The NUH Tissue Repository (TR) is a well-established core facility with infrastructure in bio-banking and data collection. Its mission is to provide investigators with high quality clinical samples and associated data in a manner that is safe, efficient and ethical. TR ensures the harvesting, processing and storage of bio-specimens is in accordance with national legislation (PDPA, HBRA) and international best practices laid out by International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER), a leading global organisation that promotes and harmonises high quality standards, ethical principles and innovation in the science and management of bio-repositories.
TR provides a platform for investigators to access bio-specimen related research and bio-banking resource management services at a fee for service. TR freezer farms at offsite warehouses provide solution in business continuity planning, addressing unforeseen events such as natural or man-made disasters or equipment failure that may render parts or all of inventories unusable. TR’s high throughput automated liquid handler for processing liquid bio-specimen enables TR to support large scale multi-centres projects in bio-banking. These are all made possible through the support of a core of multidisciplinary team in consent taking, bio-specimen accrual, processing, quality control, storage, retrieval, distribution, annotation of associated data and management.