Journal
VIRCHOWS ARCHIV
Volume 479, Issue 2, Pages 233-246Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s00428-021-03151-0
Keywords
Biobanking; Biospecimens; Tissue specimens; Cell lines; Standardization; Preanalytical phase
Categories
Funding
- Universita degli Studi di Torino within the CRUI-CARE Agreement
- Alleanza Contro il Cancro (Alliance Against Cancer), Ricerca Corrente 2019
- H2020 project SPIDIA4P [733112]
- FONDAZIONE AIRC [21091, 22850]
- Dipartimenti di Eccellenza 2018-2022 [D15D18000410001]
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The term biobanking is often misused, and a proper definition should refer to large collections of biospecimens linked to personal and health information for health and medical research. The International Organization for Standardization emphasizes that biobanks are legal entities driving the process of acquisition and storage of biological materials. This review covers basic principles of biobanking, including definitions, classification systems, standardization processes, sustainability, and ethical and legal requirements, as well as examples of next-generation biobanking focusing on cancer-associated biobanking infrastructure.
The term biobanking is often misapplied to any collection of human biological materials (biospecimens) regardless of requirements related to ethical and legal issues or the standardization of different processes involved in tissue collection. A proper definition of biobanks is large collections of biospecimens linked to relevant personal and health information (health records, family history, lifestyle, genetic information) that are held predominantly for use in health and medical research. In addition, the International Organization for Standardization, in illustrating the requirements for biobanking (ISO 20387:2018), stresses the concept of biobanks being legal entities driving the process of acquisition and storage together with some or all of the activities related to collection, preparation, preservation, testing, analysing and distributing defined biological material as well as related information and data. In this review article, we aim to discuss the basic principles of biobanking, spanning from definitions to classification systems, standardization processes and documents, sustainability and ethical and legal requirements. We also deal with emerging specimens that are currently being generated and shaping the so-called next-generation biobanking, and we provide pragmatic examples of cancer-associated biobanking by discussing the process behind the construction of a biobank and the infrastructures supporting the implementation of biobanking in scientific research.
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