One major component of the ITR core in assisting with human studies is the availability of biospecimens as part of the SHARE research program. The SHARE program includes more than 16,291 biospecimens on 1002 patients.

Available biospecimens include:

Whole blood DNA

Serum

Biopsy RNA

Biopsy DNA

Flash frozen biopsy specimens

FFPE tissues

Another major component of the ITR Core is the GENESYS Registry which has over 6800 patients recruited in all of digestive diseases. Of these patients, over 4400 have a diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The vast majority of patients in the Genesys IBD registry have established care at the UofC, as represented by patients with 4 or more return visits. The size of the Genesys IBD registry has enabled the identification of patients with rare IBD phenotypes.

These patients are catalogued in a searchable GENESYS database. Patients identified in this manor, can be queried for additional samples or to participate in additional studies. Incidentally, samples from the SHARE research program are also searchable in the GENESYS database.