepositories maintain a standardized framework for conducting operations and allows for the seamless implementation of processes.
What is Custom Procurement?
Some biorepositories, like Geneticist Inc., provide custom tissue procurement. This means that they are able to provide custom collection of biofluids, tissue samples, and blood samples in various specialties such as gastroenterology, oncology, rheumatology, neurology, and dermatology. Biorepositories that offer custom collection services have the ability to collect from a vast range of medical procedures such as elective skin biopsies, resections, autopsies, endoscopies, blood draws, and more. Due to the nature of the collection processes and procedures, biorepositories need to have a skilled logistics team and an expert medical courier network. The custom procurement of biospecimens is important especially if:
Fresh collections are required
There is a necessity for matched tissue pairs
Rare indications or specific specimens
The need for specific procedures during the collection and processing of samples
Active cases and autopsies are needed
The study or research is complicated
Examples of Biospecimens
Biofluids – Examples of biofluids include stool, urine, whole blood, serum, plasma, cerebrospinal fluid, saliva, sputum, and swabbed material. Biofluids can be available frozen or fresh. Depending on client preference, it can be with or without additives.
Tissue – Some examples of human tissue include fresh tissue, fixed tissue, frozen tissue, formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) blocks, whole tissue samples, stained slides, unstained slides, tissue microarrays, and more. These samples can be annotated with the proper genetic and molecular characterizations, outcomes data, pathology reports, and patient characteristics.
Cells – Some research may require frozen or fresh cells that are still viable. These cells can be isolated from peripheral blood, cord blood, and bone marrow of normal donors and those with disease. Some examples include myeloid cells, pluripotent stem cells, mononuclear cells, and lymphoid cells.
What to Look For?
There are several factors that help decide which biorepository to go with when custom collection services are needed. Some of the factors that can help decide are:
a) Procurement format options
Since prospective collection enable clients to decide which elements fit their needs, a custom procurement format can be designed with the help of our experienced team of scientists. Depending on the need of clients, custom procurement of biofluids, fresh tissue, frozen tissue, and more are available. Clients can also set the exclusion and inclusion criteria for specimens and donors.
b) Partnerships
It is important to look for a biorepository that has a vast network of clinical partners to help ensure the highest quality of required biospecimen collection. It would also increase the access to more human tissue samples in various formats.
c) Team members
A biorepository with experienced and certified team members would be the best choice as they would be well-trained with the ability to better understand the needs of researchers and to help find better solutions if necessary. With a great team on hand, specimens are more likely to be of the highest quality and fulfill the requirements of clients.
d) Quality assurance
It is important for the biorepository to perform quality control checks to ensure that specimens are of the highest quality. This means that the staff should understand the appropriate storage or procurement procedures and ensure that the SOPs are adhered to strictly.
e) Consent and privacy
Biorepositories should follow the procedures and guidelines during the procurement of human tissue samples. Informed consent and privacy of the donors should be of the highest priority to protect their interests.
Why Geneticist?
For custom collection services, the staff at Geneticist can design custom collections of a wide variety of biospecimens. Our staff are certified, experienced, and highly trained. Geneticist is a biorepository that is compliant with the Institutional Review Board (IRB) standards and provides the highest quality of collections. All our biospecimens and material adheres to the official protocols and is approved by the IRB and Independent Ethical Committee (IEC). Geneticist operates in accordance with current Federal Regulations, Health Insurance Privacy and Portability Act (HIPAA) and International Conference on Harmonisation – Good Clinical Practice (ICH-GCP) guidelines. With the proper inventory management process and extensive procurement formats, Geneticist strives to fulfill client requirements and satisfaction.
