Collection and Distribution of Biospecimens for Novel Research

Overview

iSpecimen aims to create a clinical partner network of hospitals, laboratories, academic institutions, and other healthcare organizations ("institutions") capable of providing researchers and educators ("researchers") with annotated biospecimens for use in biomarker discovery and validation; diagnostic test and instrumentation development and validation; therapeutics development; other medical research including the impact that various specimen collection and handling methods and conditions have on research results; and in education such as researcher or physician training (collectively "research").

The level of involvement for each network institution will vary based on the type of specimen to which they have access (e.g. biofluids, tissues and/or cells) and the category of collection (remnant specimens that were originally collected for clinical testing and/or specimens specifically collected for research) in accordance with the institution's elected preferences. In most cases, potential participants will be identified and approached upon presenting for clinical care or recruited specifically for the study using outreach programs. If additional screening activities are required to determine eligibility criteria, the potential participant may be presented with the opportunity to participate in these activities as part of the study. These screening activities will be minimal risk in nature and are described further below. Should potential participants meet screening criteria, they may then be asked to provide biospecimens according to current research needs. Individual participants or groups of participants may be sought according to specific clinical, lifestyle, and/or demographic characteristics. The providers of these samples may be healthy participants or participants with a medical condition of interest to the research community but regardless, all specimens collected under this protocol (whether for screening purposes and for distribution to researchers) will qualify as minimal risk activities. Biospecimens may be distributed to researchers at academic institutions, hospitals, clinical and government laboratories, and corporations including diagnostic, medical device, biopharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. The types of research studies and testing that may be performed using the biospecimens will be varied, and it is not possible to provide a description of all potential studies. Some researchers may perform genetic testing on the specimens, some may use the specimens to develop cell lines, and some may cryopreserve the specimens for many years, awaiting a research use. The specimens may also be used for educational purposes, such as training lab techs on the proper testing of samples or physicians on the proper reading of stained slides. The iSpecimen consent forms will indicate a broad scope of possible research and educational uses and activities.