Associate Director: Anil Vachani, MD, MSCE
The CEET Virtual Biorepository includes: (1) a data management interface that accesses diverse data sources at Penn and provides point-of-contact information to CEET investigators on biospecimen availability and subject characteristics; (2) state-of-the-art approaches to biospecimen preparation, characterization, quality assurance and curation; and (3) incorporation of siloed individual repositories.
Samples and data currently available include those that support each of the CEET thematic areas:
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- The Registry for Airways Disease Research (RADR), which is a registry for asthma, COPD and healthy smoking and non-smoking subjects; and the Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) Registry supports the Air-Pollution & Lung Health theme.
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- The Philadelphia Lung Cancer Study on Gene Environment Interactions (Plus-Gene), a three-center study of non-small cell lung cancer and controls, and the Asbestos Exposure Cohort which will include individuals from the Philadelphia Insulators and Asbestos Workers Union who have undergone a chest CT for evaluation of asbestos-associated pulmonary disease and have provided a blood sample supports the Environmental Exposures & Cancer theme.
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- The Amniocyte/Amniocentesis Repository and the Pre-Term Birth Registry, which includes samples of maternal blood, chorion, amnion, placenta, decidua, fetal blood, and myometrium from the uterine fundus obtained during cesarean delivery from women with four complementary phenotypes: delivering preterm with (PL) and without labor (PNL), term with (TL) and without labor (TNL) supports the Windows-of-Susceptibility theme.
- The Neurodegenerative Disease Biobank, which includes samples from > 15,000 individuals including Alzheimer’s Disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), frontotemporal dementia, and Parkinson’s Disease supports the Environmental Neuroscience theme.