? Resource Core 1: Human Biosamples Core Obtaining fresh, carefully phenotyped human samples is the most daunting logistical hurdle facing the Joint Biology Consortium Research Community. The Human Biosamples Core will overcome this barrier with a ?systems solution? that integrates a novel bioinformatic infrastructure together with an expanded network of personnel to support study design, patient recruitment, data management, and statistical analysis. Unique strengths include an extraordinary range of patient samples, both archived and available through targeted real- time recruitment; core leadership with expertise in cutting-edge bioinformatics and biostatistics; pediatric and adult sources; access to healthy controls as well as patients with comparator diseases; and an established sample processing facility, the Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) Human Immunology Center. This mission will be realized through three Specific Aims. First, we will build the JBC Web Portal into an integrated web-based user interface ? supported by a network of clinic-based research coordinators ? to enhance utilization of existing archives and enable targeted recruitment from two of the nation's largest rheumatology programs, BWH and Boston Children's Hospital, including key samples such as synovial tissues. Second, we will facilitate access to large institutional cohorts as a source of banked and fresh biosamples, including >30,000 genotyped patients from the Partners HealthCare Biobank, >2,500 genotyped healthy donors available through the PhenoGenetic Project, and the Boston Children's Biobank for Health Discovery. Third, to maximize the utility of clinical phenotype and genetic data available for many of these patients, we will provide rigorous support from a team that includes world leaders in statistical methodology and automated electronic medical record data extraction. Led by expert rheumatoid arthritis investigator Dr. Elizabeth Karlson, supported by associate directors at BWH and Boston Children's Hospital, the Human Biosamples Core will become as a unified biospecimen pipeline to accelerate hypothesis-driven research into inflammatory arthritis for investigators across the 17-center Joint Biology Consortium network.
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