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Mayo Clinic Inks Biosample Management Deal With ISpecimen

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Biological specimen provider ISpecimen announced today that it has signed an agreement to exclusively manage serum samples and associated data for the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine's Cancer Serum Biobank.

The biobank holds roughly 130,000 frozen serum samples collected between 1975 and 1990 from about 17,000 unique Mayo Clinic patients covering 85 malignant and benign cancers, as well as normal controls. It also includes patient diagnosis and treatment data.

ISpecimen said it will manage the serum inventory and data through its cloud-based technology platform, helping to match researchers to the appropriate samples for their studies. Additional terms of the arrangement were not disclosed.

"Despite holding thousands of sought-after samples, the biorepository is underutilized by external researchers," Stephen Thibodeau, director of the biorepositories program at the Center for Individualized Medicine, said in a statement. "ISpecimen presented an opportunity for us to work with them to efficiently move these specimens into the hands of many more scientists studying cancer and related conditions."

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