A regional leader in biobanking, the OHSU Knight BioLibrary advances medical research through the provision of quality biospecimens.

The OHSU Knight BioLibrary at Oregon Health & Science University is a CAP-accredited laboratory that collects, stores and disburses human biospecimens for use in research and test development.  Formed under the Knight Cancer Institute in 2011 and currently operating under the Knight Diagnostic Laboratories, the Biolibrary houses a large tissue collection that is focused primarily on oncology specimens, with some expansion into other disease areas. It also manages samples for multiple cancer registries and repositories, as well as archival materials from the OHSU Department of Pathology. 

The OHSU Knight BioLibrary is a research services organization with a mission to advance cancer research through the provision of human biospecimens.

In October 2012 the BioLibrary became the Pacific Northwest’s first biorepository to receive CAP accreditation. Our experienced staff continue to define and implement best practices by which biospecimens and related data are collected, stored and distributed for research applications.

 

Since the mid 1990’s OHSU had the foresight to collect and store oncology tissue for future research use, in 2014 the data for these samples were migrated into an advanced database system Biobanking Enterprise Management System (BEMS) a LabVantage product. Within BEMS there are over 50,000 samples with clinical and demographic data annotation. Beyond the samples that are banked within the BioLibrary we also have access to archival pathology materials which consist of more than 500,000 cases, approximately 3 million samples covering 230 anatomical sites.



Are you a research professional?
Research professionals unaffiliated with OHSU may learn more about our available services and how to request samples on our Research Services page.

Are you an OHSU patient?
If you are interested in learning more about how tissue donations are used in research please see our Donor Resources page.

Contact us:
Clients should send inquiries to: biolibrary@ohsu.edu

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The Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University is a pioneer in the field of precision cancer medicine. The institute's director, Brian Druker, M.D., helped prove it was possible to shut down just the cells that enable cancer to grow. This breakthrough has made once-fatal forms of the disease manageable and transformed how cancer is treated. The OHSU Knight Cancer Institute is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center between Sacramento and Seattle – an honor earned only by the nation's top cancer centers. It is headquarters for one of the National Cancer Institute's largest research collaboratives, SWOG, in addition to offering the latest treatments and technologies as well as hundreds of research studies and clinical trials.

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