The Vascular Surgery BioBank (VS-BB) is an IRB-approved, funded, physician-investigator led initiative that aims to collect, process and distribute human vascular specimens for scientific investigation. The VS-BB is conducted in a manner that embraces the highest ethical standards of human subject research, that conforms to the best practices of biorepository science, and that furthers basic, translational and clinical research in the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of the spectrum of vascular disease. Specimens and data from this repository will be made available to researchers from within and outside of our institution in a HIPAA-compliant fashion for scientific collaborations and co-investigations.

The aims of the VS-BB are:

  1. To develop a human vascular tissue and plasma/serum biobank that provides the needed substrate for scientific and clinical investigators to evaluate the root causes of atherosclerosis, intimal hyperplasia, aneurysmal degeneration and thrombosis.
  2. To maintain a centralized database of clinically relevant variables and co-morbidities for participating subjects to evaluate the influence of specific morbidities on vascular disease.
  3. To isolate cells, protein, DNA and RNA from specimens harvested from participating subjects.