Biofluids Repository Core

The Biofluids Repository Core (BRC) provides centralized, high-quality biospecimen acquisition, processing, storage, and profiling services in support of basic, translational, and clinical research. As a core resource for the Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center (DLDCCC), and serving investigators across Baylor College of Medicine and the Texas Medical Center (TMC), the BRC operates within a CAP-accredited biobanking framework to ensure standardized workflows, regulatory compliance, and full sample traceability.

The BRC was formed through the strategic integration of the Texas Heart Institute Biorepository & Biospecimen Profiling Core with Baylor College of Medicine’s former Population Sciences Biorepository. This merger brought together complementary expertise and infrastructure, significantly expanding storage capacity, quality systems, and analytical capabilities. As a result, the BRC now offers enhanced in-house profiling services—including multi-cytokine quantification using multiplex assay platforms and exosome isolation and characterization—enabling more integrated study workflows and reducing reliance on external vendors.

In close coordination with the Human Tissue Acquisition and Pathology (HTAP) Core, our biorepository ecosystem delivers an integrated, end-to-end biobanking solution for studies involving both biofluids and tissue, positioning investigators to accelerate discovery with confidence. 

Our Services

The Biofluids Repository Core (BRC) offers comprehensive support for biospecimen-based research, including study consultation, protocol development, and coordinated specimen acquisition. Services include standardized processing and storage of biofluids (e.g., plasma, serum, whole blood, PBMCs, bronchoalveolar lavage, cerebrospinal fluid, and specialized clinical samples), long-term storage in continuously monitored −80 °C and liquid nitrogen vapor-phase systems, and full inventory management with chain-of-custody tracking.

The BRC also provides biospecimen profiling services such as cytokine assays (ELISA, multiplex assays) and customized sample collection kit building and logistics for multi-site studies. The BRC may have the capability to perform other assays upon request, including microRNA analysis, exosome isolation, and PBMC-based functional assays. Please consult with the core director for any sample processing needs required for your study. Through close integration with HTAP, the BRC supports scalable, regulatory-ready biobanking solutions for investigator-initiated studies, clinical trials, and collaborative research programs.

Recruitment Protocol

The BRC maintains an active recruitment protocol enrolling patients with the diagnoses listed in the table below. Investigators interested in developing projects using these samples are encouraged to contact the BRC Director to discuss specimen availability and the process for accessing these resources.

Gage AT, Stone JR, Wilde EA, McCauley SR, Welsh RC, Mugler JP 3rd, Tustison N, Avants B, Whitlow CT, Lancashire L, Bhatt SD, Haas M. Normative Neuroimaging Library: Designing a Comprehensive and Demographically Diverse Dataset of Healthy Controls to Support Traumatic Brain Injury Diagnostic and Therapeutic Development. J Neurotrauma. 2024 Dec;41(23-24):2497-2512. doi: 10.1089/neu.2024.0128. Epub 2024 Sep 5. PMID: 39235436.

El-Serag HB, Thrift AP, Duong H, Ning J, Khaderi S, Singal AG, Asrani SK, Marrero JA, Powell H, Rizwan K, Najjar O, Amos CI, Luster M, Al-Sarraj A, Salem E, Scheurer ME, Chhatwal J, Kaochar S, Kanwal F. Serum levels of total bile acids are associated with an increased risk of HCC in patients with cirrhosis. Hepatol Commun. 2024 Oct 10;8(11):e0545. doi: 10.1097/HC9.0000000000000545. PMID: 39652379; PMCID: PMC11469875.

El-Serag HB, Jin Q, Tayob N, Salem E, Luster M, Alsarraj A, Khaderi S, Singal AG, Marrero JA, Asrani SK, Kanwal F. HES V2.0 outperforms GALAD for detection of HCC: A phase 3 biomarker study in the United States. Hepatology. 2025 Feb 1;81(2):465-475. doi: 10.1097/HEP.0000000000000953. Epub 2024 Jun 19. PMID: 38899967; PMCID: PMC11655698.

