Partners HealthCare Biobank

The availability of high-quality, affordable human samples is core to the mission of Partners HealthCare Personalized Medicine. The Partners HealthCare Biobank is a large research data and sample repository. It provides researchers access to high-quality, consented samples to help foster research, advance our understanding of the causes of common diseases, and advance the practice of medicine.

Data quality is only as good as the raw materials. By using consented, annotated, and high quality samples, investigators can generate high-quality data that advances personalized genetic medicine.

Our information technology team makes the process simple and seamless by maintaining a network that collects, tracks, queries for, and distributes samples to Partners investigators across the enterprise.

Learn more about how the Partners Biobank can help advance your research goals:

Consented Blood Samples

The Partners Biobank provides banked samples (plasma, serum, and DNA) collected from consented patients. These samples are available for distribution to Partners HealthCare investigators with appropriate approval from the Partners Institutional Review board (IRB). They are linked to clinical data from the Electronic Medical Record, as well as some additional health information collected by our team. To date, more than 80,000 patients have consented to join the Partners Biobank at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), McLean Hospital (MCL), and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital (SRH).

Genomic Data

The Partners Biobank is genotyping 50,000 of the Biobank's consented patients and genotype data for ~15,000 subjects is available now. The remaining ~35,000 subjects will be genotyped over the next two years. Samples have been genotyped using two versions of the biobank SNP array offered by Illumina that is designed to capture the diversity of genetic backgrounds across the globe.

Crimson Clinical Discards

Through its affiliation with the Crimson Cores maintained in the BWH and MGH Pathology Departments, the Partners Biobank provides investigators with blood samples that were discarded after clinical testing. These samples may be collected based on cohorts of patients that are developed in the Research Patient Data Repository (RPDR). They may also be collected based on clinical test results. Non-consented samples are set aside from the clinical sample flow prior to discard, and both the samples and the related data are fully anonymized. Investigators can also utilize Crimson to collect discards from consented subjects from the Partners Biobank, or from their own consented cohorts that may be linked to identifiable data.

Sample Processing Services

The Partners Biobank provides sample handling and preparation resources to investigators in the Partners research community. Our goal is to efficiently and cost-effectively process specimens, enabling the generation of high-quality data via downstream processes.

Partners Biobank services include sample selection and related shipment prep to forward samples to both on-site Core lab at Partners Personalized Medicine or off-site labs and facilities, such as the Broad Institute.