OHSU

Introduction to Biospecimens & Bioregistries

Definition of a biospecimen collection/bank

  • Collections of specimens or samples obtained from patients or normal volunteers
  • Two major types
    • -  Prospective:
      • ·  Collected under specific patient consent
      • ·  Use may be restricted by the consent details
    • -  Archival:
      • ·  Leftover from material collected during routine patient care
      • ·  Leftover from prior research or clinical trial
      • ·  Use is restricted by OHSU IRB and the Oregon genetic
           privacy law

Definition of a bioregistry

  • A prospective collection of clinical information and biospecimens
    from patients with specific disease
  • The patients are consented for use of their information and
    biospecimens for future research

Types of biospecimens

Note: many of the specimen types listed below are represented in the
various collections stored on the OHSU campus.

  • Fluids
    • -  Saliva
    • -  Bile
    • -  Cerebral spinal fluid
    • -  Urine
    • -  Bone marrow aspirate
    • -  Pleural fluid
    • -  Abdominal fluid (ascites)
    • -  Pancreatic secretions
    • -  Fluid from cyst or cystic tumor
  • Blood and blood derivatives
    • -  Whole blood
    • -  Plasma (cell free fraction of non-coagulated blood)
    • -  Serum (cell free fraction of coagulated blood)
    • -  Platelets
    • -  Red blood cells
    • -  White blood cells (’buffy coat’)
      • ·  Can be fractionated by flow cytometry
    • -  Circulating DNA or microRNA
    • -  Circulating tumor cells
  • Tissue - normal, diseased or neoplastic
    • -  Fresh (optimal for establishing primary cultures and
         xenografts)
    • -  Frozen
      • ·  Bulk tissue (usually aliquots of 10 -1,000 mg)
      • ·  OCT-embedded (optimal for cryosections)
    • -  Preserved by a fixative
      • ·  Formalin (= buffered formaldehyde)
      • ·  Organic (methanol, ethanol, acetone)
    • -  Embedded in paraffin
    • -  FFPE = formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded
  • DNA or RNA
    • -  Purified from fresh or fresh-frozen tissue, blood, or bone
         marrow
      • ·  Material from these sources is optimal for all types of
           studies
    • -  Purified from FFPE tissue
      • ·  Material from this source is highly fragmented, requiring
           that PCR amplicons be kept short (usually <300 bp)
Preparation of Tissue Samples for OHSU Biolibrary

OCTRI and the Knight Cancer Institute have joined to create the OHSU Biolibrary program.