The ASPREE (ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly) clinical trial, commenced in 2010, provided the opportunity to establish the ASPREE Healthy Ageing Biobank from a large initially healthy, population aged 70y+ in Australia, leveraging from the trial infrastructure to enrol older participants in a cost-effective manner. A key feature of the ASPREE cohort is its strong representation from rural and regional areas of south-eastern Australia, with more than one-third of ASPREE participants living outside major metropolitan centres.
To support the participation of those living in regional and rural areas in the Biobank, we developed a model for taking biobanking to the people. Strategies were developed to enable biospecimen collection close to where participants lived whilst complying with study protocols. ASPREE ‘Biobus’ mobile laboratories were custom designed, enabling trained staff to collect, process blood and urine samples, and store them on site at -80°C in areas where laboratory facilities were unavailable. All ASPREE Biobank/biorepository procedures are based on quality standards approved by the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories. This decentralised approach to biospecimen handling enabled collection, processing to frozen storage of blood and urine samples within 4 hours, before eventual transport to the central biorepository for long-term storage. Biospecimens in the ASPREE Biobank, collected in 3 waves over 14 years, are accompanied by extensive, high quality health and clinical outcome data in this deeply phenotyped cohort of older Australians.
Our approach to supporting Biobank participation for those living beyond major cities has resulted in a unique resource to support ageing research in Australia – now representing multiple timepoint blood and urine collections from more than 12,000 people. With additional in-home collections of stool samples and oral swabs and the storage of tumour tissues obtained from pathology providers, the ASPREE Biobank provides a unique resource for ageing health research.