[On-Demand Distribution of Tsukuba Human Tissue Biobank Center for Supporting Cancer Research]

The number of biobanks that distribute biospecimens are increasing rapidly, where tissues and blood remaining after surgery and tests are collected for the realization of cancer genome medicine. There is a large demand for prospectively collected biospecimens for the purpose of creating patient-derived cancer model from researchers. But, in general, retrospective biospecimens are destributed by biobank and it is not handled prospectively biospecimens. At the University of Tsukuba, we have started the on-demand distribution in which it is provided prospectively collected biospecimens that researchers require for their research in parallel with the retrospective distribution. The protocol for distribution of biospecimens will be prepared by biobank, and will be coordinated between the clinical doctor and the user by biobank. This makes it possible to provide biospecimens smoothly. On-demand distribution is a new providing style of prospectively collected biospecimens as biobanks, and is expected to promote medical and drug discovery research, including cancer research.