Did you know that NHS Grampian has a biorepository? But what do they do?
A biorepository is like a library, which does not store books but biological samples. Our biorepository processes and stores samples from patients and makes them available for research. These samples could be blood, DNA, or tissue. Tissue can be a little piece of skin (or liver, intestine, lung, etc) and it is usually obtained when patients have an operation, for instance to remove a tumour. Samples are only stored from patients who have given permission to do so. The samples are either passed to researchers when they are fresh, frozen or embedded in paraffin. Paraffin is a kind of wax and the samples processed in paraffin can be stored at room temperature. The samples are available for local, national and international researchers. The team is also helping research by doing specialised laboratory tests on the samples they receive.
A biorepository has to be very good at organising, labelling and record-keeping, so they can always find the correct samples for the researchers.
If you want to find out more, you can watch our video on Youtube where Kristine and Nadine give us a short tour of the NHS Grampian biorepository.