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Due to the discontinuation of funding for the PCBN, we are no longer able to fulfill all new biospecimen requests. Please reach out to querypcbn@lists.johnshopkins.edu to inquire about specimen availability before submitting any new biospecimen requests.

PCBN Diagram

The Prostate Cancer Biorepository Network (PCBN) is a Department of Defense (DOD)/ Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP) bioresource that provides tissue and other biospecimens to all prostate cancer investigators. This biorepository is a collaboration between the Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the New York University (NYU) School of Medicine, The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), the University of Washington (UW), Washington University (WU), and the Department of Defense. The PCBN is organized with a coordinating center (JHU) and network sites at NYU, JHU, ICR, UW and WU.

The goal of the PCBN is to develop a biorepository with high quality, well-annotated specimens obtained in a systematic, reproducible fashion using optimized and standardized protocols. The PCBN derives its specimen resources from extensive, well-characterized patient populations with a long history of supporting clinical and biomarker research.

All specimens in the PCBN contain standard pathology data and a large subset of specimens are linked to clinical, pathology and outcome data, and supported by an informatics infrastructure. The types of specimens that are available include:

  • tissue microarrays (TMAs)
  • prostatectomy tissues (formalin fixed paraffin embedded and fresh frozen)
  • body fluids (serum, plasma, buffy coat, prostatic fluid)
  • derived specimens (DNA and RNA)
    PCBN Diagram