From the Editor's Desk

With this issue Biopreservation & Biobanking continues its journey toward excellence in the field of biobanking. As an emerging specialty, which TIME magazine (May 12, 2009) identified as one of the “10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now,” biobanking promises to be transformative in ways we can only imagine. To both accelerate and improve the messages so important to communication within the industry, the Journal will continue to evolve to meet these objectives. You will note that a cohort of highly regarded biobankers each with unique specialties has been assembled as a board of Section Editors to work with the biobankers to help delineate the issues central to biobanking and therefore to help guide the Journal's content.

With the next issue you may also note an appropriate revision and expansion of our Editorial Board. Again, the journal seeks to serve as the “go to” source for developments in the field. One exciting addition to the content sections is the section entitled “The Experts Speak.” You and other acknowledged leaders in biobanking will be asked to opine on a selection of topics timely to all of us. It is hoped that these opinions will stimulate discussion and also serve to provide guidance and subsequent discussion and debate.

In a recent issue (Volume 8, Number 1) we published a second set of Best Practices and will continue to provide our readership with information on the emerging standards within the industry. Toward this end, Dr. Hewitt and I among others are in the formative stages of developing a Best Practices statement on cell cryopreservation at the request of the Society for Cryobiology. This effort has been joined by the AATB (American Association of Tissue Banks) and other groups are certainly welcome in what will no doubt prove to be a challenging undertaking. After all, local standard practices (traditions), historic methodologies and concepts built on a pre-genomic knowledge base may well serve as hurdles to be overcome.

Excitement within the editorial staff at Biopreservation & Biobanking is palpable. So much is happening. So much progress will be made.