Cores, Shared Resources & Support Offices

Established in 2013, the facility contains one of only a few pediatric biorepositories in the world accredited by the College of American Pathologists (CAP). As a requirement for CAP accreditation, a full quality management plan is in place, which includes quality monitors for operational aspects and quality improvement, with the design to remedy biospecimen issues as soon as possible. We are active members of ISBER (International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories) and is committed to helping foster collaboration, education, and training opportunities. Together, these activities promote best practices and improve sustainability.

The Johns Hopkins All Children’s Pediatric Biorepository safeguards access to specimens through diligent and scientific custodianship, while also minimizing risk to patient privacy and confidentiality. The decision to store or use biospecimens is an important one. The value of any request for advancing medical knowledge must be weighed against the irreplaceability of the specimen, as well as any ethical, legal or scientific challenges arising from the proposed research purpose. Access to biobanked specimens (defined as specimens available for future research by participant consent that are not committed to a specific study aim) is overseen by the Biospecimen Access Committee (BAC), consisting of physicians, scientists, Biorepository leadership, Institutional Review Board representative, ethics experts, and patient/family representatives.

BAC provides an independent review of requests for access to biospecimens stored in available biobanks and clinical remnant biospecimens and assures that the study proposal associated with each request has been approved by the corresponding Research Council of the primary JHAC Institute or Department with which the biobank is associated, the JHM IRB, and the IRB of record of the requesting investigator’s home institution (if outside of Johns Hopkins Medicine).

1. Review available biospecimens using the following link: Biospecimen Availability Portal(a JHED ID is required for access).
2. Complete a BAC Biospecimen Access Request Form BAC Biospecimen Access Request Form. To complete the access request form, you will need the following items:
   • IRB protocol number (IRB decision may not be finalized at this step, however the protocol must be approved prior to biospecimen release from the Biorepository).
   • Note: If specimens will be sent to an organization outside of Johns Hopkins Medicine, unless otherwise exempt from the JHM Transferring Human Biospecimens to Outside Organizations Policy, you must complete a JHM Human Biospecimen Transfer Information Sheet (Transferring Human Biospecimens to Outside Organizations). This link describes the policy and any relevant exceptions. You will submit this form within the eIRB portal when submitting your IRB protocol. In addition, this circumstance will also require a material transfer agreement (MTA) and an IRB approval letter from the requesting investigator’s home institution prior to release of any biospecimens from the Biorepository.
   • Funding support.
   • Requestor NIH biosketch or curriculum vitae (CV) summarizing key funding and publications.
   • Recommendation from the applicable Institute-Based Research Council, Institute Director, or the Department Chair associated with the biobank.
   • Biospecimen information (sample types, number of biospecimens, volume requirements, quality limits e.g., no hemolysis, and requested inventory IDs obtained from the Biospecimen Availability Portal).
   • Research Protocol (sharing background, hypothesis, specific aim(s), and methods).

Should the use of the Tissue-Based Diagnosis and Research Core or Biorepository and any associated biospecimens result in a scientific publication, please acknowledge accordingly. A simple example may be “we would like to acknowledge the Johns Hopkins All Children’s Pediatric Biorepository for sample support.” Publications are an important measure of our impact and help communicate biospecimen utilization to the public and our patient donors.