Aurora Health Care has received a $50,000 grant to help further enhance its Biorepository and Specimen Resource Center (BSRC), located at Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center in Milwaukee.
The grant is from Conversant Bio, an organization based in Huntsville, Ala., that works to improve human health by connecting patients, medical professionals and the research community to catalyze breakthrough research and novel therapeutic solutions.
The grant will be used to enhance all aspects of the BSRC, whose mission is to support the scientific community in the conduct of ethical, patient-centered research to ultimately improve clinical outcomes by using BSRC-collected samples to study a range of conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease, ovarian cancer and congestive heart failure.
As part of the grant, an advisory board of experts in the technical and regulatory aspects of biobanking, including key representatives from the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories and National Institutes of Health, will assess all aspects of the BSRC and then provide recommendations to help augment the center’s work.
“With the help of this grant, we aim to build upon the great work of our biorepository team and further maximize the research we’re conducting, which will, ultimately, help provide for better patient outcomes,” said Kurt Waldhuetter, vice president of Aurora Research Institute.
“Extending this grant to Aurora Health Care is a natural extension of our mission,” said Marshall Schreeder, chief executive officer of Conversant Bio. “We know that researchers should have quick access to samples, which is critical in changing health care and bringing about better patient care.”
