This cost center is fulfilling an essential service for the EDRN by receiving samples for our specimen reference sets, often aliquoting them to smaller sizes, maintaining these reference sets in freezers, and shipping sets out to investigators who obtain approval to test their biomarkers. These sets are used only for pre-validation or validation studies of biomarkers which is one the chief purposes of the EDRN. Without the maintenance of these reference sets the effectiveness of EDRN to test newly emerging biomarkers would be severely hampered. These reference sets differ than the extensive collections obtained through studies like PLCO or NLST in that the numbers of samples kept are much less being selectively chosen to address a particular clinical situation, include properly matched controls in that clinical context, and are powered statistically to permit adequate analysis of the biomarkers being tested.
