Defining biobanks: To be or not to be…… what was the question?
“Is a biobank a facility or research project?” This was a question asked in an international biobanking community forum back in April 2021. Answers were equivocal with many respondents taking an each way bet saying ‘both’. But this is...
Disease-Specific Biobanks: How Can a LIMS Help in Data Management?
Biobanks have a fundamental role to play in ensuring successful outcomes in clinical research by providing quality biosamples. They host donations of biological materials such as cells, DNA, and tissues . They also handle data that is related to...
Why do Blood and Plasma Need Refrigeration?
Blood, plasma, and other blood components are utilised every day in clinical and research environments for a multitude of uses, from life-saving transfusions to important haematology tests. All samples used for these medical activities have in common that they...
Importance of Cooperation Between Academic Biobanks and Biomedical Industry for Accelerating Personalized Medicine
Biological material and comprehensive data are referred as the fundamental resource for the progress in life science research, development of novel biotechnology methods along with investigations focused on new therapies. In this field, biobanks play a crucial role through...
Future Direction of Biobanking
Columns like this one is a great opportunity to share some thoughts with the biobanking community and get some feedback. This helps identifying those relevant to the biobankers and those that are not so relevant. Please continue to reach...
Cold Chain Best Laboratory Practices for Biobanking
I always understood that a biobank is not an investigation laboratory practice but rather an investigative support service. For this reason, process control is a requirement for any installations where biological samples are collected, processed, stored, and distributed.
To have...
The Importance of Biobanking in Modern Medical Research
Biobanking is a term that refers to the practice of collecting human and animal biological samples-including blood, urine, bone marrow, saliva, spinal fluid, and tissue for research purposes in order to further our understanding of health and disease. A...
Biobanking Knowledge and Practical Skills Delivered Through E-learning-based Master’s Program
Article contributed by Gabriele Hartl, Christine Mitchell, Tanja Macheiner, Brigitte Jaksa, Berthold Huppertz and Karine Sargsyan, at Medical University of Graz.
Background
With the development of modern biobanks, the need for multidisciplinary and qualified personnel has increased. Working in such an environment...
Do We Need Biobankers at All?
No one can tell the number of biobanks worldwide. Several years ago, I was involved in a survey at a university center in Switzerland. We wanted to find out how many biobanks there were in this center. A biobank...
Speed is Important in Biobanking but the Promises Must be Kept
Hofstadter's Law is the observation that a process will always take longer than expected, even when Hofstadter's Law is taken into account. In other words, time estimates of how long something will take to accomplish will always fall short...
