Yesterday, we announced an expanded relationship with BioServe Network member Fox Chase Cancer Center, who will offer our clients next generation sequencing (NGS) capabilities.

As you know, performing NGS on our DNA samples provides our customers with a powerful solutions including – in the case of oncology – the identification and investigation of specific genetic changes, mutations, or copy number variations present in tumor vs. normal adjacent tissue. This promises to yield a treasure trove of clinically relevant information, such as:

Follow @bioserve on Twitter for insights, news and opinions that help your research.

Bioserve just added 40 new lung cancer tissue samples to our repository; this Wednesday we'll add 30 samples. You'd know, and your research would benefit, if you joined the conversation @bioserve on Twitter, where you'll get the latest updates on new inventory and the newest sample deals and discounts, plus insight and opinion on the role of tissue samples in your research.

Check out our inventory update page for the newest samples added to our inventory.

Now through November 30th, 2011, order any RNA samples from BioServe and fetch a 25% discount.

Our Global BioRepository contains RNA isolated from fresh frozen tumors from over 1,400 donors.  Each aliquot is analyzed for quality via Agilent’s BioAnalyzer.

Included in this collection are more than 500 “matched pairs” - RNA from highly-annotated tumor and normal adjacent tissue samples.  Cancer types include renal, prostate, pancreatic, ovarian, lung, liver, breast and colon cancer.  We also maintain a significant inventory of tissue RNA from inflammatory bowel disease and Crohn’s disease.

This offer cannot be combined with our 2011 Year-End Deal...

You didnt get the deal? Sign up for our Deal of the Month Newsletter (on the right sidebar) and we'll send it to you right away!

BioServe gave a presentation detailing the BioServe Network program at the 4th annual Biospecimen Research Network (BRN) symposium last week. 

Our poster was co-authored by members from each of the Network member institutions: Fox Chase Cancer Center, the Fairbanks Institute for Healthy Communities, UMass Medical School, the Windber Research Institute, and Maine Medical Center.  We generated a lot of positive feedback during the poster session on Monday night.

For me, the highlight of the BRN symposium didn't take place during the actual meeting however... 

Our president, Rama Modali is featured in the February 1st issue of Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN).  The article, entitled "Dislodging Personalized Medicine Logjams," can be found here:

http://www.genengnews.com/gen-articles/dislodging-personalized-medicine-logjams/3556/

Of course, we're biased.  But, we believe the article presents a compelling case for the use of high-quality, well-annotated biospecimens.  In fact, we believe access to such material will emerge as a key bottleneck to the full realization of the promise and potential of "personalized medcine."

One final note: the feedback for Rama's article wasn't 100% positive.  In fact, I gave him a hard time about it because I've been trying to get him to contribute to the BioServe blog for quite some time now - with no luck.  And, yet, when GEN calls, he's happy to whip out his pen...