University of Miami

Contact Info:

Melinda Boone

1600 NW 10th Ave

RMSB 4053

Miami, FL 33136

https://www.sylvester.org/BSSR

Grants and Identifiers:

RRID: RRID:SCR_022889

P30-CA240139

Instrumentation:

Services Provided:

BioBanking

Biorepository

Clinical Trial Support

Tissue MicroArray

Relevant Publications:

1.) Merchan JR, Rodon J, Venkat S, Donahue A, Thomassen A, Accomando WP, Rodriguez-Aguirre M, Kwon D, Bentley C, Hogan DJ, Rodrigues OR, Yavrom S, Ostertag D, Shorr J, Falchook GS (2025 Nov 5). A phase 1B trial of vocimagene amiretrorepvec in patients with advanced solid tumors: Safety, tumor homing, and immune modulatory effects. Molecular therapy : the journal of the American Society of Gene Therapy, 33(11), 5505-5515. . PMID: 40842153.

2.) Leesang TE, Brabson JP, Yap YS, Barbieri DA, Klimas AS, Pinzone J, Ahearn EL, Lam MQ, Lyon PD, Swirski A, Wolfe NB, Nakata Y, Dos Santos HG, Shiekhattar R, Morey L, Vlantis PI, Figueroa ME, Chandhok N, Beckedorff F, Telonis AG, Cimmino L (2025 Oct 28). Retinoic acid and ascorbate synergize to suppress myeloid leukemia via TET2 activation. Cell reports, 44(10), 116379. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2025.116379. PMID: 41037397.

3.) Migliozzi S, Adabbo B, Garofano L, Wu F, Davila P, Komotar RJ, Ivan ME, Shah AH, Currall BB, Williams S, Bilbao Cortes D, Minucci Boone M, de la Fuente MI, Gultekin SH, Ceccarelli M, Iavarone A, Lasorella A (2025 Sep 18). Restraint of cancer cell plasticity by spatial homotypic clustering. Cancer cell, (), . . PMID: 40972572.

4.) Permuth J, Park M, Davis E, Alhassan S, Arnoletti J, Basinski T, McKee A, Bloomston M, Carson T, de Castria TB, Chen DT, Cortizas E, Crowder S, Delgado MG, Douglas W, Fleming J, Hodul P, Huguet K, Jiang K, Kim DW, Koomen J, Luthra A, Malafa M, Menon A, Morales R, Merchant N, Meredith K, Mo Q, Molina-Vega M, Moreno-Urazan L, Olumoyin K, Parker N, Pimiento J, Rasool G, Rejniak K, Sansil S, Sparks L, Stewart P, Tassielli A, Teer J, Tran DV, Trevino J, Velanovich V, Whelan C, Jeong D, Judge S, Judge (2025 Feb 10). Race-based differences in serum biomarkers for cancer-associated cachexia in a diverse cohort of patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Research square, (), . . PMID: 39989973.

5.) Kazandjian D, Diamond B, Papadimitriou M, Hill E, Sklavenitis-Pistofidis R, Ziccheddu B, Blaney P, Chojnacka M, Durante M, Maclachlan K, Young R, Usmani S, Davies F, Getz G, Ghobrial I, Korde N, Morgan G, Maura F, Landgren O (2024 Oct 1). Genomic Profiling to Contextualize the Results of Intervention for Smoldering Multiple Myeloma. Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, 30(19), 4482-4490. . PMID: 38652812.

6.) Garikapati K, Young IC, Hong S, Rai P, Jain C, Briegel KJ (2024 Mar). Blocking LBH expression causes replication stress and sensitizes triple-negative breast cancer cells to ATR inhibitor treatment. Oncogene, 43(12), 851-865. doi: 10.1038/s41388-024-02951-3. PMID: 38297083.

Description:

The Sylvester Biospecimen Shared Resource (BSSR) provides biorepository resources, services and expertise in support of oncology research. The BSSR facilitates translational cancer research with standard operating procedures for patient consenting; protection of patient personal and clinical data; specimen procurement and processing; quality control of specimens; secured specimen storage, retrieval, and distribution; and provision of relevant de-identified clinical data. BSSR services include: (1) biospecimen collection, annotation, processing, storage and distribution (including tissue, blood, and other fluids); (2) plasma, serum, and peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) processing and cryopreservation; (3) rapid acquisition of surgical tissue and fresh biopsies; (4) participant screening and enrollment for biospecimen collection studies; (5) formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) and frozen tissue retrieval, processing, sectioning, histological staining, and digital whole slide scanning; (6) tissue microarrays production; (7) support for non-therapeutic trials; and (8) consultation on project design, data analysis and interpretation. The BSSR offers access to a large and growing biobank of diverse tissue types, including clinically annotated neoplastic and non-neoplastic samples from a diverse array of anatomical sites, and provides banked specimen as well as fresh specimen procurement at an institution-wide level. Through the BSSR, investigators have access to an array of specimens collected from the University of Miami Hospital, the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, and Jackson Memorial Hospital, as well as to specimens collected in more broadly based multi-site studies. The BSSR acts as an honest broker for maximizing efficiency for biobanking efforts and provides uniform standard operating procedures for biorepository related research. In addition, the BSSR provides services in support of non-therapeutic trials that involve biospecimen collection, including study recruitment and retention, data management and entry, and study support. The BSSR also offers training and educational workshops and seminars. BSSR services are provided for research purposes for both Internal Review Board (IRB) approved research studies as well as for projects determined to meet non-human research criteria.