The mission of the Biobank Core is to act as a nidus promoting clinical translational and basic research on human gastrointestinal diseases. The core maintains an open IRB approved protocol that allows for collection of specimens and longitudinal clinical data from patients with gastrointestinal diseases and control populations. The core assists with sharing of these specimens and information with DDRCC members. This protocol allows the core to maintain a database of clinical information linked to specimens and data obtained from these specimens, thus accelerating clinical-translational and basic research in gastrointestinal diseases.
The core staff members enroll target patient populations, collect specimens and clinical data, process and store specimens, and maintain the database of clinical information.
Specimens collected and processed by the core currently include blood, surgical resections, endoscopic biopsies, and stool. The bio-specimens core can partner with other core facilities to simplify and accelerate downstream analysis of collected specimens for investigators. The core also routinely performs genotype analysis on enrolled patients and can perform microarray analysis on RNA isolated from specimens if requested by investigators.
The bio-specimens core presently contains clinical data, specimens, and genotype analysis from over 1,000 patients with gastrointestinal disease and control patients. Pre-existing clinical data and tissue specimens are available to DDRCC investigators to support their investigations.
We are in compliance and have consent from patients donating specimens to put the information on the database of Genotypes and Phenotypes (dbGAP).
Current collections include specimens from individuals with inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, hereditary colon cancer, and controls.
Statement of principles for resource allocation from the DDRCC Biobank
The DDRCC is a federally funded facility that provides research support to full members pursuing research in the field of digestives disease science at Washington University primarily, and the Midwest Alliance (MWA) secondarily. While our center strives to support collaborative science with intra-mural and extra-mural investigators, there are limitations to our ability to respond to requests for materials generated at Washington University, and curated by DDRCC staff, from individuals with varying degrees of affiliation with our center. Biobank materials, which are exceptionally well-provenanced, and which have extensive clinical and genetic metadata, are a limited and precious resource. Below are the guidelines for deciding to approve a request for a DDRCC Biobank resource from an investigator.
- Priority for requests will be ranked according to the following categories of requestor: DDRCC Full Member > DDRCC Associate Member > MWA Full Member > MWA Associate Member
- Priority rank will be determined by review of each proposal to determine feasibility, significance and impact and the potential to advance the mission of the WU DDRCC, and include the ability to generate peer reviewed publications and extramural funding, or the need for the materials to be used in funded projects relevant to the WU DDRCC
- The rank of priority for the materials are: Renewable resources (e.g. bacterial outgrowths) > semi-renewable resources (e.g. amplified DNA) > non-renewable resources (e.g. tissue, extracted mRNA)
- Support needed to provide materials (labor, supplies) beyond minimum preparation and handover is the responsibility of the requesting investigator in all cases
- Investigators who do not fit within any of the prioritization categories in item 1 will receive consideration on a case-by-case basis. Requests including a DDRCC member as a collaborator will be considered more favorably.
- DDRCC Biobank policies regarding human subjects, biohazard capabilities, MTAs, co-authorship, and citation will be honored by all recipients.