Thrift AP, Kanwal F, Lim H, Duong H, Liu Y, Singal AG, Khaderi S, Asrani SK, Amos CI, El-Serag HB. PNPLA3, Obesity, and Heavy Alcohol Use in Cirrhosis Patients May Exert a Synergistic Increase Hepatocellular Carcinoma Risk. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2024 Sep;22(9):1858-1866.e4. doi: 10.1016/j.cgh.2024.04.006. Epub 2024 May 9. PMID: 38729396; PMCID: PMC11615715.

Powell H, Coarfa C, Ruiz-Echartea E, et al. Differences in Prediagnostic Serum Metabolomic and Lipidomic Profiles Between Cirrhosis Patients with and without Incident Hepatocellular Carcinoma. J Hepatocell Carcinoma. 2024;11:1699-1712. Published 2024 Sep 7. doi:10.2147/JHC.S474010
Lim H, El-Serag HB, Luster M, Grove ML, Byun J, Jung Y, Han Y, Boerwinkle E, Amos CI, Thrift AP. DNA Methylation Profile in Buffy Coat Identifies Methylation Differences Between Cirrhosis with and Without Hepatocellular Carcinoma. Cancers (Basel). 2025 Jan 15;17(2):266. doi: 10.3390/cancers17020266. PMID: 39858049; PMCID: PMC11763440.

Byun J, Han Y, Choi J, Sun R, Shaw VR, Zhu C, Xiao X, Lusk C, Badr H, Lee HS, Jang HJ, Li Y, Lim H, Long E, Liu Y, Kachuri L, Walsh KM, Wiencke JK, Albanes D, Lam S, Tardon A, Neuhouser ML, Barnett MJ, Chen C, Bojesen S, Brenner H, Landi MT, Johansson M, Risch A, Wichmann HE, Bickeböller H, Christiani DC, Rennert G, Arnold S, Field JK, Shete S, Le Marchand L, Liu G, Andrew AS, Zienolddiny S, Grankvist K, Johansson M, Caporaso N, Taylor F, Lazarus P, Schabath MB, Aldrich MC, Patel A, Lin X, Zanetti KA, Harris CC, Chanock S, McKay J, Schwartz AG, Hung RJ, Amos CI; INTEGRAL-ILCCO Consortium. Genome-wide association study for lung cancer in 6531 African Americans reveals new susceptibility loci. Hum Mol Genet. 2025 May 8:ddaf059. doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddaf059. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40341939.

Millstein J, Rassekh SR, Brown AL, Nie Q, Esbenshade AJ, Knight KR, Scheurer ME, Sung L, Brooks B, Moke DJ, Ross CJD, Wright M, Mena V, Rushing T, Carleton BC, Orgel E. Development and Validation of a Novel Prediction Model for Hearing Loss From Cisplatin Chemotherapy. J Clin Oncol. 2025 May 5:JCO2401861. doi: 10.1200/JCO-24-01861. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40324146.

Zobeck M, Khan J, Venkatramani R, Okcu MF, Scheurer ME, Lupo PJ. Improving Individualized Rhabdomyosarcoma Prognosis Predictions Using Somatic Molecular Biomarkers. JCO Precis Oncol. 2025 Feb;9:e2400556. doi: 10.1200/PO-24-00556. Epub 2025 Feb 6. PMID: 39913888; PMCID: PMC11801453.

Li JS, Riggins K, Yang L, Chen C, Castro P, Alfarkh W, Zarrin-Khameh N, Scheurer ME, Creighton CJ, Musher B, Li W, Shen L. DNA methylation profiling at base-pair resolution reveals unique epigenetic features of early-onset colorectal cancer in underrepresented populations. Clin Epigenetics. 2025 Jan 22;17(1):11. doi: 10.1186/s13148-025-01817-z. PMID: 39844333; PMCID: PMC11753045.

Langie J, Chan TF, Yang W, Kang AY, Morimoto L, Stram DO, Mancuso N, Ma X, Metayer C, Lupo PJ, Rabin KR, Scheurer ME, Wiemels JL, Yang JJ, de Smith AJ, Chiang CWK. The impact of Indigenous American-like ancestry on risk of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in Hispanic/Latino children. medRxiv [Preprint]. 2025 Jan 15:2025.01.14.25320563. doi: 10.1101/2025.01.14.25320563. PMID: 39867407; PMCID: PMC11759616.

