The AgingResearchBiobank was officially launched in January 2019 with a mission to provide a state-of-the-art inventory system for the storage, maintenance, and distribution of de-identified biospecimens and associated phenotypic, clinical, and imaging data from numerous NIA-funded longitudinal studies and clinical trials on aging with the broader scientific community worldwide. It aims to foster compliance with NIH/NIA resource-sharing policies using FAIR principles and accelerate scientific advances to ultimately help extend the healthy, active years of life for the world’s fast-growing population of older adults. Approximately 15 collections of biospecimens and associated data from human studies are available. A collection from an experimental study conducted in rats is also available.
Currently storing approximately 3 million specimens in a state-of-the-art repository which includes more than 110 energy-efficient ultra-low temperature freezers and a recently acquired automated liquid nitrogen freezer. The biobank also houses laboratories equipped to support all required biorepository tasks, including sample aliquoting.
The data coordinating center and AgingResearchBiobank website are hosted within a Computer Center that complies with FISMA and is independently assessed at the moderate level. Multiple Authority To Operate memoranda (ATOs) have been issued by the NIH and CDC. The Computer Center is also used for preparing, storing, and distributing over 400 TBs of data and images.
See above under Description. Additionally, utilize the BioShare framework to develop a custom web system for searching and requesting de-identified human biospecimens, images, and clinical and sequencing datasets originating from these valuable clinical and longitudinal studies on aging (the vast majority heavily focused on chronic conditions).
This system stores the de-identified images and datasets from these studies and makes them available to the broader scientific community upon research application approval for secure download and use in conducting further promising research and analyses.
Resources (biospecimens, data, images) are available to qualified investigators/institutions worldwide through an Open Biobank Program.
Access to these resources is subject to a scientific review by a Biobank Scientific Review Committee. Following approval, access is also subject to the signing of a Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) protecting the rights of all parties.
Requests To Access Resources: https://agingresearchbiobank.nia.nih.gov/how-to-make-a-request/
Submissions for Deposit of Study Collections: https://agingresearchbiobank.nia.nih.gov/submit-datasets/
Fee for retrieval and shipment of approved requests available at: https://agingresearchbiobank.nia.nih.gov/costs/