St. Joseph Medical Center to use newly purchased bio freezer for future disease research
Providence St. Joseph Medical Center clinical research associate Vanessa Vasco shows how bio-specimen samples will be stored in a new liquid nitrogen bio repository freezer at the hospital in Burbank on Friday, May 6, 2016. The freezer can hold about 40,000 samples, primarily for cancer research.
A new freezer at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center could help researchers uncover the cures to diseases more quickly.
The John C. Hench Foundation recently gave the Burbank hospital a $200,000 grant, and it was used by the Roy and Patricia Disney Family Cancer Center to purchase a repository capable of holding up to 45,000 specimens.
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The samples will be frozen at -190 degrees Celsius to protect blood and tissues so they can be examined and tested.
Providence St. Joseph Medical Center clinical research associate Vanessa Vasco shows how bio-specimen samples will be stored in a new liquid nitrogen bio repository freezer at the hospital in Burbank on Friday, May 6, 2016.
Three other hospitals within the Providence Health and Services network are also equipped with a bio freezer and will collaborate with each other to find cures for various diseases, said Dr. Raul Mena, medical director of the cancer center at St. Joseph.
“The oncology community and our institution will work together to push science forward,” he said. “We’re very proud of this and we’re very hopeful for the future.”
Mena said Providence St. Joseph Medical Center used to have a freezer that held research specimens, but all the samples were lost during the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
With consent from patients, the hospital will begin gathering blood and tissue samples from those who are suffering from any illness or disease and store them in the freezer to be used by researchers.
Mena said he thinks the freezer will have the ability to speed up the development of various medicines, so medical expenses could cost less in the long run and save more people.
“It theoretically may decrease costs because we’re not giving ineffective drugs to people who need medication,” he said. “This is the premise of why we want to do this. It’s part of our commitment as the Providence system to help the communities we serve.”
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Anthony Clark Carpio, anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com
Twitter: @acocarpio
