From the Operating Room to the Laboratory: Role of the Neuroscience Tissue Biorepository in the Clinical, Translational, and Basic Science Research Pipeline

Objective: To establish a neurologic disorder-driven biospecimen repository to bridge the operating room with the basic science laboratory and to generate a feedback cycle of increased institutional and national collaborations, federal funding, and human clinical trials.

Methods: Patients were prospectively enrolled from April 2017 to July 2022. Tissue, blood, cerebrospinal fluid, bone marrow aspirate, and adipose tissue were collected whenever surgically safe. Detailed clinical, imaging, and surgical information was collected. Neoplastic and nonneoplastic samples were categorized and diagnosed in accordance with current World Health Organization classifications and current standard practices for surgical pathology at the time of surgery.

Results: A total of 11,700 different specimens from 813 unique patients have been collected, with 14.2% and 8.5% of patients representing ethnic and racial minorities, respectively. These include samples from a total of 463 unique patients with a primary central nervous system tumor, 88 with metastasis to the central nervous system, and 262 with nonneoplastic diagnoses. Cerebrospinal fluid and adipose tissue dedicated banks with samples from 130 and 16 unique patients, respectively, have also been established. Translational efforts have led to 42 new active basic research projects; 4 completed and 6 active National Institutes of Health-funded projects; and 2 investigational new drug and 5 potential Food and Drug Administration-approved phase 0/1 human clinical trials, including 2 investigator initiated and 3 industry sponsored.

Conclusion: We established a comprehensive biobank with detailed notation with broad potential that has helped us to transform our practice of research and patient care and allowed us to grow in research and clinical trials in addition to providing a source of tissue for new discoveries.