Establishment of a network-based intra-hospital virtual cancer biobank

Challenges on the Development of Biodiversity Biobanks: The Living Archives of Biodiversity

Biodiversity biobanks or ex situ biodiversity biorepositories tend to receive less attention compared with their biomedical counterparts. In this review, we highlight the necessity for these biorepositories by presenting their significant role in health, biodiversity, linking of big data, other translational research, and biodiversity conservation efforts. Moreover, the significant challenges in developing and maintaining biodiversity biobanks based on successful biobanks in some megadiverse developing countries are examined to provide insights into what needs to be done and what can be improved by up-and-coming biodiversity biobanks. These challenges include lack of financial support and political will; availability of experts; development of standard policies; and information management system. In addition, issues regarding access and benefit sharing and Digital Sequence Information must be addressed by biodiversity biobanks.

The Scale, Collections, and Biospecimen Distribution of Grade A Tertiary Hospital Biobanks in China: A National Survey

Chinese clinical biobanks were built rapidly in grade A tertiary hospitals. However, the general information of biorepositories in China remained largely unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the size, collections, biospecimens distribution and other characteristics of Chinese biobanks in grade A tertiary hospitals. In 2018, we launched a national survey among biobank leaders to provide a comprehensive understanding of Chinese grade A tertiary hospital biobanks. A total of 70 biobank managers or directors completed an online questionnaire to collect information about the biorepositories. Nearly 20% of biobanks stored over one million specimens, while almost one-third of biobanks stored 50-200,000 specimens. In general, plasma and serum were the specimens most commonly stored. For the use of collections, biospecimens were most commonly applied by internal clinical departments. Further analyses revealed that the large-scale biobanks were characterized by earlier establishment, more types of specimens in storage and distribution compared with small-scale biobanks. Moreover, specimens in large-scale biobanks were more commonly used for basic research (62.86% vs. 34.29%, P = 0.017) and clinical research (57.14% vs. 28.57%, P = 0.016). Large-scale biobanks also had more opportunities to cooperate with domestic research institutes (34.29% vs. 5.71%, P = 0.003). Our survey revealed diversity in collections, distribution and utilization of biospecimens among Chinese grade A tertiary hospital biobanks. Although the biobanks had relatively large collections, the underutilization of stored biospecimens and lack of sharing could hamper clinical and biological research.

A critical analysis of cancer biobank practices in relation to biospecimen quality

There are concerns that a substantial proportion of published research data is not reproducible, which may partially explain the frequent failure to translate pre-clinical results to clinical care. High-quality cancer biospecimens are needed for robust, reproducible research findings, with most researchers obtaining these specimens from cancer biobanks or tumour banks. This review provides an overview of the types of quality control (QC) activities conducted within cancer biobanks that pertain to biospecimen quality and of biospecimen quality reporting tools, including SPREC and BRISQ. We examine how QC assay results and other biospecimen data are communicated from biobanks to researchers, and whether these activities lead to improved biospecimen quality reporting within the literature and/or to improved research outcomes. We also discuss operational factors that limit QC activities within biobanks and evidence gaps requiring further research. In summary, whereas the provision of quality biospecimens is a common aim of cancer biobanks, QC activities remain underreported and are rarely discussed in the literature, compared with other aspects of biobank operations. Further research is required to determine how biobanks can most efficiently optimise biospecimen quality, and how communication between biobanks and researchers can be improved.