From the Editor's Desk

The launch of our new series entitled Biobank Profiles is an interesting and potentially very significant development. The series began with an article describing six biobanks in the Canadian Tumour Repository Network and continues with an article on five biobanks in the Cancéropôle PACA network of southern France. In addition to factual information about the focus, funding and activities of each biobank, the articles also include sections where biobank managers have the opportunity to express their opinions on challenges and opportunities. In his recent editorial, Peter Watson sets the scene for this new series and he describes the likely benefits. One of these is the way in which Biobank Profiles serve as a frame of reference for assessment of other biobanks.

Measuring the performance and the value of biobanks is essential in order to justify the substantial long-term funding that they require. Disease-based and population biobanks require teams of staff for biorepository management and consenting, which together with necessary equipment and consumables results in annual budgets measured in the hundreds of thousands of Dollars/Euros. One major problem is that the key decision makers who allocate such funds to biobanks often have little knowledge or experience of biobanking. In order to make wise decisions they need to be provided with useful performance indicators. They also need guidelines on how to interpret those performance indicators.

Biobank performance can be measured in many different ways. The different categories of performance indicators include measures of sample throughput and accumulation, sample quality and diversity, and the comprehensiveness and quality of associated data. They also include measures of the level, quality and range of services provided by the biobank and the outcome of the research supported. None of these performance indicators are of any value to the assessor, unless he or she has some frame of reference to help decide what is typical and what is above or below average. This series of Biobank Profiles provides information on such performance indicators as collection size, number of cases released, number of studies supported and number of resulting publications. In addition, it provides information on biobank size, type and context, which must all be taken into consideration. The continuing publication of articles in this series will help to build a frame of reference for assessors, to inform them of what is normal in the real world, and to help them make fair and rational judgements.

Another way in which Biobank Profiles may help biobank assessment is by acting as marker papers, which can be cited in the publications of researchers to acknowledge the source of their samples. This is a standardized method of acknowledgment, which has the added advantages of being easily traceable and easily confirmed, all of which are important factors. ¹ To implement this method, biobanks need to specify in their supply agreements that samples provided must be acknowledged by citation of a specific biobank marker paper in any publications that result from their use. With this practice established, biobank managers can then easily trace publications that cite their biobank's marker paper. These citations provide hard evidence of the biobank's contribution to research productivity, which it can be argued is the ultimate measure of a biobank's value.