Originally published Aug. 31.
BioServe this week launched the BioServe Network, which links several academic, medical, and industry biosample repositories.
Charter members of the network include Fox Chase Cancer Center, the Fairbanks Institute for Healthy Communities, the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the Windber Research Institute.
BioServe touts the repository as the "the largest resource of high-quality biosamples for the life science industry" and claims that researchers can access it to garner biosamples from "most any major diseases."
The network will certainly make a footprint in facilitating genetics research, since BioServe provides biological samples for validating genomics services platforms, and helps researchers garner pre-clinical data on investigational drugs, molecular diagnostics, and pharmacogenomics.
"Biosamples are an important research tool that can dramatically accelerate basic science, clinical research, and translational studies. However, scientists' ability to consistently obtain high quality biosamples in the quantity and disease type they need is very challenging," BioServe President Rama Modali said in a statement.
To attenuate the need for high quality biosamples, BioServe created the network "to provide a singular source of biosamples … [by] tapping into the inventories of BioServe's own Global BioRepository and the network members," Modali added.
BioServe's Global BioRepository contains 600,000 human DNA, RNA, tissue, and serum samples linked to detailed clinical and demographic data from 120,000 consented and anonymized patients from four continents.
Researchers who wish to order biosamples from the BioServe Network should send their requests to BioServe. The company will then search its in-house repository and network members' repositories.
All biosamples provided through the network are acquired using rigorous institutional review board-approved collection protocols, including HIPAA-compliant informed consent. The BioServe Network also provides full disclosure on where and how samples were sourced, and network members are transparent about sample procurement protocols.
"BioServe and the BioServe Network members are adamant about transparency in the tissue procurement and banking process," Modali said in a statement. "In our opinion, there's too much 'behind-the-scenes' bio-brokering in the industry that obscures the source of the samples."