Beltsville, MD, August 30, 2010 - BioServe today launched The BioServe Network (BSN), a network of leading academic, medical, and industry biosample repositories that creates the largest resource of high-quality biosamples for the life science industry. The charter members of the BioServe Network are Fox Chase Cancer Center, the Fairbanks Institute for Healthy Communities, the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the Windber Research Institute. By accessing this unique and rich resource of biomaterial, researchers gain unprecedented access to the highest quality biosamples from most any major disease.
“Biosamples are an important research tool that can dramatically accelerate basic science, clinical research and translational studies. However, scientists’ ability to consistently obtain high quality biosamples in the quantity and disease type they need is very challenging,” said Rama Modali, President, BioServe.
“We created the BioServe Network to provide a singular source of biosamples. Tapping into the inventories of BioServe’s own Global BioRepository and the Network members, scientists are assured of getting the highest quality biosamples they need for their research,” added Modali.
Mitch Martin, Ph.D., Global Head, DNA Sciences & Genetics at Roche, commented, “The promise of comprehensive availability for biosamples is compelling. The BioServe Network will open new opportunities for researchers to take advantage of tissue samples in their research, while making the process of sample procurement more efficient. For this reason alone The Network should quickly become the de facto source of biosamples for researchers investigating a wide variety of diseases.”
Dr. John Anson, VP Biomarker Discovery at Oxford Gene Technology, added, “As a long-standing customer of BioServe, we have been pleased with the company’s service and responsiveness. The BioServe Network should open new opportunities for researchers to take advantage of tissue samples in their research, while making the process of sample procurement more efficient.”
Jeff Boyd, Ph.D., Chief, Division of Molecular Pathology at Fox Chase Cancer Center, said, “BioServe’s excellent reputation and reach into the worldwide research community made the decision to participate in the BioServe Network an easy one for us. The Network will make Fox Chase samples available to more research labs where they can be used towards the discovery and development of new cancer therapies.”
Accessing and ordering biosamples from the BioServe Network is easy. Clients simply send a request to BioServe who then performs a search of its in-house repository and the inventories of its Network members. All biosamples in the Network are acquired using rigorous IRB-approved collection protocols, complete with HIPAA-compliant informed consent parameters. This makes each sample eligible for study in a commercial research setting.
Modali added, “BioServe and the BioServe Network members are adamant about transparency in the tissue procurement and banking process. In our opinion, there’s too much ‘behind-the-scenes’ bio-brokering in the industry that obscures the source of the samples.”
The BioServe Network provides full disclosure on where and how samples were sourced, and that all biosamples are collected using the highest standard operating protocols.
About BioServe
BioServe provides a comprehensive ‘biomaterial to validated data’ genomics services platform, helping researchers gain the pre-clinical data for breakthroughs in drug discovery, molecular diagnostics and pharmacogenomics. Utilizing BioServe’s genomics services platform, researchers can identify genetic markers, validate drug targets and correlate clinical data with molecular data to accelerate the development of new and safer drugs. BioServe’s services extend from nucleic acids processing, DNA synthesis, high throughput genotyping, genome wide-scans and gene expression analyses to ready-made large epidemiologically sound case-control studies of inflammatory disorders, endocrine disorders, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity and many cancers. BioServe’s Global BioRepository provides researchers with a library of 600,000 human DNA, RNA, tissue and serum samples linked to detailed clinical and demographic data from 120,000 consented and anonymized patients from four continents.
For more information please visit www.bioserve.com or call 301-470-3362.
