Biospecimen Processing Lab

Database Systems

The Biospecimen Processing Lab (BSPL) supports multiple specimen processing databases for the UCSF research community:


MBioLIMS and the Research Enterprise

Centralized biospecimen infrastructure & services benefits the institution, faculty, and research community by supporting high-quality data capture, system and data backup, and flexible reporting.

MBioLIMS is core informatics infrastructure for Biospecimen Processing Lab sample acquisition, processing, storage and distribution.

Use of this enterprise-class sample management system is included in recharge rates for specimen acquisition and management via the Biospecimen Processing Lab.

Benefits to Research Labs and Biobanks:

  • Integration with UCSF clinical systems - APeX integration available Spring 2023
  • System configurable to meet specific study design specifications
  • Ability to share study data with collaborators
  • Detailed auditing biospecimen lifecycle activities from collection through distribution
  • Ability to capture detailed annotations per sample
  • User friendly interface
  • Option available for independent sites for labs and biobanks that do not use BSPL for specimen acquisition and management or have robust specimen management needs


BioCatalyst

BioCatalyst is a first-of-it’s kind biospecimen search engine developed at UCSF which ties de-identified sample data to clinical and other data via system integrations and an honest broker operational model.

Current Status:

  • MVP feature set complete (search, export, save filters)
  • REDCap integration
  • Access to de-identified clinical data via OMOP integration
  • CSV import functionality in development
  • Single Sign On (SSO) integration

Roadmap:

  • Integration with MBioLIMS
  • Data Tolerance
  • Integrations with additional UCSF clinical and research systems