Puerto Rico Biobank

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PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT In order to move closer to achieving the goals of precision medicine and individualized cancer care, participation in biobanking from large numbers of individuals representing all ethnicities is essential. The scarcity of tissues available at existing biobanks from racial and ethnic minorities poses a substantial constraint to conducting research needed to understand the biological basis of health disparities. Because cancer- causing genetic alterations vary across individuals and ethnicities, the practice of precision medicine requires knowledge acquired through the study of tumor tissue derived from individuals representing diverse populations. It is important to recognize that Hispanic/Latino (H/L) ethnicity is an admixture of European, African, and Amerindians ancestral genomes, the proportions of which vary widely across individuals from different geographical regions. Also, there are differences in cancer trends associated to cancer biology and admixture genetics among different H/L sub-populations. Despite being a large proportion of the ethnic minorities living in the US, to date, there has been no comprehensive availability of tumor tissue from H/L cancer patients in national biobanks. To address this disparity, we propose to continue to develop the existing research infrastructure of the Puerto Rico Biobank (PRBB) to support research initiatives designed to understand the biological basis of cancer health disparities. The purpose of the PRBB is to facilitate the optimal collection, processing, storage, and distribution of well-annotated human biospecimens derived from the island’s H/L population for use in investigator-initiated translational cancer research. Throughout the past 10 years, a solid infrastructure has been put in place to develop this unique biorepository in Puerto Rico. Through this resource, fresh frozen tissues, paraffin blocks, high-quality tumor-derived RNA, genomic DNA, and clinical and risk factor information are available to support research at both institutions focusing on molecular aspects and determinants of cancer health disparities involving H/L living in Florida and Puerto Rico. We propose to expand the existing Partnership’s biobank via three Specific Aims. In Aim 1 we propose to continue the collection, processing, storage, and distribution of biospecimens in collaboration with local hospitals and clinics. In cooperation with the Partnership’s Outreach Core, efforts to consent healthy individuals during community outreach educational activities will continue. In Aim 2, we propose to extend the documentation of demographic, clinical, pathological, and molecular data (‘omic’, ancestry, next-gen sequence data) in collaboration with the Quantitative Sciences Core. In Aim 3, we propose to foster new collaborative research projects focused on cancer research. As facilitator of translational research, the PRBB is placed at the forefront of the Precision Medicine initiative programmatic goals of improving disease risk prediction and developing diagnosis and treatment strategies based on individual differences in genes, lifestyle, and environment, focusing on a population that is under-represented in biobanks and research.