ONE Biorepository: Comprehensive Integrated Biobanking Systems - PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT. As a Comprehensive Cancer Center with a mission to `understand, prevent and cure cancer', Roswell Park has long recognized the value of human biospecimens linked with clinical and outcomes data for driving research discoveries. As such, the institute has supported the collection and banking of remnant tumor tissue from surgical procedures in the Pathology Network Shared Resource (PNSR) and the collection and storage of peripheral blood samples in the Hematologic Procurement Shared Resource (HPSR) and the DataBank and BioRepository (DBBR). Furthermore, samples from specific research initiatives, including large multi-institutional team science grants, have also been banked for research use. Unfortunately, these efforts have all arisen independently of each other with no coordinated vision or standardized operating procedures, resulting in scores of -80 and liquid nitrogen (LN2) freezers spread across the Roswell Park campus. The haphazard and fragmented growth of these resources and the fact that some of these collections have inventories that cannot be electronically queried by the Roswell Park research community has made access to these samples difficult and has delayed advances in biomedical research. Importantly, with some epidemiological studies including thousands of participants with multiple aliquots of blood components for each, retrieval of samples for analysis is an extremely laborious and time-consuming process, and keeping freezer doors opened for long periods of time to retrieve samples jeopardizes sample integrity. Here we propose to consolidate sample procurement, processing and banking for the three existing shared resources (PNSR, HPSR, and DBBR) and external studies into ONE Biorepository – a comprehensive and unified biobanking system with accompanying services at Roswell Park. We will also construct a state-of- the-art biospecimen storage facility on the first floor of GBSB, centered around acquisition of a Hamilton BiOS M6, an ultra-low temperature automated storage system with robotic sample handling and retrieval, such that freezer doors are never opened, thereby maintaining the highest levels of biospecimen integrity during storage, tracking and accession. ONE Biorepository will be accompanied by a renovated laboratory space that can accommodate the operational needs of all three preexisting biobanks and their research services. The newly renovated Biorepository and laboratory facilities enable streamlined and efficient practices for the processing, banking and use of human samples to advance biomedical research, at Roswell and with our regional and national NIH-funded partners.
