Hi,

probably you may try to get ethic permission to establish a "tissue biobank repository" (I assume you will receive human specimens quite often). You may need some dedicated funding to support the collection process (a dedicated liquid nitrogen or -80 refrigerator, general administrative costs..etc).  We are doing something similar here.

Indeed, it may represent an interesting resource for research (availability of normal/disease specimens) for your lab and potential collaborators. In terms of grant applications it should impact very well and potentiate the chances of getting funded. I suggest to contact your administration/office of research to get support during the process. Hope this may help.

Best Regards,

Daniele

Agree with Daniele Baiz on setting up a repository.  But the repository is only as good as the specimens and the information you have about them.  It is important to know how long they have been stored. You don't say what type of biological specimens you have. Tissue? urine? blood, serum? If blood, how is it stored? PaxGene tubes? The biological viability varies from one type of specimen to another. 

Also, If you are going to generate data for a research application you have to have a hypothesis that can be answered by utilization of these specimens, e.g., by making comparisons.  If they are tissue specimens, what were the conditions for accruing them, during biopsy?  What information do you have about the individuals - age, gender, tumor stage? Environmental exposures?  The more information you have, the easier it is to generate hypotheses.

The human specimens should not be used for purposes other than the ones for which permission/consent was obtained from the subjects at the time of collection. Particularly, use for commercial purposes (raising funds, as it has been mentioned) will be attended with huge ethical concerns. These may however, be used to further extend the research for betterment of humanity.