Biobanking shifts to “precision medicine&rdquo

Current Opinion in Biotechnology, 2020

Biological samples such as tissues, blood and other body fluids, plants or seeds, prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells or isolated biomolecules as well as associated data are the essential raw material for research and development in medicine, biotechnology and agriculture. The collection, processing, preservation, and storage of these resources, in addition to provision of access, are key activities of biobanks or biological resource centres. Biobanks have to ensure proper quality of samples and data, ethical and legal compliance as well as transparent and efficient access procedures. In this context the review places special emphasis on pre-analytical procedures and international standards, which are essential to improving analytical data reliability and reproducibility, as well as on the increasing importance of data management. These requirements of biobanks are demonstrated using the example of pathogen-containing and microbiome biobanks, and refer to needs in cancer research and development.

Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 2020

The ability to analyze human specimens is the pillar of modern-day translational research. To enhance the research availability of relevant clinical specimens, we developed the Living BioBank (LBB) solution, which allows for just-in-time capture and delivery of phenotyped surplus laboratory medicine specimens. The LBB is a system-of-systems integrating research feasibility databases in i2b2, a real-time clinical data warehouse, and an informatics system for institutional research services management (SPARC). LBB delivers deidentified clinical data and laboratory specimens. We further present an extension to our solution, the Living µBiome Bank, that allows the user to request and receive phenotyped specimen microbiome data. We discuss the details of the implementation of the LBB system and the necessary regulatory oversight for this solution. The conducted institutional focus group of translational investigators indicates an overall positive sentiment towards potential scientific re...

The Scientific World Journal, 2013

Biobank is a very sophisticated system that consists of a programmed storage of biological material and corresponding data. Biobanks are created to be used in medical research, in clinical and translational medicine, and in healthcare. In the past 20 years, a large number of biobanks have been set up around the world, to support the modern research directions in medicine such as omix and personalized medicine. More recently, embryonic and adult stem cell banks have been developed. Stem cell banking was reported to be required for medical research as well as clinical transplant applications. The quality of the samples stored in a biobank is very important. The standardization is also important; the biological material stored in a biobank must be processed in a manner that allows compatibility with other biobanks that preserve samples in the same field. In this paper, we review some issues related to biobanks purposes, quality, harmonization, and their financial and ethical aspects.

European Journal of Human Genetics, 2012

Biobanks can have a pivotal role in elucidating disease etiology, translation, and advancing public health. However, meeting these challenges hinges on a critical shift in the way science is conducted and requires biobank harmonization. There is growing recognition that a common strategy is imperative to develop biobanking globally and effectively. To help guide this strategy, we articulate key principles, goals, and priorities underpinning a roadmap for global biobanking to accelerate health science, patient care, and public health. The need to manage and share very large amounts of data has driven innovations on many fronts. Although technological solutions are allowing biobanks to reach new levels of integration, increasingly powerful data-collection tools, analytical techniques, and the results they generate raise new ethical and legal issues and challenges, necessitating a reconsideration of previous policies, practices, and ethical norms. These manifold advances and the investments that support them are also fueling opportunities for biobanks to ultimately become integral parts of health-care systems in many countries. International harmonization to increase interoperability and sustainability are two strategic priorities for biobanking. Tackling these issues requires an environment favorably inclined toward scientific funding and equipped to address socio-ethical challenges. Cooperation and collaboration must extend beyond systems to enable the exchange of data and samples to strategic alliances between many organizations, including governmental bodies, funding agencies, public and private science enterprises, and other stakeholders, including patients. A common vision is required and we articulate the essential basis of such a vision herein.

Annals of Cytology and Pathology, 2016

034 biological, clinical and epidemiological features or about his lifestyle. The samples could be donated by healthy volunteers or people affected by some disease. Some biobanks had the availability of clinical followup of patients [2]. In a biobank, you could collect samples of human beings, animals, plants or microorganisms; there are no limit for sample time storage. The specimens could be used for studying in general or disease-specific [3]. Every year millions of samples are stored in biobanks for diagnostic or research purpose. European networks Millions of samples are collected in biobanks across the Europe. Although individual collections could be organized and accessible, the resources are subjected to fragmentation, insecurity of funding and incompleteness [4]. In this context, several efforts have been made to create some European networks connecting all biobanks one to another in order to harmonize them. For example, the need to have a wide network to exchange samples and information is very strong in the field of rare diseases (RDs). In RDs field, there are few patients and samples for each disease. Sharing materials and data is essential for identifying disease-causing genes, studying pathological mechanisms and developing treatment. In order to gain these aims, in 2001, the EuroBioBank (EBB) was established involving 16 partners of eight European countries

International journal of laboratory medicine & research, 2015

Biobanks are structures used for the preservation of biological samples. These repositories store biospecimens for short or long period of time, depending on the aim for which they are employed. The collections stored inside consist of different types and for each material there's a specific protocol to be followed, in order to keep sample in the best condition as possible. So, a good state is a primary hallmark and its basic to have a well-protected specimen to obtain reliable results fit for clinical purposes and research. In the last years, medical sciences are developing together with the progress of knowledge and skills: the need for new answer to questions about rare and common diseases has greatly contributed to the creation of a network of biobanks which cooperate in Europe and internationally to discover new findings. Therefore, the importance of biobanks is currently considerable. In this article, the topic of biobanks is argued by reviewing the most relevant aspects of these centers. Due to the strategic role of biobanks, the debate on their management and policy is focused on a variety of issues with the aim of reaching a shared agreement and obtaining a universal concordance. Only so, it will possible to achieve and maintain unity and create homogeneous system of biobanking.

