Creation of an Institutional Biobanking Facility

PROJECT SUMMARY This institutional grant proposal for Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) aims to build a centralized biobanking facility that consolidates processing and storage activities for human biospecimens obtained from participants in research studies and clinical patients across the CUIMC campus. The use of such a biorepository to collect, manage and dispense human samples and clinical data will lead to more robust research efforts and an efficient use of research dollars. The main purpose of this proposal is to construct the appropriate infrastructure to support the installation of up to two automated ultra-low temperature freezer systems that can be used to store over 9 million biospecimens. The centralized freezer system will replace the use of aging -80 C freezers that are dispersed across campus, allowing for greater space and energy efficiency, aligning with CUIMC sustainability and environmental initiatives. Engineering and mechanical redundancies will be incorporated that ensure biosamples can be securely stored at a constant temperature for the 20+ year lifetime of the facility. As part of this proposal, CUIMC will install one freezer system immediately with the ability to add an additional freezer system to support CUIMC?s biobanking efforts as they continue to grow. The facility will also contain laboratory space to support the rapid processing of fluid biosamples that will be deposited into the biobank. This centralized processing will ensure that specimens entered into the bank are high quality and uniform, and can be accurately inventoried. Overall, the biobanking facility will provide biospecimens for use in research studies conducted across biomedical disciplines. Biosamples that will be banked in the facility are critical to support research into the basis of Alzheimer?s and other neurological disease, human immunity and transplant rejection, and the health effects of exposure to environmental toxins. Aligning well with Columbia?s long-term Precision Medicine Initiative, these biosamples will enable precision medicine studies to identify the underlying genetic basis for susceptibility and effectiveness of treatments for cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and a number of other maladies. The large number of human samples stored in this biobank will provide NIH- funded researchers with indispensable raw materials and the necessary large sample sizes to advance biotechnology and human health, ensuring the biobank will remain useful far beyond the lifespan of currently- funded research.