Neurosurgery BRIDGE Biobank

The Neurosurgery Biospecimens Repository of Intraoperative Patient Donations to Foster Collaborations Across the Globe and Enterprise (BRIDGE) Biobank serves as a conduit for the research activities of multiple laboratories across Mayo Clinic and beyond. Over the course of Dr. Quinones-Hinojosa's research career, countless team members have helped with this effort to give patients hope.

The collaborative effort spans multiple departments at Mayo Clinic, successfully banking patient tissue donations with the help of outpatient clinical staff, surgical teams, the Pathology Department, basic researchers, and the Biospecimens Accessioning and Processing Core.

The biobank consists of cancerous and noncancerous tissue specimens from adult and pediatric patients, human mesenchymal stem cells obtained from adipose tissue, cerebrospinal fluid, spinal disc tissue, blood and astrocytes. A bank of postmortem brain tissue supplements these specimens. So far, more than 12,000 intraoperative specimens have been collected from more than 800 patients. These specimens serve as a driving force for translational research efforts. Every patient who donates to this biobank becomes part of finding a cure.

Using human tissue collected from patients is the closest scientists can come to performing in vivo human experiments. Maintaining the tissue biobank is essential for such experiments. The Brain Tumor Stem Cell Research Lab has been able to foster collaborations with other academic institutions across the globe via the Neurosurgery BRIDGE Biobank.

Collecting intraoperative samples and maintaining the tissue biobank allows Dr. Quinones-Hinojosa's research team to preserve tissue and cell cultures to use in present and future experiments. The team turns the cell cultures into established cell lines for use in the lab and by collaborators.