Access biospecimens to drive your research
Ontario Biobanks provides academic and industry researchers with streamlined access to a wide range of high-quality biospecimens from both human and animal sources. Whether you’re conducting foundational science, translational studies, or clinical trials, our network connects you with the samples and data you need: well-annotated, broadly consented, and ready for research.
Available Biospecimens and Data
We provide access to a diverse and well-characterized collection of biospecimens from adult, pediatric, and companion animal participants.
Our inventory includes:
- Tumor and normal adjacent tissues: FFPE and frozen
- Blood-derived samples: whole blood, plasma, buffy coat, serum, Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs), and more
- Other biological materials: bone marrow, urine, DNA, RNA, and more
Each biospecimen is accompanied by matched clinical data, with digital pathology images available for many cases.
Custom prospective collection of fresh tissue, blood, and other biospecimens is also available.
We also offer access to specialized collections, including:
- Longitudinal samples
- Rare cancer types
- Clinical trial cohorts
Available Services
Many of our member biobanks and their institutions offer services to meet your research needs, including:
- Prospective consenting and recruitment
- Tissue processing: sectioning, microdissection, tissue microarray generation, and more
- DNA and RNA extractions
- Sequencing
- Digital slide imaging
- Cryostorage
- And more
If you are in need of services to accompany your biospecimens and data, please let us know in the Start A Request form.
More information on the member biobanks’ institutional core facilities can be found below:
- Ontario Institute for Cancer Research Collaborative Research Resources
- Queen’s University Laboratory for Molecular Pathology
- SickKids Research Institute Core Facilities & Resources
- The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute Core Facilities and Platforms
- Unity Health Toronto Research Facilities
- University Health Network Research & Innovation Cores