Bio Screening Facility

Case Studies

Case Study 1

Sample processing for the StemBANCC 5 year programme funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme:

  • Work Package 2 is tasked with robustly identifying, recruiting, clinically phenotyping and collecting tissue samples from subjects with defined disease and adverse drug responses as well as healthy controls.
  • A research team in CARU is involved on this multi-centre recruiting process.

Once participants are identified and recruited, the blood samples need to follow a standardized processing protocol prior to biobanking.

  • The clinical team approaches the Biomarkers lab regarding the implementation of this protocol.
  • The Biomarkers lab takes over:
    • Coordination with the biobanking lab on the fine details of: sampling, blood tubes required, standardized reagents and cell isolation protocol.
    • Cost associated and budget distribution.
    • Coordination with nurses in CARU regarding timing of the sampling, labelling of blood tubes and tracking documentation.
    • Samples are collected by the Biomarkers team from the CARU nurse to the lab for immediate processing of blood and cell isolation.
    • Cryopreservation, storage and final shipping to the biobanking lab.

Case Study 2

Translation of biomarkers from Ageing research onto other Clinical Research Areas:

The Biomarker lab was approached for its expertise on measuring inflammatory markers in humans to apply those biomarkers in the context of Pre-eclampsia and develop new ones (Myeloperoxidase).

Work carried out:

  • Assess IL-6 and TNA-alpha in plasma samples (N=190)
  • Test 3 possible sources of material for the measurement of Myeloperoxidase
  • Develop a Myeloperoxidase assay
  • Up-scale and increase the sensitivity of the method:
    • Higher throughput
    • Higher reproducibility
    • Minimal plate-to-plate variation
    • Capability to detect Myeloperoxidase in younger individuals

Case Study 3

Translation of biomarkers from humans to birds in collaboration with a Behavioural Scientist

The Biomarker lab was approached for its expertise in several areas.

Measuring telomeres in humans and whether we could also do it in birds

Work carried out:

  • Establish the type and amount of sample required and works out on test samples an efficient and reliable method to isolate the DNA from bird blood
  • Develop and improve a previously reported method on bird telomeres
  • Isolate DNA and assess telomere length at a large scale (N~600 samples)

Measuring inflammatory markers in humans on whether this could be done in the very small amount of material available from a large bird plasma sample collection

Work carried out:

  • Develop and validate the measurement of IL-6 in plasma from birds
  • Develop and validate the measurement of TNF-alpha on the same plasma sample
  • Measure both IL-6 and TNF-alpha on the whole collection (N>120 samples)
  • Contribute to manuscript final publication all the way from writing up the methods to replies to reviewers

 Genotyping regarding the possibility of using genomic methods for the sexing of the birds

Work carried out:

  • Test 3 different methods from previous publications on the genomic sexing of these birds
  • Develop and validate a method adapted from the previous ones
  • Evaluate the gender on a large collection of bird DNA samples (N~400)