Autoimmune Disease Biospecimen Collections

Washout period lengths depend on the specific medications and your study objectives. Topical therapies typically do not require washout periods and conventional systemic agents generally require 1–2 week washout periods. Biologics have long half-lives and patients require continuous therapy, making washout impractical—for these cases, MT Group commonly performs biologic-naïve collections from subjects who have not previously been treated with biologic therapies.

Yes, matched blood and tissue specimens are routinely collected during the same clinical visit. This is particularly common in dermatologic studies where skin biopsies and blood draws occur during a single dermatology appointment, and in gastrointestinal studies where intestinal biopsies obtained during endoscopy are paired with blood collection on the same day. This matched sampling approach enables direct tissue–systemic biomarker correlations and reduces subject burden.

Comprehensive clinical documentation accompanies autoimmune disease specimens, including complete treatment history (current and prior medications, dosing, duration, response), detailed medical history and comorbidities, laboratory values (inflammatory markers, autoantibodies, routine chemistries), prior response to therapies, concomitant medications, and lifestyle factors. For GI collections, endoscopy reports with findings and imagery are frequently available. MT Group customizes case report forms to capture specific data elements most relevant to your research objectives.

Yes, MT Group operates a global collection network enabling enrollment across multiple geographic regions. However, fresh specimens requiring overnight delivery can only be shipped to US locations. Frozen and fixed biospecimens can be collected internationally and shipped to global destinations, allowing for geographically diverse cohorts when fresh tissue or blood is not required.

Yes, control subjects can be matched to cases based on age, gender, ethnicity, geographic location, and other demographic parameters you specify. MT Group works with you during study design to define matching criteria and ensure enrollment targets are achieved for both case and control populations to support statistically robust comparative analyses.

This depends on your study design. We can exclude subjects with any comorbid autoimmune diagnoses to study isolated disease biology, or we can specifically enroll subjects with defined comorbidities to reflect real-world patient populations. MT Group's flexibility in defining inclusion and exclusion criteria allows you to tailor enrollment to your precise research questions.

For prospective collections, MT Group typically requires a minimum order of 10 subjects due to the significant time and resources invested in study startup, including protocol development, IRB approvals, site activation, and staff training. This minimum ensures efficient project execution while maintaining quality.

Prospective collections typically begin 2–4 weeks after receiving a purchase order. During this period, MT Group develops a collection SOP, assembles study-specific collection kits, and onboards sites. Nearly all collections fit under established umbrella IRB protocols, eliminating the need for additional approvals. Actual enrollment timeframes depend on your specific eligibility criteria, disease severity requirements, and treatment specifications.