International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories

"ISBER" redirects here. For the Institute of Social, Behavioral and Economic Research, see University of California, Santa Barbara § Institutes and Programs.

The International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER)[1] is the largest international forum that addresses the technical, legal, ethical, and managerial issues relevant to repositories of biological and environmental specimens. ISBER is a professional society of individuals and organizations who share an interest in promoting consistent, high quality standards, ethical principles and innovation in biospecimen banking by uniting the global biobanking community. ISBER invites all sub-components of government, academia, the private sector, and manufacturers to become active participants of the society.

Mission

ISBER is a global organization which creates opportunities for sharing ideas and innovations in biobanking and harmonizes approaches to evolving challenges for biological and environmental repositories.

ISBER fosters collaboration, creates education and training opportunities, provides an international showcase for state-of-the-art policies, processes, and research findings, and innovative technologies, products, and services. Together, these activities promote best practices that cut across the broad range of repositories that ISBER serves.[2]

Vision

ISBER will be the leading global forum for promoting harmonized high quality standards, ethical principles, and innovation in the science and management of biorepositories.[2]

Membership

Membership includes organizations and individuals from over 30 countries involved in long-term preservation and storage of animal, environmental, human, microorganism culture, museum, and plant/seed collections.

Meetings

ISBER holds one international meeting each year. Lectures, workshops, poster presentations, and working group discussions focus on technical issues and challenges such as quality assurance and control, regulations, human subject privacy and confidentiality issues, and provide information about sources of equipment and expertise.

ISBER Annual Meeting Locations

Best Practices

The availability of high quality biological and environmental specimens for research purposes requires the development of standardized methods for collection, long-term storage, retrieval and distribution of specimens that will enable their future use. Sharing successful strategies for accomplishing this goal is one of the driving forces for the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER).

ISBER's Best Practices for Repositories (Best Practices) reflects the collective experience of its members and has received broad input from other repository professionals. Throughout this document effective practices are presented for the management of specimen collections and repositories. The term "Best Practice" is used in cases where a level of operation is indicated that is above the basic recommended practice or, more specifically, designates the most effective practice. It is understood that repositories in certain locations or with particular financial constraints may not be able to adhere to each of the items designated as "Best Practices". Repositories fitting into either of these categories will need to decide how they might best adhere to these recommendations within their particular circumstances. While adherence to ISBER Best Practices is strictly on a voluntary basis, it is important to note that some aspects of specimen management are governed by national/federal, regional and local regulations. The reader should refer directly to regulations for their national/federal, regional and local requirements, as appropriate.

The ISBER Best Practices are periodically reviewed and revised to reflect advances in research and technology. The third edition of the Best Practices builds on the foundation established in the first and second editions which were published in 2005 and 2008, respectively.

Current Best Practices

ISBER Best Practices For Repositories: Collection, Storage, Retrieval and Distribution of Biological Materials for Research provides repository professionals with standardized guidelines for the management of biobank specimen[3][4][5] collections and repositories. The most current version of the ISBER Best Practices was published in Biopreservation and Biobanking (BIO), April 2012 issue.[5]

Self-Assessment Tool (SAT)

ISBER has created this Self-Assessment Tool(SAT) to assist repository operators in determining how well their repository follows the ISBER Best Practices for Repositories.The assessment is confidential and aimed at helping specimen collection centers strengthen their practices through the identification of areas in need of improvement.

ISBER provides a yearly anonymized SAT result summary, found on the ISBER website here .

SAT Information

The tool contains 158 questions which may be answered in a single or multiple sessions. Each page of the survey corresponds to a section of the ISBER Best Practices. Results from pilot tests indicated that the SAT takes a little over an hour to complete if all required information is available at the time of completing the survey. The tool is free to ISBER members, and non-members may participate for a fee.

After completion of the SAT, a personalized e-mail is sent to the participant which includes a "risk-balanced assessment score" and notification of top deviation areas to help the participant evaluate how their current practices conform to the ISBER Best Practices. The score is based on possible risk to the specimens, frequency of implementation of each practice, and the ease with which deviations can be detected.

Biorepository Proficiency Testing Program

Developed in collaboration with the Integrated Biobank of Luxembourg (IBBL), the Biorepository Proficiency Testing Program is designed to allow biorepositories to assess the accuracy of their quality control assays and characterization of biospecimens. Participants can compare their results with those obtained in other laboratories and can identify testing issues that may be related to individual staff performance or calibration of instrumentation used in biospecimen quality control. The program provides guidance to biorepositories so they can take appropriate remedial action to be in compliance with ISO/IEC 17043:2010, providing a necessary External Quality Assessment tool for biorepositories who wish to seek accreditation (ISO 17025, CLIA or equivalent).[6]

References

  1. ↑ "ISBER". ISBER. 2014-01-23. Retrieved 2014-07-18.
  2. 1 2 "About". ISBER. 2014-01-23. Retrieved 2014-07-18.
  3. ↑ Vaught, J. B.; Caboux, E.; Hainaut, P. (2010). "International Efforts to Develop Biospecimen Best Practices". Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention 19 (4): 912. doi:10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-10-0058.
  4. ↑ Hewitt, R. E. (2011). "Biobanking: The foundation of personalized medicine". Current Opinion in Oncology 23 (1): 112–119. doi:10.1097/CCO.0b013e32834161b8. PMID 21076300.
  5. 1 2 "Best Practices For Repositories". ISBER. 2014-01-23. Retrieved 2014-07-18.
  6. ↑ "Why Proficiency Testing?". ISBER. Retrieved 2014-07-18.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, October 04, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.