Large, high-dimensional clinical, genetic and biomarker data linked to bio-repositories are driving basic, clinical and translational research and are now of a scale to include minority populations and rare diseases. Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) has made long-term strategic investments in translational sciences as a platform for excellence across clinical and basic science departments and is internationally recognized as a leader in such fields as personalized medicine, vaccinology, and cancer care and research. As examples, BioVU, Vanderbilt?s large-scale biorepository, contains detailed de-identified human phenotype information linked to de-identified DNA samples and genotypes and the Cooperative Human Tissue Network - Western Division at VUMC is one of only six funded by the National Cancer Institute to procure and distribute remnant human tissues and fluids to a growing number of biomedical researchers throughout the US, Canada, and internationally. These resources and others provide an accelerating engine of discovery. In keeping with this vision, Vanderbilt faculty have also assumed leadership and coordinating roles in a wide variety of major collaborative initiatives in cancer, infectious diseases, vaccinology and many other fields. Collectively these endeavors are providing powerful predictors of disease risk, disease progression or response to therapy and underpinning studies delineating the fundamental mechanism of disease as well as translation to the clinic. These large-scale initiatives generate a massive number of discrete materials, including human plasma, serum, tissue, urine, microbial isolates, DNA, RNA and proteins which are most stable when stored at -80oC. The size of these biorepositories is exceeding the capacity of individual investigators or groups to effectively curate, maintain sample integrity and rapidly retrieve samples for further study. Many of these materials could not be replaced and are of international importance. To meet this large and growing need, a specialized automated -80oC storage system is necessary to manage, store and retrieve the hundreds of thousands of biorepository samples. This proposal seeks to obtain funding for the purchase of a Brooks BioStore II Quadbank robotic -80oC freezer system that can accommodate all of the needs of large biorepositories at Vanderbilt. With such a system Vanderbilt can provide the necessary institutional support, environment and expertise to ensure cost-effective, quality assured management, storage and retrieval of these critical samples and reagents. The technology is durable and scalable and therefore it can be predicted that this automated system will enable a broad range of investigators and propel basic, clinical and translational research long into the future.
Large repositories of biological samples represent critical resources for investigations of human disease. This proposal seeks to obtain funding for a state-of-the-art robotic -80C freezer that would allow consolidation of major biorepositories at Vanderbilt into a central system with improved safety for biobanks and more efficient management of sample data as well as entry and withdrawal of samples. This freezer will support multiple efforts at Vanderbilt to promote translational investigations into human diseases.
