An institution does not need a perfect commercial catalog to begin a partnership conversation. It does need a clear picture of what it holds, what is known about those collections, and who can assess their eligibility for research.
An inventory supports that discussion. It is not a substitute for the institution’s clinical, legal, or governance decisions.
Describe the collection at a useful level
Start with specimen types, preparation formats, indications, and approximate scale. For FFPE blocks and unstained slides, record preparation and available quantities. Identify matched tumor/normal pairs where available, plus associated digital slide images and clinical information.
Be explicit about what a count represents. Patients, cases, blocks, slides, and image files answer different questions. Where the count is an estimate, label it as an estimate rather than giving it artificial precision.
Separate known information from gaps
Record which attributes can be provided reliably and which would require review. Include the location or system holding the inventory and the people who understand it.
A useful first conversation can acknowledge incomplete data. It is more productive to identify a missing field than to imply that every specimen has an annotation that only exists for a subset.
Identify the review pathway
Establish who can assess collection eligibility, research permissions, clinical needs, retention obligations, and release conditions. Identify the applicable consent and institutional review board (IRB) approval or exemption documentation. Different questions may belong to different teams.
The NCI’s technical and operational best practices cover topics including biospecimen management and inventory tracking. Use the institution’s applicable policies and review process to determine how those topics apply locally.
Bring the operational questions into scope
Discuss who can check availability, prepare approved material, coordinate delivery, and respond when a requested specimen is unavailable. Commercial terms should account for the agreed responsibilities.
For an initial Biobase enquiry, collection-level descriptions are enough. Do not include patient identifiers. Explore the Healthcare Partners page or tell us the types of collections your institution holds.