Harris RD, Taylor OA, Gramatges MM, Hughes AE, Zobeck M, Pruitt S, Bernhardt MB, Chavana A, Huynh V, Ludwig K, Klesse L, Heym K, Griffin T, Erana R, Bernini JC, Choi A, Ohno Y, Richard MA, Morrison AC, Chen H, Yu B, Lupo PJ, Rabin K, Scheurer ME, Brown AL. Evaluation of methotrexate Pharmacogenomic variation to predict acute neurotoxicity in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Pharmacotherapy. 2025 Jan;45(1):4-11. doi: 10.1002/phar.4638. Epub 2024 Dec 29. PMID: 39734275; PMCID: PMC11806518.

He Q, Wang W, Ma J; GLIOGENE Consortium. Length of phone use and glioma risk: a Mendelian randomization study. Int J Surg. 2024 Aug 1;110(8):5254-5255. doi: 10.1097/JS9.0000000000001563. PMID: 39143715; PMCID: PMC11326033.

Hassan MM, Li D, Han Y, Byun J, Hatia RI, Long E, Choi J, Kelley RK, Cleary SP, Lok AS, Bracci P, Permuth JB, Bucur R, Yuan JM, Singal AG, Jalal PK, Ghobrial RM, Santella RM, Kono Y, Shah DP, Nguyen MH, Liu G, Parikh ND, Kim R, Wu HC, El-Serag H, Chang P, Li Y, Chun YS, Lee SS, Gu J, Hawk E, Sun R, Huff C, Rashid A, Amin HM, Beretta L, Wolff RA, Antwi SO, Patt Y, Hwang LY, Klein AP, Zhang K, Schmidt MA, White DL, Goss JA, Khaderi SA, Marrero JA, Cigarroa FG, Shah PK, Kaseb AO, Roberts LR, Amos CI. Genome-wide association study identifies high-impact susceptibility loci for HCC in North America. Hepatology. 2024 Jul 1;80(1):87-101. doi: 10.1097/HEP.0000000000000800. Epub 2024 Feb 20. PMID: 38381705; PMCID: PMC11191046.

Vong KI, Lee S, Au KS, Crowley TB, Capra V, Martino J, Haller M, Araújo C, Machado HR, George R, Gerding B, James KN, Stanley V, Jiang N, Alu K, Meave N, Nidhiry AS, Jiwani F, Tang I, Nisal A, Jhamb I, Patel A, Patel A, McEvoy-Venneri J, Barrows C, Shen C, Ha YJ, Howarth R, Strain M, Ashley-Koch AE, Azam M, Mumtaz S, Bot GM, Finnell RH, Kibar Z, Marwan AI, Melikishvili G, Meltzer HS, Mutchinick OM, Stevenson DA, Mroczkowski HJ, Ostrander B, Schindewolf E, Moldenhauer J, Zackai EH, Emanuel BS, Garcia-Minaur S, Nowakowska BA, Stevenson RE, Zaki MS, Northrup H, McNamara HK, Aldinger KA, Phelps IG, Deng M, Glass IA; Spina Bifida Sequencing Consortium‡; Morrow B, McDonald-McGinn DM, Sanna-Cherchi S, Lamb DJ, Gleeson JG. Risk of meningomyelocele mediated by the common 22q11.2 deletion. Science. 2024 May 3;384(6695):584-590. doi: 10.1126/science.adl1624. Epub 2024 May 2. PMID: 38696583

Martin-Giacalone BA, Li H, Scheurer ME, Casey DL, Dugan-Perez S, Marquez-Do DA, Muzny D, Gibbs RA, Barkauskas DA, Hall D, Stewart DR, Schiffman JD, McEvoy MT, Khan J, Malkin D, Linardic CM, Crompton BD, Shern JF, Skapek SX, Venkatramani R, Hawkins DS, Sabo A, Plon SE, Lupo PJ. Germline Genetic Testing and Survival Outcomes Among Children With Rhabdomyosarcoma: A Report From the Children's Oncology Group. JAMA Netw Open. 2024 Mar 4;7(3):e244170. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.4170. PMID: 38546643; PMCID: PMC10979319

