BRIDGE Biobanking Facility
The Biobank Resource for Investigating Disease, Genes, and Environment (BRIDGE) is an institutional facility created to support biobank-related research at CUIMC. BRIDGE is designed to provide physical, data, and logistical infrastructure for both legacy and prospective biobanking activities, and utilizes state-of-the-art sample tracking and storage systems.
The central BRIDGE laboratory, located at the 168th Street campus on the ground floor of the Allan Rosenfield Building (722 W. 168 St.), is currently under construction with an anticipated Summer 2024 opening date. The state-of-the-art facility will feature a processing laboratory, staging space for sample delivery and processing, and secure storage in -80 freezers with multiple failsafes and automated retrieval systems. increase the research capacity of the medical center.
BRIDGE supports a number of major CUIMC biobanks, including the Columbia University Biobank (CUB), the Medical Center’s IRB-approved research study that allows for recruitment of all CUIMC-NYP patients into a longitudinal biorepository. Interim processing workflows and storage space are also available for projects that are already underway. To learn more about BRIDGE services and how they may be used for your studies, please see the pages below or contact the Office for Research.
Services
Recruitment and Enrollment (via CUB)
The Columbia University Biobank (CUB) provides large-scale participant recruitment and sample collection, processing, annotation, storage, and distribution services. In addition, CUB/BRIDGE provides users access to a centralized data infrastructure that supports the integration of clinical and research data linked with the stored biospecimens. The CUB has integrated across various department and disease focus groups to build a diverse, well-characterized repository of patient samples and data, available for use by any CUIMC investigator with appropriate approvals.
Sample Tracking and Management
OpenSpecimen is a web-based system that can track entire biobanking workflows, including including patient registration and consent, sample collection, processing, storage, and distribution. The BRIDGE technology team manages OpenSpecimen centrally, and can configure OpenSpecimen to serve the needs any lab or biobank at the Medical Center.
Sample Processing and Storage
For investigators who perform their own recruitment and sample collection, BRIDGE can provide sample processing and/or storage services.