# Biospecimen-Core

> **NIH NIH U54** · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · 2021 · $750,597

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Biospecimen Core: Lung and heart function and aging are major determinants of human health and lifespan,
respectively. Combined, lung and heart diseases are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality world-wide
(WHO’s Global Health Estimates 2020). The Biospecimen Core (BC) will generate high-quality, clinically
annotated, and pathologically evaluated specimens from normal human lung and heart (and corresponding
vessels and lymph nodes) to provide the fundamental basis for the creation of high-resolution, multi-modal, and
multi-dimensional senescence maps. The BC investigators will use their expertise in collecting, processing,
annotating, classifying, and distributing tissue samples and primary cells lines for lung and heart senescence
mapping. The core will excel in providing already catalogued tissues with as little ischemia-induced artifacts as
possible, and meet all legal and ethical standards including broad donor consent. The BC follows NIH/NCI Best
Practices for Biorepositories, with standard operating procedures (SOPs) in place to ensure the highest
biospecimen and clinical information quality to meet all legal and ethical standards. The biorepository efforts are
approved through OSU, Pitt, and URMC IRB protocols that cover the procurement, processing, and distribution
of human biospecimens. The BC will collect whole tissue from humans across the lifespan and will provide whole
tissue, precision cut tissue slices (PCTS), and purified cells to the TriState SenNet TMC. Together with the Data
Analysis Core (DAC), the BC will use established metadata collection protocols to collect metadata in a
consistent and interoperable format.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10376490
- **Project number:** 1U54AG075931-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
- **Principal Investigator:** Mauricio Rojas
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $750,597
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-09-30 → 2026-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10376490

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10376490, Biospecimen-Core (1U54AG075931-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10376490. Licensed CC0.

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