When using fresh products, functional assays can be done without complications from cell activation or modification due to the freeze/thaw process. Fresh cells and biospecimens provide stable components for many studies, such as those into cell activation states, cell surface markers and intracellular and extracellular molecules.

When the COVID-19 pandemic first began, there was a scramble to source and validate the various biospecimens that would be required to develop diagnostic tests, therapeutic interventions, and vaccine candidates. While many human specimens were collected from health clinics, hospitals and testing centers throughout the world, other test subjects were also needed. Various animal species have proven significant in developing disease infection models, therapies, and vaccine development trials. Here are some notable developments.

Researchers are working hard to study the novel coronavirus (known as 2019-nCoV or SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19), and BioIVT remains committed to our mission of ELEVATING SCIENCE® in the race to find a cure. Here, we have collected information about coronavirus testing and our offerings that we hope will enable the next medical breakthrough.

High quality human biospecimens and their associated clinical data lay the groundwork for drug discovery and diagnostic research, and they establish and validate specific targets and biomarkers. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to access these samples, especially when ensuring the proper ethical approvals were secured, the right clinical data was recorded, and the proper annotations have been determined. Working with a commercial biobank to build your inventory of desired cohorts is the best way to guarantee all your bases are covered, and that you have a reliable source of specimens and data to return to as your research develops.

Sourcing human biospecimens isn’t easy, as various government and medical professional societies have instituted regulations and accreditation programs to ensure that specimens are collected according to the best practices developed over many years. To make matters more complicated, those regulations and best practices are change. That’s why it’s vital to work with a human biospecimen (HBS) provider that has an in-depth understanding of the ever-evolving regulatory landscape.

Why Study the Microbiome? The Microbiome has a growing importance in general health, and even more significantly, there is a growing understanding regarding the impact that an individual’s microbiome has on contributing to the cause of disease, influencing disease severity, and affecting a person’s response to medication and treatment. For example, it is now known that an individual’s microbiome affects their ability to manage their weight, is implicated in the development of arthritis, and has a role in various neuropsychiatric illnesses such as autism, schizophrenia, OCD, ADHD, and chronic fatigue syndrome. Furthermore, by comparing patients with the same disease, it has been shown that an individual’s microbiome affects the disease severity of autoimmune disorders, asthma, and infections. Perhaps even more interesting and more relevant is that an individual’s microbiome affects their response to medication including vaccination, through effects on metabolism, efficacy, and toxicity.

Biospecimens are commonly used in research, from the bench through to late phase clinical trials. Understanding how pre-analytical deviations in collection, processing, and storage are critical to downstream applications and data analysis. In this post, our Director of Product Marketing for Disease State Products, Cathie Miller, Ph.D., interviewed Jason Adams, BS HTL (ASCP), BioIVT’s lead histologist to better understand how processing occurs and how it can affect the specimens.

At this year’s 110th AACR, Immuno-oncology was the topic of many discussions including seven out of eleven plenary sessions. Biggest of all was the lung cancer plenary session that discussed potentially standard-of-care-changing results from Merck, BMS, and Roche in relation to PD-L1 biomarker-related first-line treatment of metastatic non-small cell lung cancer.