The Harvard Biomarkers Study Biobank is one of the world’s largest biobanks for Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and related neurodegenerative diseases. More than 200,000 biosamples from 3,000 deeply characterized patients allow the discovery of new targets for drugs, new genes, and new diagnostics. Unique iPSC stem cell capability enables drug screening using patient’s cells with linked biomarkers, genomes, and clinical phenotypes.
Harnessing the power of collaboration
The biobank speeds up research for biomarkers from years to months at a fraction of cost. We believe that when we work together we can make progress, faster. Therefore, we now are making this treasure trove available to qualified scientists around the world.
Are you ready to make discoveries?
Apply for biosamples in three easy steps.
Biospecimens
Biospecimen processing protocol
Blood samples from biomarker participants are transported at room temperature to the Biomarkers Core laboratory for processing within 4 hours of blood draw. They are centrifuged and aliquotted into plasma, packed red blood cells, buffy coat and serum and stored at -80°. Samples collected in PAXgene tubes are transferred at room temperature to the laboratory and placed at -4° within 4 hours of the blood draw. RNA is processed within 3-5 days by the biospecimen manager using the PreAnalytix manual PAXgene blood RNA procedure. Cell lines are established and stored. CSF is available from a subset of subjects.
Clinical data
Clinical data collected for every enrolled subject comes from physician exams measuring disease activity and severity, study staff interviews, and self-administered questionnaires and includes medical history, medication use, risk factor data, family history of neurologic diseases, co-morbidities, smoking history and caffeine intake. Also included are standardized tests measuring quality of life, depression, physical and cognitive function.
