iSpecimen Creates Marketplace for Clinical Discards

iSpecimen (Lexington, Mass.) can be thought of as a cross between a dating site and an online marketplace for human biospecimens. The company has built a turnkey solution that connects providers, such as hospital systems, commercial labs, and biobanks, to researchers looking to gain access to these specimens and associated data from electronic medical records and other sources. It’s a win-win situation, with providers having a new market for both soon-to-be discarded and banked specimens, researchers more efficiently accessing needed specimens and rich clinical data, and patients getting a chance to make a contribution to research. DTET recently spoke to Christopher Ianelli, M.D., Ph.D., iSpecimen’s founder and CEO, to learn about the company’s business model, patient preferences for sample donations, and how biobanking is anticipated to evolve in the coming years. iSpecimen’s goal is to reduce research costs and procurement time, while ultimately hastening clinically relevant discoveries. What is the business case for iSpecimen? How do you deliver value to your partners and investors? "Instead of throwing it away, allow iSpecimen to identify researchers across the world who are asking for access to that material because it is perfectly useful for research endeavors." —Christopher Ianelli, M.D., Ph.D. Founder & CEO, […]