Tumor Tissue/ Biospecimen Bank

As medicine charts new technological frontiers, such as bioinformatics, translational medicine and targeted therapies, notions of tissue and biospecimen banking are rapidly evolving. Biobanking is on the forefront, allowing researchers to utilize resources such as paraffin-archives. Biospecimen repositories will ultimately function as cores for discovery of information essential to improving patient care. In a combined effort, the Abramson Cancer Center and the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine have a shared vision that will provide investigators the resources and organizational capabilities to maximize the potential of using tissue and other biospecimens for basic and translational research. In addition to undertaking tissue and biospecimen banking, the core will also work to define data driven standards for tissue and biospecimen banking practices at Penn.

The Tumor Tissue and Biospecimen Bank (TTAB) will create an extensive and robust bio-specimen and data repository by integrating multidisciplinary efforts of Cancer Center and other University of Pennsylvania Investigators. The facility will not only bank de-identified bio-specimens, while providing bioinformatics capabilities. Access will be determined by research protocols. Investigators’ banking efforts and data will be unified through a new sophisticated web-enabled database that is currently being customized. Investigators will use this database to easily identify and request material, regardless of physical location.
More information here.

The TTAB is a sub-core of the Recruitment Outcomes and Assessment Resource at the Abramson Cancer Center.