Equipment

The Rush University Cancer Center Biorepository Resource is highly integrated with both the clinical trials office at Rush (to support infrastructure for acquisition of informed patient consent) and the Department of Pathology (as an interface with the clinical specimen processing labs). Laboratory technicians, nursing staff, and clinical coordinators guide all patients through the process of enrollment and tracking their specimens through acquisition, processing, and long-term archiving under research staff supervision and technical guidance. 

Standard processing equipment including centrifugation, sterile tissue handling, and biohazard disposal is maintained in our processing lab. Specimens are labeled with cryo-approved SID labels and QR-coded long-term storage vials. All specimens are initially catalogued in our laboratory information management system (LIMS), which provides a platform for rapidly accessing biospecimens for use or transfer to external long-term archiving facilities, including a freezer farm with both -80°C freezers and cryogenic LN2 storage systems. 

Finally, the entire facility (including each individual component) is monitored 24/7 by our checkpoint system, which alerts laboratory personnel immediately in the event of malfunction in any component of the cryopreservation facility. Sufficient backup cryopreservation units are available to accommodate short response time for any instrument failure that may jeopardize specimen integrity. Informed consent and specimen inventory data are recorded, audited, and backed-up using up-to-date programs, and databases are archived and managed on Rush secure networks pursuant to current Rush guidelines.