Biobanking is
the fastest growing component in translational research and the Windber
Research Institute established a biorepository in 2001 with the mission of “Providing high quality biospecimens to
enhance the scope and reliability of molecular research.”
We are happy to
announce that the Accreditation Committee of the College of American
pathologists (CAP) has awarded accreditation to the WRI Biorepository based on
the results of an onsite inspection on 4/7/2015.
The Senior
Director of the Biorepository, Dr. Stella Somiari, PhD, was advised of this
national recognition on 5/14/2015 and congratulated for the excellence of the
services being provided. The repository at WRI is one of the 39 CAP accredited
biorepositories to date and one of the 2 CAP accredited biorepositories in
Pennsylvania!
The
accreditation program for biorepositories by CAP was started in 2012 and is the
first of such programs offered for biorepositories. It is a three-year accreditation cycle which
includes on-site inspection, desk review, and optional education modules and
gap assessment. As part of the on-site inspection, the CAP uses Accreditation
Checklists to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date blueprint of quality
practices to assist biorepositories in improving their operations and ensure
quality. Further, a desk review offers a remote review of a biorepository’s
quality plan, certain procedures and select quality and process statistics. The
program is designed to ensure that standards are maintained and there is
uniformity in all operational procedures which should result in the management
and distribution of the highest quality biospecimens.
The recent CAP accreditation status for the WRI puts the official “stamp” of quality to all its operations
and with the added oversight by CAP users of our biorepository resources will
have increased confidence in the quality of the biospecimens which we provide
to support high impact molecular research.
We are proud to continue to serve the John P. Murtha Cancer
Center of Walter Reed Bethesda in the
many capacities that we do, even more so, as an accreditaed biorepository.
About the WRI Biorepository
The
biorepository at WRI was established in 2001 to manage specimen procurement,
processing, storage, and distribution to the Department of Defense funded
Clinical Breast Care Project (CBCP). To date, its activities have expanded to
include biobanking activities for the John P. Murtha Cancer Center of Walter
Reed, Bethesda, MD. The repository has
established and maintained extensive Quality Management Systems (QMS) to cover
all areas of its operations and participates in regular Proficiency/Quality
Testing activities in areas that include DNA/RNA Extraction and Quantification,
RNA Integrity assessment, and Tissue Histology. The repository has expertise in
the establishment and management of multiple collection sites. It has
experience working with regional, urban, and community hospitals and has
managed collections from international sites and organ procurement
organizations. Tissue processing is performed in a variety of formats and new
processing protocols are developed as needed. Services provided include:
General
Acquisition,
processing and distribution of human biospecimens for research
Current
inventory available for research includes serum, plasma, DNA, RNA, PAXgene
Blood (for RNA extraction), assorted tissue types (breast, heart, kidney, lung,
colon, and lymph node, etc)
Laser
Microdissection (LMD) of Tissue for Research
General
Histology Services
Long
or Short Term Biospecimen Storage in ultra-low or liquid nitrogen freezers
DNA
and RNA Extraction
Nucleic
Acid Extraction from a variety of biological materials
Nucleic
Acid Quality Assessment using a variety of technologies
Consulting
Services
Customized
Biorepository Design and Setup.
Development
of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for biorepositories.
Design
and Review of Biospecimen Research Study Protocols.
In
recent years, Biospecimen Science Research has become an integral part of the
biorepository’s operations. Current biospecimen research activities include
elucidation of the effects of pre- analytical variables on biospecimen quality,
effects of storage time and condition of storage on biospecimen quality,
evaluation of new collection methods that will not only conserve scare tissue
but also allow the banking of minimal tissue from surgical procedures which
would normally have not been available for research and banking. The repository is also conducting
cutting-edge research aimed at developing non-destructive methods for tissue
quality assessment.
