Part of UT Health San Antonio

Institutional Biobank 

Our biobank aims at facilitating collaborations among investigators by offering access to a robust array of biorepositories across our institution and beyond, and by providing biospecimens and related data through a standardized request mechanism.

The Institutional Biobank is a member of The University of Texas System Health Biobank (UTHSB) Consortium. The consortium is a UT System Administration initiative designed to improve the health of Texans by providing a standardized biospecimen / related data search and request mechanism for UT personnel at participating institution.  UT investigators can browse biorepositories and tissue collections across participating UT System institutions and submit requests for biospecimens.

Investigators from non-UT System institutions should contact the biorepository of interest directly (see contact information below).

Each biorepository will obtain consent, collect, process, store and distribute its own tissues.

Ramiro Ramirez-Solis, Ph.D.
Director of Institutional Core Facilities
RamirezSolis@uthscsa.edu

  • Biobehavioral Laboratory Biorepository

    Biobehavioral Laboratory Biorepository

    The Biobehavioral Biorepository & Research Laboratory, housed at the School of Nursing, is a center of excellence for salivary science and biobanking. It serves as a one-stop shop for students and researchers for designing and conducting research studies involving biobehavioral methods.

    Sample types

    Biorepository: Blood, serum, plasma, urine, saliva, breast milk

    Contacts 

  • Center for Renal Precision Medicine Biorepository

    Center for Renal Precision Medicine Biorepository

    CRPM serves as a major resource for the national and international research communities, providing expertise in new technologies, hosting a biorepository of clinical samples for multiple types of analyses, and compiling and maintaining a bank of clinical information.

    Contacts 

  • Biggs Institute doctor holding a brain

    The Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer's & Neurodegenerative Diseases Biorepository

    The biorepository focuses on diseases that affect the central nervous system, including dementia, movement disorders, cerebrovascular disorders and neuromuscular disorders. It includes biospecimen along the brain aging and degenerative spectrum.

    Sample types

    • Biorepository: blood, cerebrospinal fluid (antemortem), DNA
    • Brain Bank: autopsy brain and spinal cord tissue (10% formalin-fixed and fresh frozen), tissue blocks, tissue slides, fibroblasts (derived from postmortem dermal tissue), cerebrospinal fluid (postmortem)

    Contacts 

  • Mays Cancer Center Biorepository

    Mays Cancer Center Biorepository

    The Mays Cancer Center (MCC) Biorepository processes, stores and distributes cancer-related specimens to support translation cancer research. The current tissue collection primarily contains genitourinary cancers including prostate, bladder, kidney, testicular and penile cancer; however, the collection is expanding to include gastric, colon and breast cancers. The repository has staff that can assist in recruiting all tumor types based on need.

    Sample types

    • Tumor and normal adjacent tissues: paraffin embedded, formalin fixed, frozen
    • Biologics: blood (whole blood, serum, plasma, PBMCs), urine (Progensa tubes, pellets and supernatant), stool
    • Nucleic Acids: DNA, RNA

    Contacts 

  • South Texas Aging Registry & Repository (STARR)

    South Texas Aging Registry & Repository (STARR)

    The South Texas Aging Registry and Repository (STARR) is a database and specimen resource of adults 18 years of age or older from the South Texas community who are healthy as well as those who have chronic disease. Participants who agree to be re-contacted will be matched with future IRB-approved studies which they are likely to qualify for based upon information provided by each STARR participant at the time of enrollment and which is gathered using provided samples. This will facilitate the inclusion of older adults in clinical research studies and help to accelerate and enhance the quality of research relating to them

    Sample types

    Biorepository: Blood (serum, plasma, white blood cells), nucleic acids (DNA, RNA), biopsy tissue (subaxillary skin, subcutaneous adipose tissue)

    Contacts 

    • Ramiro Ramirez-Solis, Ph.D.
      Director, Institutional Research Core Laboratories
      (210) 567-2059
      ramirezsolis@uthscsa.edu
  • University Transplant Center surgeon holding a tissue specimen

    UT Health San Antonio Transplant Center

    The UT Health San Antonio Transplant Center Biorepository collects, processes, stores, and distributes biospecimen from living organ donors, transplant recipients, and hepatobiliary resection cases. We include adult and pediatric populations.

    Sample types

    • Blood: Serum, plasma and buffy coats
    • Tissue Specimens: Kidney, liver, pancreas, bile duct, liver/pancreatic resections

    Contacts 

  • TBI

    UT Health San Antonio STRONG STAR Repository

    The repository supports local and national interdisciplinary and multi-institutional research focused on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and associated conditions such as traumatic brain injury (TBI), sleep disorders, chronic pain, substance use disorders, tinnitus, and suicide. It governs the collection, maintenance, and dissemination of clinical and research data, biological specimens, and neuroimages.

    Sample types

    Biomarkers: Blood, Salivary

    Contacts