Biorepository
Mission
The EVMS Biorepository is designed to improve the health of the community by providing a centralized resource of high-quality, annotated biospecimens to support present and future research studies, diagnostic development and the creation of new therapeutics. Our services are available to EVMS as well as to other universities and research centers.
About the biorepository
The EVMS Biorepository collects, processes and stores biological specimens and associated data. Our facilities include an environmentally-controlled space that provides a low-temperature, low-humidity environment to maximize the life and cooling ability of specimen freezers for storage of clinical tissues and fluids. There is an adjoining room used to store patient tissue blocks. An additional clean room used for sample allocation and processing is equipped with a sample sublimation platform and barcode sample entry system. The resource has a full-time staff on site for specimen processing, inventory management and database management.
See a listing of staff members.
Effective July 1st, 2021, a fee will be added to rush requests. See current prices or submit a biorepository request.
The Biorepository has over 70,000 human samples available including:
- Prostate, placenta, kidney, bladder, breast, skin and head and neck tissues
- 45,000 blood-related samples (including serum, plasma, buffy coat)
- 7,000 urine samples
- 18,000 tissue samples (including OCT, fresh frozen, FFPE)
The Biorepository is paralleled by a comprehensive clinical data repository. Our web-based management system maintains the data in a secure SQL server database. The Biorepository works closely with clinicians and researchers to facilitate project-based consenting, procuring, processing, storage and dissemination of samples and data (as fee-for-service).
In 2017, the EVMS Biorepository obtained College of American Pathologists (CAP) biorepository accreditation. The three-year accreditation program focuses on the kind of quality, accuracy, procedural consistency, best practices and evidence-based standards that directly improves research outcomes. CAP accreditation uses a peer inspection model and a broad checklist to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date blueprint of quality practices, enabling us to ensure superior quality specimens. Moreover, the accreditation encompasses the lab services the EVMS Biorepository offers so that our researchers can have faith in the work that we produce.
