iSpecimen has launched an online, data-rich marketplace that supplies human biospecimens to life science researchers. Deemed iSpecimen Marketplace, the platform is the first-of-its-kind.
Millions of human biospecimens are available on the marketplace platform from healthcare organizations. With a multi-faceted search platform, biospecimens can be obtained in a more cost-effective manner.
Before the marketplace, biomedical researchers had to go through a time-consuming and expensive process to get biospecimens for research and development. They often had to go to biobanks, clinical laboratories and specimen brokers themselves to get biospecimens – and most of the time they come up short on their findings because of quantity or quality problems. With limited supplies, researchers have to step back on the work that they do.
The iSpecimen Marketplace intends to take away a lot of the work researchers need to do by compiling a list of partnering organizations that have specific specimens and organizing that list into a single, harmonized view. Partnering organizations include hospitals, labs, biobanks, blood centers and other healthcare institutions.
Researchers can quickly and easily search for the biospecimen they need and can narrow it down with a variety of specific information about the patient it came from including age of the patient. Users can also request other information about the biospecimen when requesting a quote for the desired biospecimens.
“Providing specimens through the iSpeciment Marketplace generates value for us on multiple levels,” said Amer Abouhamze, assistant director of the CTSI Biorepository at the University of Florida, in a press release. “It allows us to reach thousands of scientists who are in need of high-quality biospecimens, providing us with an excellent method to more easily fulfill our research mission. It allows us to ensure the utilization of biospecimens as quickly as possible after procurement in order to accelerate translational research. And finally, it gives us insight into our own inventory as well as the whole iSpecimen partner network to bolster internal research programs within the university.”
Almost 1 million specimens like biofluids, solid tissue and cells are available on the iSpecimen Marketplace from a variety of biorepositories in the partner network. The company plans to add millions of clinical remnants and research-use-only samples to the marketplace soon. The research-use-only samples are collected with consent from the patients that is required by law and with institutional review board oversight.
The iSpecimen Marketplace also has automated fulfillment and procurement processes that can help direct specimen selection, packing and shipping.
“A diverse and ready supply of biospecimens is critical to accelerating research,” said Christopher Ianelli, found and CEO of iSpeciment. “New diagnostics and treatments will only be as precise as the research work behind it. Our job is to close the gap between the research and provider communities by matching highly refined specimen requests to organizations that can fulfill them. We’re like a kayak.com for biospecimen research, making sure these critical connections are made.”
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