Social Science Research Network, 2012

3. Id. Margaret Hamburg, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Francis Collins, director of NIH, emphasized the need for testing patient tissue as part of routine clinical care in personalized medicine, writing that the "success of personalized medicine depends on having accurate diagnostic tests that identify patients who can benefit from targeted therapies." Id.

EPMA Journal, 2015

Biobanks are an important compound of personalized medicine and strongly support the scientific progress in stratification of population and biomarker discovery and validation due to progress in personalized medicine. Biobanks are an essential tool for new drug discoveries and drug development. Biobanks play an important role in the whole process of patient prevention and prediction, follow-up, and therapy monitoring and optimalization. Biobanks have the specificity in that they cover multidisciplinary approach to the human health combining biological and medical approaches, as well as informative bioinformatics technologies, computationing, and modeling. The importance of biobanks has during the last decade increased in variety and capacity from small collections of samples to large-scale national or international repositories. Collected samples are population-based, disease-specific or rare diseases originating from a diverse profile of individuals. There are various purposes of biobanks, such as diagnostics, pharmacology, or research. Biobanks involve, store, and operate with specific personal information, and as a consequence, such a diversity of biobanking is associated with a broad spectrum of ethical and legal issues. Biobanks are an international phenomenon because any single country, state, or society at the moment is not able to cover all issues involving the whole biobank problematic. Biobanks have an enormous innovative potential in the whole process of biomedical research in the twenty-first century.

Journal of Translational Medicine

Background: The aim of the present review is to discuss how the promising field of biobanking can support health care research strategies. As the concept has evolved over time, biobanks have grown from simple biological sample repositories to complex and dynamic units belonging to large infrastructure networks, such as the Pan-European Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure (BBMRI). Biobanks were established to support scientific knowledge. Different professional figures with varied expertise collaborate to obtain and collect biological and clinical data from human subjects. At same time biobanks preserve the human and legal rights of each person that offers biomaterial for research. Methods: A literature review was conducted in April 2019 from the online database PubMed, accessed through the Bibliosan platform. Four primary topics related to biobanking will be discussed: (i) evolution, (ii) bioethical issues, (iii) organization, and (iv) imaging. Results: Most biobanks were founded as local units to support specific research projects, so they evolved in a decentralized manner. The consequence is an urgent needing for procedure harmonization regarding sample collection, processing, and storage. Considering the involvement of biomaterials obtained from human beings, different ethical issues such as the informed consent model, sample ownership, veto rights, and biobank sustainability are debated. In the face of these methodological and ethical challenges, international organizations such as BBMRI play a key role in supporting biobanking activities. Finally, a unique development is the creation of imaging biobanks that support the translation of imaging biomarkers (identified using a radiomic approach) into clinical practice by ensuring standardization of data acquisition and analysis, accredited technical validation, and transparent sharing of biological and clinical data. Conclusion: Modern biobanks permit large-scale analysis for individuation of specific diseases biomarkers starting from biological or digital material (i.e., bioimages) with well-annotated clinical and biological data. These features are essential for improving personalized medical approaches, where effective biomarker identification is a critical step for disease diagnosis and prognosis.

2018

Biobanking is a fast-growing field in basic, clinical and translational research. With that, biobanking is crucially involved in the further optimisation of personalised medicine, which is one of the leading concepts in modern medicine. Since personalised medicine works with highly specific and well-characterised cohorts, the interaction of biobanks will become more and more important to enable the setting up of relevant collectives for basic and translational research. In special characterised entities and in rare diseases, a multicentre approach is crucial to ensure the inclusion of significant numbers of biobank specimens in an appropriate time. Digitalisation and the possibility to share information and knowledge by digitalisation represent an important issue within the networking of different biobanks which are active in the clinical context. The interaction and cooperation of biobanks of different countries must overcome specific challenges even if these countries are located within the European Union. The project, BRoTHER (Biobank Research on Telemedical Approaches for Human Biobanks in a European Region), is aimed at analysing the obstacles which have to be overcome if clinical related biobanks from two national healthcare systems wants to work together and set up common biobank projects by help of digitalisation. Furthermore, BRoTHER is created to disseminate the idea of biobanking to young academics and to a broader public. The project is supported by a grant of the Bavarian-Czech University Agency (BTHA) with funding coming from the Bavarian State Ministry of Finance.