Mouat JS, Li S, Myint SS, Laufer BI, Lupo PJ, Schraw JM, Woodhouse JP, de Smith AJ, LaSalle JM. Epigenomic signature of major congenital heart defects in newborns with Down syndrome. Hum Genomics. 2023 Oct 6;17(1):92. doi:10.1186/s40246-023-00540-1. PMID: 37803336; PMCID: PMC10559462

Sisoudiya SD, Mishra P, Li H, Schraw JM, Scheurer ME, Salvi S, Doddapaneni H, Muzny D, Mitchell D, Taylor O, Sabo A, Lupo PJ, Plon SE. Identification of USP9X as a leukemia susceptibility gene. Blood Adv. 2023 Aug 22;7(16):4563-4575. doi: 10.1182/bloodadvances.2023009814. PMID: 37289514; PMCID: PMC10425687

Brown AL, Sok P, Raghubar KP, Lupo PJ, Richard MA, Morrison AC, Yang JJ, Stewart CF, Okcu MF, Chintagumpala MM, Gajjar A, Kahalley LS, Conklin H, Scheurer ME. Genetic susceptibility to cognitive decline following craniospinal irradiation for pediatric central nervous system tumors. Neuro Oncol. 2023 Sep 5;25(9):1698-1708. doi: 10.1093/neuonc/noad072. PMID: 37038335; PMCID:

Gu J, Chery L, González GMN, Huff C, Strom S, Jones JA, Griffith DP, Canfield SE, Wang X, Huang X, Roberson P, Meng QH, Troncoso P, Ittmann M, Covinsky M, Scheurer M, Irizarry Ramirez M, Pettaway CA. A west African ancestry-associated SNP on 8q24 predicts a positive biopsy in African American men with suspected prostate cancer following PSA screening. Prostate. 2024 May;84(7):694-705. doi: 10.1002/pros.24686. Epub 2024 Mar 13. PMID: 38477020.

El-Serag H, Kanwal F, Ning J, Powell H, Khaderi S, Singal AG, Asrani S, Marrero JA, Amos CI, Thrift AP, Luster M, Alsarraj A, Olivares L, Skapura D, Deng J, Salem E, Najjar O, Yu X, Duong H, Scheurer ME, Ballantyne CM, Kaochar S. Serum biomarker signature is predictive of the risk of hepatocellular cancer in patients with cirrhosis. Gut. 2024 Feb 16:gutjnl-2024-332034. doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2024-332034. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38365278.

Kanwal F, Khaderi S, Singal AG, Marrero JA, Asrani SK, Amos CI, Thrift AP, Kramer JR, Yu X, Cao Y, Luster M, Al-Sarraj A, Ning J, El-Serag HB. Risk Stratification Model for Hepatocellular Cancer in Patients With Cirrhosis. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2023 Dec;21(13):3296-3304.e3. doi: 10.1016/j.cgh.2023.04.019. Epub 2023 Apr 30. PMID: 37390101; PMCID: PMC10661677.9:9

Thrift AP, Kanwal F, Liu Y, Khaderi S, Singal AG, Marrero JA, Loo N, Asrani SK, Luster M, Al-Sarraj A, Ning J, Tsavachidis S, Gu X, Amos CI, El-Serag HB. Risk stratification for hepatocellular cancer among patients with cirrhosis using a hepatic fat polygenic risk score. PLoS One. 2023 Feb 28;18(2):e0282309. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0282309. PMID: 36854015; PMCID: PMC9974109.

Symanski E, Whitworth KW, Mendez-Figueroa H, Aagaard KM, Moussa I, Alvarez J, Chardon Fabian A, Kannan K, Walker CL, Coarfa C, Suter MA, Salihu HM. The Maternal and Infant Environmental Health Riskscape study of perinatal disparities in greater Houston: rationale, study design and participant profiles. Front Reprod Health. 2024 Apr 22;6:1304717. doi: 10.3389/frph.2024.1304717. PMID: 38712340; PMCID: PMC11070492.