The objective of the C-SiG Clinical Core is to provide a user-friendly, one-stop service to access digestive disease-related biospecimens for Center members. Under the direction of Dr. Lisa Boardman, a well-established clinician scientist with IRB and biobanking expertise, the organization and infrastructure of the CSiG Clinical Core provides essential expertise and personnel to advise and interact with C-SiG members in pursuit of two Specific Aims: First, to provide support to enhance existing individual Gl-related biobanks operating within the Clinical Core umbrella and develop future repositories. Second, to centralize, expedite, and facilitate access to Gl-related biobanks and utilization of Gl biospecimens for C-SiG members to translate signaling research within the paradigm of human specimens. To achieve these aims C-SiG Clinical Core: i) Provides a central access point and streamlined process for biospecimens requests; ii) Strengthens the existing Gl tissue biorepositories by facilitating new specimen collection, and, iii) Develops new tissue collections. The Core integrates existing resources from individual investigators in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and from institutional biospecimens repositories, providing a cost effective approach to collaboratively translate Gl signaling paradigms into human tissues. Additionally, the C-SiG Clinical Core has developed strong partnerships with the 1R6, anatomic pathology frozen section laboratories (aka TRAG; source of all surgical biospecimens), and the Pathology Research Core (facility that performs tissue sectioning, immunostaining, etc). These partnerships allow C-SiG Clinical Core personnel to expedite movement of protocols and projects through these key institutional resources. The primary services offered by the C-SiG Clinical Core are IR6 protocol development support, biospecimens request support (including identification of appropriate tissues, pathology review, & coordinating tissue processing), and biobank support services (IR6 protocol templates, tissue inventory management software, standardized questionnaires, daily searches of the surgical list for approved 1R6 protocols, and limited study coordinator support for consenting). In response to C-SiG member feedback, we have recently added services to support the collection of stool for human microbiome research. The C-SiG Clinical Core services have been used by 63% of Center members and have supported 49 publications.
Gastrointestinal diseases and their complications have a significant effect on public health and health care utilization costs. The C-SiG Clinical Core supports scientific advancements of C-SiG members that are critically important for furthering understanding of the mechanisms that underlie digestive diseases, which can lead to practical applications for the diagnosis, prevention, monitoring and treatment of human disease.
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