Pre-clinical research is a particular challenge, and one place to look for new efficiencies is in the procurement of a critical resource—human biospecimens—including biofluids (e.g., blood), viable cells (e.g., immune and stem), and tissue (e.g., tumours). Medical researchers require millions of these biospecimens every year. Demand is only growing for specimens because of the overall expansion of medical research in areas like genomics, precision medicine, and regenerative medicine.
Unfortunately, biospecimen procurement takes a lot of time, often more than anticipated. It can take months of effort for research organizations to cobble together the exact specimen collections they need to conduct their research. Researchers spend valuable time and money dialling the phone and exchanging emails to ask healthcare organisations contacts whether they have any of the specific specimens the project requires.
Read this article by Jill Mullan, Chief Operating Officer, iSpecimen that discusses how the biospecimen marketplace can increase efficiencies in biospecimen procurement and make it a more user-friendly process.