Biomedical Research and Specimen Blog

Transforming human biospecimen procurement to help advance R&D and change lives

June 13, 2019

Although biobanks around the world have since amassed millions of human biospecimens, and valuable insights have been extracted from them, the biospecimen procurement challenge is holding firm. Recently, iSpecimen launched a survey of its own, recasting several questions similar to those included in the aforementioned OBBR survey, to take a pulse on potential improvements related to the availability of quality specimens.

Five Questions with Jill Mullan

June 6, 2019

Learn more about our Chief Operating Officer, Jill Mullan.

Gut and biofluid specimens might hold key to anxiety relief

May 30, 2019

Researchers in Shanghai reviewed 21 studies that looked at more than 1,500 people and found that more than half of those studies “showed that regulating intestinal flora can effectively improve anxiety symptoms.”

Woman practice CPR chest compressions on a dummy.

Blood samples help detect hidden risk of future heart trouble

May 23, 2019

A protein that has commonly helped doctors diagnose a heart attack could also be used to help predict heart problems years in advance. New research from Baylor University indicates that adding troponin I to a commonly used risk prediction model led to more accurate risk prediction for heart attack, stroke and heart failure hospitalization.

Researchers advance blood testing for chronic fatigue syndrome

May 16, 2019

One of the hardest things about chronic fatigue syndrome is the stigma—the notion that it just might be all in your head. Chronic fatigue syndrome afflicts an estimated 800,000 to 2 million Americans and has no known cure. Symptoms include malaise, sleep problems, pain, dizziness and difficulty concentrating. The diagnosis, when made at all, is typically withheld until other diseases are ruled out.

Researchers use blood samples to improve clinical trial matching

May 9, 2019

Finding the right clinical trials for very sick patients may be getting more precise and timely.Rather than enrolling patients in a trial based on their cancer type or a biopsy conducted months or years earlier, researchers in the UK recently used blood tests to get an up-to-date profile of genetic faults in the blood of 100 patients. In 11 cases, the researchers used the data to enroll them into an available “molecularly matched” clinical trial.

In case you missed it! Transforming biospecimen procurement webinar update

May 2, 2019

We dove deep into the biospecimen procurement challenge in our first webinar, “From Chaos to Control: Transforming Biospecimen Procurement,” which we conducted last Wednesday but have recorded for you here.

Machine-made data models improve predictions for premature death

April 26, 2019

Researchers analyze a lot of data about specific diseases to discover new biomarkers and better predict treatment outcomes.University of Nottingham UK researchers, however, have taken a wide-angle approach to data and disease, enabling computers to essentially teach themselves to better predict early death from chronic disease in a large middle-aged population.

Let’s get together online April 24

April 18, 2019

Join the Webinar ‘From Chaos to Control: Transforming Biospecimen Procurement’ Your research, your goals and your biospecimen procurement challenges are paramount, and that’s why we do our best to anticipate your needs on the iSpecimen Marketplace, in person, and here on our blog. Do you still have questions for us? Or are you new to […]

Human biospecimens + AI = new insights

April 11, 2019

Every human biospecimen contains a wealth of data – about patients, their conditions and the biological processes that the sample has undergone. Data is also the currency of artificial intelligence, which is streamlining discovery by crunching data as biospecimens are presented to computers.

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