Hamilton BiOS M10 Robotic Frozen Storage Unit for the Discover Together Biobank

Project Summary/Abstract This is a request for funds to purchase Hamilton BiOS M10 Biobanking automated storage system for the Discover Together (DT) Biobank at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC). The Hamilton BiOS M10 will dramatically upgrade DT Biobank’s ability to: 1. Increase space efficiency of our storage footprint needed for large scale Biobanking. 2. Dramatically improve DT Biobank staff efficiency in sample receiving and biospecimen request fulfillment by automating all biospecimen pulls from frozen storage and eliminating repetitive maintenance on a high number of stand-up freezer units. 3. Provide top level fidelity of biospecimens by avoiding temperature fluctuations associated with repeated freezer door openings and biospecimen storage box removals during the fulfillment process. 4. Augment our overall lab automation strategy to best position DT Biobank to support major programs with large sample sizes in pediatrics, rare diseases, and network studies both inside and outside CCHMC. All of the above will help DT Biobank, a shared facility at CCHMC, to support a wide variety and number of NIH funded research studies. The DT Biobank supports NIH funded research in two ways. First, DT Biobank is an institutionally subsidized resource that provides services for standardized and centralized acquisition, processing, storage, and distribution of biospecimens for many NIH investigator funded projects at CCHMC. Second, DT Biobank houses and distributes the Discover Together institutional cohort which consists of current and ongoing DT enrollment, the Better Outcomes for Children (BofC) cohort, and the Genomic Control Cohort (GCC). The DT institutional cohort contains DNA and other biospecimens from over 95,000 individuals, with associated clinical data available as a resource for research projects at CCHMC. In total, biospecimen storage for both CCHMC investigator projects and the DT institutional cohort amounts to roughly 900,000 frozen storage aliquots. DT Biobank will continue to accelerate biospecimen storage via ongoing enrollment into the DT institutional sample collection protocol as well as increasing the number of investigator research projects with the emphasis on larger research networks. Additionally, institutional incentives and policies are being created to push higher levels of sample storage and partnerships to DT Biobank. Upgrading efficiency in storage capacity and technician time management while improving the sample storage environment are necessities for planned growth of DT Biobank and our support of NIH funded research.