Principal Investigator: Marta Castelhano

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): 

Improved translational research opportunities are greatly limited by the availability of high quality biospecimens. While biobanks offer access to those crucial samples, most of the efforts have been in the accumulation and quality of the biospecimens collected and not in expansion of its use. To bridge the gap between these core resources and its users, there is a need to increase awareness of existing biobanks and, at the same time, develop a network of user centric resources. While in previous applications our group has begun to document the extent and capacity of the veterinary biobanks we have available at the different COHA institutions, we now propose to increase visibility of those resources and optimize their use by translational researchers. Both aims of this grant will initially be tested between the four partner institutions (College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University, Colorado State University, Texas A&M, and UC Davis) and later expanded to include all COHA veterinary academic biobanks.