ABSTRACT – Biospecimen Core The Biospecimen Core is essential for the acquisition of all biospecimens, verification of “normal healthy tissue” diagnosis, processing and allocation of all tissue and associated biofluids/non-tissue specimens required for SCENT. Integration of multiple, well-established Duke institutions with highly specialized collaborative capabilities is a unique strength of this Core. We are a nationally recognized biorepository and one of the highest organ transplantations centers in the country. Biobanking activities occur in parallel with standard of care biopsies, scheduled surgical procedures, autopsies and organ donor procurements. The objective of this Core is to provide biospecimen services with exceptional quality control measures to enable tissue mapping of cellular senescence biomarkers in normal healthy tissues across the lifespan (fetal/perinatal to elderly). This Core will be led by a team with expertise in autopsy, organ donor and surgical tissue procurement. To accomplish our goals, we will work to 1) efficiently identify, procure and verify diagnoses of high-quality normal healthy tissue and concurrent biofluids/non-tissue specimens based on stringent criteria, 2) process high-quality normal healthy tissues for correlative analyses and 3) ensure quality assurance and quality controls for sample management, specimen tracking and biobanking informatics management for optimal banked tissue sharing for all SenNet funded institutions. Our long-term goal is to constantly evolve to meet the needs of our investigators, either through regulatory modifications, logistical modifications, additions to the service menu, or in creating solutions to challenging research problems.