Indiana University became the home of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) biomarker repository in September of 2015. The newly renamed repository, named BioSEND, houses biospecimens collected as part of biomarker studies supported by the NINDS. The goal of BioSEND is to bank and distribute biological samples that can be used to identify biomarkers of disease susceptibility, onset and progression. These biomarker studies are focused on Parkinson’s disease (PD), Huntington’s disease (HD), Lewy Body Dementia (LBD), Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD), and other neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases. BioSEND currently banks a variety of biospecimens including DNA, plasma, serum, RNA, CSF, and saliva from 16 different studies.
