March 3, 2020

Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM) is dedicated to responsible stewardship of human biospecimens obtained for clinical and/or research purposes. Any transfer of human biospecimens collected at a JHM facility must meet the requirements outlined in policy ADMIN015: Transferring Human Biospecimens to Outside Organizations (”Policy”). The Biospecimens Transfer Committee (“Committee”) oversees the implementation of the Policy and will review requests for biospecimen transfer to outside entities. Researchers seeking to transfer biospecimens should be aware of the following:

• All requests to transfer human biospecimens outside of the organization must be submitted to the Committee for review via a JHM eIRB application. Previously, researchers initiated their transfer requests through Technology Venture (“JHTV”) or the School of Medicine Research Administration office (“ORA”). That process will no longer exist. All investigators should now initiate any requests for biospecimen transfer with the JHM IRB, as an eIRB application is required.
• The Office of Human Subjects Research is charged with supporting the implementation of the policy and has a dedicated Biospecimen Program Administrator, Jessica Williams who is available to address questions about biospecimen transfer.

For more detailed information please reference the FAQs on the JHM IRB website at: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/institutional_review_board/guidelines_policies/guidelines/transferring_human_biospecimens_to_outside_organizations.html