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0:00
Hello, I'm Jim Vaught.
I'm President
of the International Society
for Biological and Environmental
Repositories or ISBER,
which I'll be referring to
a lot during the presentation.
And I'm also Editor-in-Chief
of the Journal Biopreservation
and Biobanking.
In this presentation,
we'll be talking about
international biobanking
and overview of key practices
and policies.
0:22
The outline of my presentation.
I will be going through
biobanking basics,
best practices, infrastructure,
quality management, for example,
international efforts
to develop and harmonize
best practices for biobanks,
controlling variability,
which is critical
to international exchange
of specimens and data,
biobanking networks
and factors for their success,
the economics and sustainability
of biobanks,
which is a very hot topic
at present
and other current hot topics
in international biobanking.
And then, I'll present
some additional resources,
such as biobanking
organizations,
web sites
and relevant publications.
1:06
So what is a biobank?
A biobank is an entity
that receives, stores,
processes
and, or disseminates specimens.
And some examples are blood,
tissue samples, urine samples,
saliva and others that's needed
for the investigation.
And the biobanking term
encompasses
the physical location as well as
the full range
of operational activities.
And it can be one freezer
or a free-standing entity
within a laboratory
or clinical operation
or part of a larger institution.
And a biobank
has a professional staff
and a commitment to maintain
and preserve specimens
and records for future reference
and historical continuity.
Biobanks may also be called
biorepositories,
biospecimen resources
or biological resource centers.