THE BIOREPOSITORY AT WINDBER RESEARCH INSTITUTE (WRI) RECEIVES CAP ACCREDITATION

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.