ABC Member Biobanks
MIHS Biobank
MIHS is a large teaching hospital with eight residency programs and a commitment to evidence-based practice. As the safety net hospital for Maricopa County, MIHS is in a unique position to collect and distribute high quality biospecimens from a racially diverse patient population. MIHS is home to the Arizona Burn Center, the largest comprehensive burn center in the southwest, which allows for collection of unique biospecimens from burn patients.
MIHS Biobank collections include tissue, biofluids (urine, blood, saliva, etc.), stool and bacterial isolates from positive blood and urine cultures. The Biobank has the ability to collect biospecimens for specific prospective research studies, as well as general banked collections, which provides optimum flexibility for researcher use.
Phoenix Children’s Hospital Biorepository (PCHB)
Modern molecular medicine along with other novel sciences, aiming to generate knowledge for the diagnosis and management of multiple conditions, are driving a growing demand for high quality biological materials. The PCHB, a College of American Pathologists (CAP) accredited facility, is aimed at promoting scientific advancement by providing a reliable source of high quality biological specimens that are collected and processed in compliance with all appropriate regulatory requirements and current operational standards.
The PCHB collaborates with diverse pediatric centers of excellence and clinical divisions to maintain a robust inventory of biological specimens. Our current inventory consists of a series of solid and fluid tissues preserved in over 15 different formats and a variety of storage environments.
In addition to biological specimens, our storage and processing capacity allow us to offer specimen management services including but not limited to advanced molecular processing, cryopreservation, collection kit creation, protocol consulting and others.
Biobank Core Facility at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Barrow Neurological Institute
The mission of the Biobank Core Facility at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Barrow Neurological Institute (BCF) is to support research that will improve patient care by collecting human tissue and biofluids and by providing these to researchers both within SJHMC/BNI and externally for the study of disease and the development of treatments.
The Biobank works closely with neurosurgeons, surgeons, OR staff and the Department of Pathology to ensure rapid collection of tissue and matched normal controls, as well as the collection of pertinent matched clinical information. The Biobank collects tissues from neurosurgical suites, from the general surgical operating rooms, from the endoscopy suites, and from the outpatient clinic in the Gregory W. Fulton ALS and Neuromuscular Disease Center. Tissue is rapidly collected so as to minimize ischemia time. For neurosurgical specimens, tissue is generally frozen within less than a minute intra-operatively. For general surgical biospecimens, trained physician assistants, pathology residents and pathologists work together to rapidly collect and freeze tissue in the gross room. The goal is to rapidly collect quality tissue without compromising pathologic diagnosis.
The BCF has a broad IRB protocol to consent patients in advance of their surgery to collect blood sample, snap frozen tumor tissue, and medical history, currently consenting over 1,000 patients and collecting 8-10,000 biospecimen aliquots annually.
The Biobank also provides tissue for numerous ongoing institutional, local, national, and international studies. The BCF has provided tissue to the NIH and NCI, as well as a multitude of internal researchers and external investigators. Tissue released from glioblastomas, low grade gliomas, and general surgical biospecimens have contributed to the establishment of the The Cancer Genome Atlas. The BCF is also an active Tissue Source Site for the NCI-funded Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC). The Biobank has contributed tissue to the Chordoma Foundation, Cavernous Malformation Alliance, and to the NCI for a national study on low grade glioma mutations. The Biobank has recently begun providing matched cell cultures and tissue to investigators, a valuable research tool.