# BioRepository and Precision Pathology Center

> **NIH NIH P30** · DUKE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $176,055

## Abstract

ABSTRACT – BIOREPOSITORY & PRECISION PATHOLOGY CENTER SHARED RESOURCE
 The BioRepository & Precision Pathology Center (BRPC) provides patient tissue and blood-based research
support for the Duke Cancer Institute (DCI). Major service areas are Biobanking (BRPC broad consent, tissue,
blood and fluid sample procurement, processing, storage and distribution including for the BRPC’s patient-
derived xenograft (PDX) and primary cell culture (PCC) service lines, tumor enrichment through
macro/microdissection, DNA/RNA extraction), Regulatory (protocol review, scope of work creation, budgeting,
integration with broad consent if possible), and ImmunoHistology (traditional histology, single and multiplexed
immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, tissue microarray creation, whole slide imaging and image analysis).
Regarding the Biobanking service, the BRPC administers Duke’s largest broad consent protocol for specimen
collection for research, which is becoming the backbone consent for new microbiome initiatives and has
consented >4,700 patients since 2012. Of these patients, 17% are African American and 4% other non-
Caucasian, supporting research into cancers of underserved minorities. The BRPC also operates a College of
American Pathologists’ (CAP)-accredited biorepository of normal and diseased samples representing a range of
solid and hematolymphoid pathologies. Banking activities occur in conjunction with blood draws, standard-of-
care biopsy and surgical procedures and clinical trial-supported tissue acquisitions. BRPC prioritizes activities
based on instructions of DCI’s disease-site group leaders. Often a single biobanking event can simultaneously
supply multiple ongoing research efforts, prepare a PDX model, prepare PCCs, and stock the biobank for future
needs. BRPC biospecimens also are being used in Phase III of the NCI’s CPTAC project. The BRPC also serves
as the administrative and regulatory backbone for the DCI’s Personalized Cancer Medicine Initiative (PCMI),
which links genomic information, clinical annotation, and biospecimens. The gateway to the paraffin tissue
archives in the Department of Pathology, BRPC provides regulatory support, cohort identification, and
pathologist review for retrospective studies using those archives. BRPC rapidly retrieves and prepares patients’
paraffin archival tissue samples for submission to clinical trial sponsors. Finally, the BRPC provides specialized
tissue processing and experimental services including basic histology, veterinary pathology support for animal
models, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization assays, tissue microarray creation, tumor enrichment by
microdissection and laser capture microdissection, whole slide imaging and image analysis algorithms. BRPC
biospecimens contributed to the Cancer Genome Atlas Project have supported numerous high-impact
publications in Cell, Nature, Cancer Cell, and Cell Reports.
 In 2018, the BRPC provided services to 177 investigators, 58% of whom were DC...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9853589
- **Project number:** 2P30CA014236-46
- **Recipient organization:** DUKE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Shannon Jones McCall
- **Activity code:** P30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $176,055
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** — → —

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9853589

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9853589, BioRepository and Precision Pathology Center (2P30CA014236-46). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9853589. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*