Gold Coast Biobank officially opened at Griffith University

Menzies Health Institute Queensland (MHIQ) has established a purpose-built biostorage facility at Griffith University’s Gold Coast campus, in an effort to better bridge the gap between translational research and clinical care.

The Gold Coast Biobank was originally installed at the university back in 2017 but has only now been officially opened. Already it has accumulated over 10,000 biospecimens that are available for research purposes, including over 3000 biospecimens from breast cancer patients and 1500 placenta cord blood specimens.

“Biobank is an important resource where people generously donate samples that allow us to carry out research to find cures for chronic diseases,” said Biobank Director Professor Nigel McMillan, with conditions such as breast cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer’s set to be investigated through the facility.

“Without this, we wouldn’t be able to find cures of the future.”

Other services provided by the biobank include:

• storage of biospecimens only (including space only hire or equipment and space hire)
• biospecimen storage with database hosting
• database hosting only
• full service ranging from protocol development, specimen collection and processing, to biostorage and database hosting and support.

These services are made possible thanks to next-generation technology housed at the biobank — including an automated biostorage unit known as ‘the Arktic’, which has the capacity for holding up to 100,000 specimens in a compact package, along with OpenSpecimen, a biostorage management system.

“With this state-of-the-art technology, we have the resources to improve the management of our existing samples and the capacity to take on new projects,” Prof McMillan said.

“MHIQ is committed to translating innovative health research into better outcomes and we are able to offer research collaboration for academics and clinicians whose work involves the collection of human tissue.”

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