Get Involved in ISBER Working Groups

Biospecimens stored in biorepositories are intended to be used for biomarker identification and validation. The performance of such biomarkers greatly depends on the pre-analytical variations of the samples that were used for their initial identification. Quality assurance on this issue is therefore of utmost importance and allows us to establish the right correspondence between processing methods and end-use biomarkers.

The goals of this working group include:

1. Selection of biospecimen quality assurance schemes
2. Identification of biospecimen handling critical points
3. Standardization of biospecimen research protocols
4. Identification of Quality Control (QC) tools
5. Reviews on biospecimen science topics
6. Validation of biospecimen processing methods
7. Validation of biospecimen QC methods.

Chair: Lalita Wadhwa, Texas Children's Hospital

The Enviro-Bio Working Group’s vision is to serve as authoritative enviro-bio experts to advance ISBER as a cross-disciplinary biobanking society which addresses all biobanks’ activities; its mission is to provide the ISBER communication forum for environmental, biological, and animal biospecimens and biobanks to represent these biobanks’ needs and to integrate into ISBER activities and products. EBWG represents a broad membership, encompassing biobanks, biorepositories, BRCs, genebanks, seedbanks, museum, scientific and culture collections; zoos, botanical gardens and herbaria that conserve and biopreserve environmental, microbial, protist, plant and animal biospecimens, biological and genetic resources for: agriculture, archaeology, aquaculture, biotechnology, conservation, climate change research, environmental science, forestry, horticulture and veterinary science.

The goals of this working group include:

1. Increase ISBER & EBWG membership with targeted campaigns for Veterinary Medicine and Agricultural/Biological sectors
2. Define and Integrate EB terminology into ISBER products such as the Best Practices
3. Contribute EB elements and content to ISBER educational material and training programs

Chair: Piper Mullins, Smithsonian Institution

The ISBER Informatics Working Group includes representatives from ISBER member vendors who provide custom built and COTS systems, as well as members who are involved in informatics within a repository

The goals of this working group include:

1. Development of best practices for Information Management Systems to support biobanking, including: Decision making tools for selection of homegrown, customer built, or off the shelf COTS systems Appropriate use of an information management system in biobank sample labeling Federal guidelines as they pertain to information management systems in biobanking
2. Development of self-evaluation tools for providers of information management systems that support biobanking

 

The availability of a repository/specimen locator, searchable online, is considered critical research infrastructure. To maximize the value of a specimen or collection, a researcher must be able to locate it. In addition, researchers may need to locate and access specimens from multiple repositories to generate data that contains statistical rigor. An international repository locator would increase the profile of individual repositories among key stakeholders including ISBER, researchers, funding bodies, governments, and private industry. The Working Group currently includes ISBER members from nine countries: Australia, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Qatar, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, with collective expertise in informatics, repository management, database management, and online locators. The goal of this working group is to develop an international repository locator - a means by which repository information can be collected and searched online, much like a "repository directory".

Chair: Yaffa Rubinstein, National Library of Medicine

Within a pre-competitive environment, The ISBER Pharma Working Group exists to identify and address challenging topics facing industry through shared insights and expertise. In addition, the Working Group promotes requirements of industry within the ISBER community and seeks to grow industry participation. Membership is predominantly from the Pharmaceuticals and Biotech sectors.

ISBER Pharma WG Goals

1. Achieve pharma-specific ISBER offerings through contributions to ISBER strategic plan, programmatic content and publications.
2. Highlight industry requirements for drug development
   
3. Develop non-proprietary solutions and create guidance documents to alleviate shared industry challenges aimed at accelerating drug discovery

• Human Biological Sample Management (HBSM) Import/Export Guidelines
• Biomarker Sample/Data Requirements
• Regulatory Implementation Roadmap
• ISBER Pharma WG Knowledge Hub/Toolkit

Chair: Wohaib Hasan - Takeda