Houston Methodist Research Institute
Biorepository Core
Core Director: Rajeev Singh, MD, MBA 713.441.0777 | rsingh2@houstonmethodist.org
Core Supervisor: Nathan Garcia 713.441.2113 | ngarcia@houstonmethodist.org
6565 Fannin St., Suite F774 Houston, TX 77030
houstonmethodist.org/hmri-biorepository
6670 Bertner Avenue Houston, TX 77030
houstonmethodist.org/research
Since 2004, the Houston Methodist Research Institute Biorepository Core has been harvesting and storing samples—tissues, blood, serum, plasma and other body fluids since the establishment of the Research Institute. This core is the custodian of diagnostic tissue blocks and slides from the Department of Pathology and Genomic Medicine. These are available for research use with appropriate patient consent. Solid tissue samples for various diseases, including cancers, blood, serum, plasma and other body fluids are stored in the core’s secure in-house and off-site freezers. The core also has legacy collections of cell lines, cells from diagnostic flow and HLA assays, and extracted DNA from patient samples.
• Collection, processing and storage in a timely, quality driven manner of fresh, snap-frozen, solid tissues from surgical pathology specimens, blood and other body fluids from patients.
• Provision of relevant controls including normal solid tissues from same or other patients, and/or blood from healthy patients/volunteers.
• Provide research protocol-specific collection, processing, and storage services for all types of biospecimens.
• Paraffin embedding, Immunohistochemical and Hematoxylin and Eosin staining, and pathology review services provided in conjunction with Research Pathology service.
• Maintenance of a clinical database with basic clinical data elements for all repository samples, and provision of basic data available to our scientific users while safeguarding protected health information.
• In-depth data elements provided to individual investigators with necessary IRB approvals.
• Round-the-clock monitoring of freezers with adequate backup and disaster recovery protocols.
• Current global bio-banking standards followed to ensure research relevance of stored specimens for both internal and external collaborative purposes.
Patients:
• Maintain highest ethical standards before, during and after sample collection.
• Ensure complete safeguard of patient privacy and confidentiality, at all times and under all circumstances.
Researchers:
• Timely provision of high-quality specimens with relevant data annotation.
• Help bank and process specimens as per study-specific protocols, including shipping and record keeping.