Facility Details

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.