BioSample Inc.

Two years ago, Martin Cusack, a businessman who had founded several start-ups in a variety of industries, chanced to be standing near the fax machine in a small medical clinic in South Florida. Faxes from researchers at well-known institutions like Johns Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic, as well as from multinational pharmaceutical companies, came in continually, says Cusack, although there wasn't that much activity in the clinic.

In the course of validating disease targets or developing drugs, researchers need tissue samples from patients with specific types of...