Gap/Need
Biospecimens are used for diagnostic, therapeutic, and epidemiologic
purposes. Millions of blood biospecimens are tested every day for a
wide range of biomarkers for cardiovascular risk/disease (e.g.
C-reactive proten, N-BNP, Cystatin C, Lp-PLA2, MR-proADM, and
MR-proANP), blood borne diseases (HIV, hepatitis, HTLV) and Ventilator
Induced Lung Injury (IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, TGF-b, INF-g, etc.). Similarly,
certain biospecimens (macromolecules, cells and tissues) are used for
therapeutic purposes to treat diseases. For example, a growing number
of individuals who survive heart attacks are being treated with
mesenchymal stem cells (Reed, Noga et al. 2009) in order to stimulate
repair of the damaged heart tissue.
Biospecimen procurers and users are separated by gaps, which are
typically both physical (different location) and temporal (different
time). The usefulness of a biospecimen is determined in large part by
our ability to efficiently preserve the critical biological properties
of the biospecimen (e.g. stabilization of the biomarkers) and its
function (e.g. for therapeutic purposes). Conventional methods of
preserving biospecimens were developed in the 1970's and there has been
little evolution in the techniques used to preserve biospecimens in the
intervening decades. As a result, today we are in a situation where we
have very limited knowledge, technology and resources (and thus we
fail) to successfully preserve the most promising diagnostic and
therapeutic biospecimens we have discovered to date.
