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Welcome to the PrecisionLink Biobank for Health Discovery

Boston Children's Hospital (BCH) leads the Genomic Information Commons (GIC). The GIC is a multi institutional resource affording access to electronic health record data on millions of patients as well as prospectively enrolled broadly consented cohorts with genomic data and biospecimens. The GIC creates opportunities for investigators to conduct a range of genomics, biomarker, and epidemiological research.

The GIC web portal provides ready access through a browser to the aggregated genomic data, phenotypic data, and biospecimen metadata on prospectively enrolled, broadly consented participants across all sites. The portal is available to all Boston Children's Hospital researchers with up-to-date CITI training, and produces instant summaries of aggregate results, which then allows the user to request detailed, line-level data for either single or multi-site research projects. BCH investigators may choose to pursue only BCH populations with samples and data (in pink below) through the local PrecisionLink Biobank, or, collaborate with other participating sites on a shared dataset (in blue below).

3,284,372

BCH Participants

60,313

BCH Biobank Samples

32,812

Biobank Participants

7,924

Participants with Genomic Data

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15,114,302

GIC Participants

192,746

GIC Biosamples

148,583

Participants with GIC Research Consent

33,598

GIC Participants with Genomic Data

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The GIC Portal:

  • Provides access to genomic data, phenotypic data, and biospecimen metadata on broadly consented cohorts at Boston Children's Hospital and other participating network sites.
  • Leverages an inter-institutional patient population of diverse backgrounds with unparalleled representation across the spectrum of diseases.
  • Provides the ability to perform multi criteria queries - portal users can search for genomic data, phenotypic data, biospecimens and biospecimen metadata all within one query.
  • Catalyzes genomic research discovery for all diseases.

How to Access the Portal:

  • To request access to the Portal, fill out this request form to confirm your employment at Boston Children's Hospital and to confirm your CITI training is up to date.
  • A member of our team will be in touch once you have been granted permission to access the Portal.
  • Make sure you are on Boston Children's network or on Boston Children's full Virtual Private Network (VPN).
  • Log in here with your Boston Children's institutional login credentials.

Request Samples and/or Data:

  • Use the GIC Portal to build your cohort and create your dataset.
  • Engage collaborating PIs from sites that you wish to request samples & data from in addition to Boston Children's Hospital.
  • The lead researcher (PI) at the primary institution will fill out and submit the Sample and Data Request form via the GIC portal.
  • Once approved, release of samples and data from other participating GIC institutions will be de-identified and made available for data analytics via AWS ServiceWorkbench .

Enroll BCH Patients:

  • You can create a new informed consent form in which patients enroll in both your study and the BCH PrecisionLink Biobank. Our core lab then processes and manages biospecimens for you.
  • Simply fill out this form and indicate 'Set up of a merged protocol' to get started or email BCHBiobank4Discovery@childrens.harvard.edu.

Inter-Institutional Genomic Data, Phenotypic Data, and Biospecimen Metadata at Boston Children's and Other Institutions

Contact Us

Contact the BCH Biobank Team at BCHBiobank4Discovery@childrens.harvard.edu.

Contact the GIC at GIC-contact@chip.org

Learn more about the GIC