# Shared Resource Core: Puerto Rico BioBank

> **NIH NIH U54** · H. LEE MOFFITT CANCER CTR & RES INST · 2023 · $227,999

## Abstract

ABSTRACT | PUERTO RICO BIOBANK
The Puerto Rico BioBank (PRBB) Shared Resource of the Ponce Health Sciences University-Moffitt Cancer
Center (PHSU-MCC) Partnership collects, processes, annotates, stores, and distributes biospecimens and
clinical-demographic data for investigator-initiated translational cancer research. As of August 2022, the PRBB
has consented 4,097 subjects representing 42 different cancer types and healthy individuals. From these
subjects, 1,899 clinical history and demographic surveys were completed and 8,453 biospecimens were
collected. Tissues, derivative analytes (e.g., DNA/RNA), data, and tissue microarrays have been distributed to
research projects supporting publications and grant submissions. The PRBB contributed to the development of
a Biobanking clerkship for medical students in collaboration with the Research Education Core (REC) and
contributed to education efforts in H/L communities in both Tampa and Ponce in collaboration with the Outreach
Core (OC). Together with the Quantitative Sciences Core (QSC), the PRBB has consented 142 H/L patients to
the ORIEN-Avatar network (https://www.oriencancer.org) improving the representation of H/L tissues in this
network, dedicated to accelerating the discovery of novel targeted cancer treatments, that is currently only 7.2%.
The PRBB participates in international consortia including REBLAC (Latin American and Caribbean Biobanking
network), PRACTICAL (Prostate Cancer Association Group to Investigate Cancer Associated Alterations in the
Genome), LAGENO-BC (Latin America Genomics of Breast Cancer Consortium), the Latino Colorectal Cancer
Consortium (LC3), the Confluence Project for Breast Cancer Genetics. The objective of the PRBB is to address
the critical unmet need in cancer health disparities of a lack of representation of H/L patients in comprehensive
molecular datasets at levels that align with the prevalence of cancer in this population. The aims are: 1) Support
research projects by targeted recruitment of patients of selected cancer types along with non-cancer controls.
Recruitment is both broad to build a comprehensive database for future projects and focused on the currently
proposed full research projects in prostate and ovarian cancer. We will continue to optimize the logistics of patient
education and consenting at collaborating physician’s offices and San Lucas Hospital (SLH) and by maintaining
constant contact with Project PIs. 2) Support research by developing innovative resources and services. We will
focus on developing new research resources and services that can be rapidly accessed by researchers. This
includes building well-annotated tissue microarrays representing cancer types that significantly impact H/Ls
(prostate, ovarian), expanding molecular phenotyping (exomeSeq, RNAseq, ancestry) in collaboration with
ORIEN, tapping into the potential for identifying clinical trials that are matched to a patient’s molecular profile,
and leverage our emerging expertise ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10762079
- **Project number:** 2U54CA163068-11
- **Recipient organization:** H. LEE MOFFITT CANCER CTR & RES INST
- **Principal Investigator:** William Douglas Cress
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $227,999
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2012-09-24 → 2028-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10762079

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10762079, Shared Resource Core: Puerto Rico BioBank (2U54CA163068-11). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10762079. Licensed CC0.

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