# WU-SN-TMC Biospecimen Core

> **NIH NIH U54** · WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $191,964

## Abstract

Biospecimen Core Summary/Abstract
Senescence is a complex phenotype that likely consists of many states that have been implicated in human
health and disease. We aim to create the Washington University Senescence Tissue Mapping Center (WU-
SN-TMC), which will leverage our expansive infrastructure to generate multi-omics and imaging data to build
high resolution, multi-dimensional atlases of cellular senescence across tissue types and lifespan that can be
used to enable basic and translational senescence research. Our WU-SN-TMC will develop cellular
senescence atlases using 500 human samples for four essential tissue types: bone marrow, breast, colon,
and liver. To tackle such an ambitious goal, the WU-SN-TMC Biospecimen Core (WU-SN-TMC BC) has been
designed to facilitate the collection of human tissues across a wide range of ages. In addition, the WU-SN-
TMC BC will collect multiple tissues from individuals to allow us to compare senescent numbers and states
across tissues from a single individual. The WU-SN-TMC BC will accomplish this goal by using sample
acquisition pipelines that are divided into four tissue prospective collection protocols (CPs) that leverage WU
clinical expertise and patient volume to collect relevant biospecimens. These CPs include: 1) CP1, which will
collect bone marrow from normal donors without chronic disease across ages; 2) CP2, which includes normal
breast, bone marrow and skin from patients undergoing cosmetic breast surgery across ages; 3) CP3, which
includes patients undergoing endoscopy who will provide normal stomach, small bowel, and colon across
ages; and 4) CP4 includes patients undergoing laparoscopic upper gastrointestinal surgery that will provide
normal bone marrow, liver, and skin, again across ages. While our focus is on senescence during human
aging, some patients in CP2 and CP4 will have received prior chemotherapy for cancers in unrelated tissues
(i.e. biospecimens will be from unaffected, cancer-free tissues). This cohort will provide the opportunity to
compare age-matched controls +/- chemotherapy and allow perturbations tested in mice in the Biological
Analysis Core (BAC) to be mapped back to human tissue for relevance, further enriching the bone marrow,
breast, colon, and liver atlases we will produce. The existing infrastructure at WU, our patient volume and the
expertise of our team will ensure the success of the WU-SN-TMC BC.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10376525
- **Project number:** 1U54AG075934-01
- **Recipient organization:** WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Ryan C Fields
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $191,964
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-09-30 → 2026-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10376525

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10376525, WU-SN-TMC Biospecimen Core (1U54AG075934-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10376525. Licensed CC0.

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