Blog
Plastic is everywhere, including our bloodstreams
June 10, 2022
Plastics are ubiquitous in the developed world, and scientists have long known that humans breathe and inadvertently eat microscopic fragments – equivalent, by one account, to a credit card’s worth plastic every week. Now, for the first time, Dutch researchers have proved micro- and nanoplastic particles from the environment end up in the human bloodstream. It’s the latest discovery affirming the importance of human biospecimens in advancing medical progress.
Hope Grows for Sickle-Cell Patients
May 19, 2022
One of the most compelling medical reads you’ll encounter is this New Yorker piece, “Are We About to Cure Sickle-Cell Disease?,” on the potential to actually cure patients who have sickle-cell disease.
A Case Study on Prospectively Collecting Tumor Tissue and Longitudinal Patient Data
April 19, 2022
Although you can learn a lot from cancerous tissue, you can learn even more when you have patient data to put the biology in context. That’s why one iSpecimen client, a U.S. cancer research and diagnostic company, ordered longitudinal patient information from iSpecimen to complement its request for ovarian cancer tissue specimens. The company needed […]
Reaching Across Continents: A Prospective Biospecimen Collection Case Study
Although we’re based in Massachusetts, our scope is global. That’s how we’re able to fulfill our mission: helping researchers get biospecimens they need from the patients they want. And that’s why we continue to develop a worldwide network of suppliers. They help us address the acute demand for human biospecimens, the increasing specificity of researchers’ […]
A Case Study: ‘Matched Sets’ of Biospecimens Give Researchers Deep Insights
A disease is an abnormal condition, and to fully understand it, you need to compare abnormal biology against the normal. That’s the concept behind the matched sets of human biospecimens that we provide to researchers around the world.
The real COVID-19 infection count is likely 2X
April 7, 2022
Something to think about at your next in-person gathering: The actual number of COVID-19 infections in the United States could be nearly twice as high as the reported case count.
Beauty and immunity: natural bedfellows
March 28, 2022
Looks do matter, at least when it comes to immune system performance, suggests a new study.
A Case Study in Finding Cost Effective FFPE Blocks
March 11, 2022
Some of the best values are hidden in plain sight, like Toyotas, index funds and refurbished electronics. The same is true in the biospecimen world. Let us walk you through it. We’re known by many clients for giving researchers access to millions of banked and clinical remnant samples through our online platform, the iSpecimen Marketplace, […]
Soon, perhaps, a blood test for long COVID
March 10, 2022
Why do roughly 1 in 3 COVID-19 patients experience symptoms lasting a month or more? And which newly diagnosed patients will develop so-called “long COVID”? Researchers may be approaching answers with the discovery that reduced levels of certain antibodies in the blood may help predict who will suffer long COVID.
A word about women in science
February 24, 2022
It’s been a good morning. I just read a great column by Harvard’s Kizzmekia S. Corbett, Ph.D., who led the National Institutes of Health team that designed and developed an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in collaboration with Moderna. And right before that, I came across news of another award for mRNA pioneer Katalin Karikó, whose research provided the foundation for two COVID-19 vaccines. One of many reasons these scientists inspire me is that they are women whose historic achievements constitute unassailable proof of their prodigious scientific abilities.
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