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Our History & Accomplishments

SingHealth Tissue Repository (STR) was formed in 2009 . Its role was to facilitate the conduct of translational and clinical research at SingHealth and Duke-NUS Medical School through its high quality fee-for-service biospecimens banking service. The biospecimens which are stored in STR today comprise tissues and body fluid (such as whole blood, plasma, serum and buffy coat).

STR operates under the management and oversight of the Director, who is a senior consultant pathologist. SingHealth Tissue Repository Advisory Committee provides independent advice to Director of STR on strategic matters relating to STR biobanking services.

STR further extended its biobanking expertise in the provisioning of tissue processing service through its Advanced Molecular Pathology Laboratory (AMPL) , which was set up in 2013, enabling STR to provide end to end services to researchers.

Since 2009, STR has collected approximately 24000 cases. As of 31st December, 2020, the available samples (by case) based on anatomic site is as below:



STR Supported Publications

  1. 15Dec2009: Cancer Therapy: Clinical. Clin Cancer Res 2009;15(24):7726-36. Title: Clinical Benefit of allogeneic Melanoma Cell-Lysate-Pusled Autologus Dendritic Cell Vaccine in MAGE-Positive Colorectal Cancer Patients
  2. Int J Cancer. 2014 Sep 1;135(5):1092-100. doi: 10.1002/ijc.28750. Epub 2014 Apr 3. Title: Intertumor heterogeneity of non-small-cell lung carcinomas revealed by multiplexed mutation profiling and integrative genomics.
  3. Clin Cancer Res. 2011 Jun 1;17(11):3542-50. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-10-2185. Epub 2011 Apr 26. Title: Genomic profiles specific to patient ethnicity in lung adenocarcinoma.
  4. 19Sep2011: Hepatology, Gut 2012;61:427-438.doi:10.1136/gutjnl-2011-300509. Title: Chemokine-driven lymphocyte infiltration: an early intratumoural event determining long term survival in resectable hepatocellular carcinoma
  5. 3Aug2009: Journal of Hepatology 2010 vol.52|370-379. Title: Inflammatory tumour microenvironment is associated with superior survival in Hepatocellular carcinoma patients
  6. 23Sep2013: Pubmed Journal, Title: ETV6 disruption does not predict indolent clinical behaviour in secretory breast carcinoma, Breast J.2012 Nov-Dec;18(6):604-6.doi 10.1111/tbj.12041. Epub2012Oct19
  7. 16May2012: Pubmed Journal, Title: The landscape of cancer genes and mutational processes in breast cancer. 16;486(7403):400-4. doi10.1038/nature11017
  8. 26Sep2013: Clin Cancer Research 2013;19-4477-4487. Published online June24, 2013. doi:10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-12-3401. Title: Identification of Circulating MicroRNA Signatures for Breast Cancer Detection
  9. Gastroenterology 2013;145:554-565. Title: Identification of Molecular Subtypes of Gastric Cancer with Different Responses to P13-Kinase Inhibitors and 5-Fluorouracil
  10. 12Oct12: BMJ Journals, Hepatology, Title: Chemokine-driven lymphocyte infiltration: an early intratumoural event determining long-term survival in resectable hepatocellular carcinoma. Gut 2012;61:427e438. doi:10.1136/gutjnl-2011-300509
  11. Analysis of colorectal cancer glyco-secretome identifies laminin -1 (LAMB1) as a potential serological biomarker for colorectal cancer Qifeng Lin1, Hannah S.R. Lim2, Hui Ling Lin2, Hwee Tong Tan1, Teck Kwang Lim2, Wai Kit Cheong3,4, Peh Yean Cheah5,6,7, Choong Leong Tang5, Pierce K. H. Chow8,9,10 and Maxey C. M. Chung
  12. Tumor-adjacent tissue co-expression profile analysis reveals pro-oncogenic ribosomal gene signature for prognosis of resectable hepatocellular carcinoma Oleg V. Grinchuk1,†, Surya P. Yenamandra1,†, Ramakrishnan Iyer1, Malay Singh1,2, Hwee Kuan Lee1,2, Kiat Hon Lim3, Pierce Kah-Hoe Chow3,4,5 and Vladamir A. Kuznetsov1
  13. The spatial organization of intra-tumour heterogeneity and evolutionary trajectories of metastases in hepatocellular carcinoma Weiwei Zhai1,*,**, Tony Kiat-Hon Lim2,*, Tong Zhang1,*, Su-Ting Phang3, Zenia Tiang1, Peiyong Guan1, Ming-Hwee Ng1,4, Jia Qi Lim1,4, Fei Yao1, Zheng Li1, Poh Yong Ng1, Jie Yan1, Brian K. Goh5, Alexander Yaw-Fui Chung5, Su-Pin Choo6, Chiea Chuen Khor1, Wendy Wei-Jia Soon1, Ken Wing-Kin Sung1,7, Roger Sik-Yin Foo1,8,** & Pierce Kah-Hoe Chow3,5,9,**
    .

Accreditation and Proficiency Testing

STR has obtained CTRNet accreditation. CTRNet Biobank certification program is a national initiative designed by a group of Canadian biobanks to address minimum standards in biobanking across Canada. Ultimately, the program’s objective is to increase public confidence in biobanks, minimize risks to research institutions/hospitals and improve the quality of biospecimens collected for research.

STR is also a member of ISBER (International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories) which is a global organization that creates opportunities for networking, education, and innovations and harmonizes approaches to evolving challenges in biological and environmental repositories.

STR subscribes to the following proficiency programs:

  1. ISBER (Tissue Histology, Extraction of DNA/RNA Extraction from Frozen Tissue, DNA/RNA Quality and Quantity Testing)
  2. CAP (IHC)