# Human Biosamples Core

> **NIH NIH P30** · BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL · 2021 · $359,659

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT – Resource Core 1: Human Biosamples Core
Obtaining fresh, carefully phenotyped human samples is the most daunting logistical hurdle facing the Joint
Biology Consortium (JBC) Research Community. The Human Biosamples Core overcomes this barrier with a
“systems solution” that integrates existing resources at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Boston
Children’s Hospital (BCH), and affiliated institutions with a bioinformatically-sophisticated team of personnel to
support sample identification, patient recruitment, sample processing, data management, and statistical
analysis. Unique strengths include an extraordinary range of patient samples, both pediatric and adult; core
leadership with expertise in cutting-edge translational research, biobanking, and electronic health record (EHR)
interrogation; bioinformatics and biostatistics; and access to healthy controls as well as patients with
comparator diseases. This mission will be realized through two Specific Aims.
Aim I helps JBC members identify and obtain relevant archived biosamples from 16 different established
sources, ranging from >120,000 patients in the Mass General Brigham (MGB) Biobank to highly specialized
collections from common and rare rheumatic diseases as well as relevant controls. Examples include registries
of rheumatoid arthritis (BRASS), psoriatic arthritis (COPPAR), and systemic lupus erythematosus (SYLVER);
juvenile-onset rheumatic disease biobanks at BCH and CARRA; checkpoint inhibitor-induced rheumatic
diseases; and synovial tissue from the Amsterdam Arthritis Bank as well as local archives.
Aim II provides targeted, prospective recruitment via the JBC Recruitment Core, through which a dedicated
team identifies, contacts, consents, obtains, and processes samples from patients meeting JBC member
specifications. Donors include >120,000 MGB Biobank patients, including >45,000 with genotype data, BWH
and BCH rheumatology clinics, ongoing clinical trials, and other sources.
Led by expert rheumatoid arthritis investigator and methodologist Dr. Elizabeth Karlson, supported by
associate directors Dr. Jeffrey Sparks at BWH, Dr. Lauren Henderson at BCH, and Dr. Deepak Rao heading
the BWH Human Immunology Center for sample processing, the Human Biosamples Core represents a unified
biospecimen pipeline to accelerate hypothesis-driven research into inflammatory arthritis and related diseases
for investigators across the multicenter JBC network.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10281358
- **Project number:** 2P30AR070253-06
- **Recipient organization:** BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** ELIZABETH W KARLSON
- **Activity code:** P30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $359,659
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2016-08-11 → 2026-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10281358

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10281358, Human Biosamples Core (2P30AR070253-06). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10281358. Licensed CC0.

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