Abstract
The research biobanking field is developing rapidly in Russia. Over the course of the last decade, numerous biobanks were created or formed from existing collections of human and environmental biospecimens. The Russian National Association of Biobanks and Biobanking Specialists (NASBIO) was established in December 2018, aiming to: (1) unite professionals and research centers to create and develop a network of biobanks in Russia; (2) provide services and expertise in the field of biobanking; (3) execute various research projects utilizing biobanks' infrastructure; and (4) facilitate integration of Russian biomedical research centers into global research activities. The organizational structure, aims, and plans of this newly formed national association are reviewed in this article. The founders of NASBIO hope that the association will promote further development of biobanks and their networking in Russia, which is critically important for the success of national biomedical, pharmaceutical, and biotechnological research, and can facilitate international biobanking projects on a global scale.
History of Biobanking in Russia
Historically, biomedical research in the Soviet Union and then the Russian Federation has always relied on numerous institutional and departmental collections of biospecimens, which have successfully supported scientific activities for many decades. Many such collections were of a rather large scale, well-organized, and in continuous operation, which allowed some organizations to claim national precedence in setting up biobanks.
In particular, collections of the “Mayak” Production Association in the city of Ozersk 1 and of the N.F. Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology (Moscow, Russia) 2 can be traced back to the middle of the 20th century. The former of them started collecting and storing biospecimens from radiation-exposed donors as early as in 1951. 1 The latter one was created in 1971 according to the WHO guidelines for Serum Reference Banks. 3 Discovering a discrepancy between HBsAg serotypes circulating in the population, and those included in the vaccine development and detection of HBsAg mutants were among the successes of the Bank of Serum 4 and it currently leads a large-scale national COVID-19 seroepidemiological study by screening its vast serum collection for the SARS-CoV-2 antibody.
Still, it is generally believed that true research biobanks satisfying key biobank criteria were created in Russia much later. 5 In 1998, the Chernobyl Tissue Bank was formed by an international consortium, and parts of its collection of thyroid tissue samples are currently stored in the A.F. Tsib Medical Radiological Research Center (Obninsk, Russia), a branch of the National Medical Research Center of Radiology (Moscow, Russia).6,7 In 2010, the Southern Ural Biophysics Institute in the city of Chelyabinsk took over the management of the extensive collections of “Mayak,” consisting of biospecimens of people exposed to acute or chronic radiation, which are most useful for radiology and radiation hygiene research. 1
In 2012, the biobank of the V.A. Almazov Federal Center of Heart, Blood, & Endocrinology in the city of Saint-Petersburg was set up, and included institutional collections of biospecimens from patients with cardiological, hematological, and endocrinological, and later on rheumatological and perinatological conditions. 8 Next, a population biobank of the National Medical Research Center for Therapy and Preventive Medicine was created in 2014, adhering to ISBER Best Practices, and setting up a biospecimen collection to support a large-scale national epidemiological study, “Epidemiology of Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Diseases in Regions of the Russian Federation” (ESSE-RF), assessing the prevalence of cardiovascular disorders and associated risks in the populations from Russia. The biobank has worked actively since then, leading a number of biobanking projects, such as ESSE-RF-2 and ESSE-RF-3, all of which would be impossible to launch without an operational biobank.
The bank of biomaterials of the East-Siberian Scientific Center of Human Ecology (Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences) in the city of Angarsk, “Noah's Ark” (National Depositary Bank of Living Systems) in M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University 9 and the National BioService network should also be mentioned. Some other Russian biobanks created over the course of the last two decades are also listed in Table 1.
Russian National Association of Biobanks and Biobanking Specialist Members, May 2020
Aligned according to the sequence of entry into NASBIO.
LiCC, Lipoaspirate CryoConservation; NASBIO, National Association of Biobanks and Biobanking Specialists.
Much attention was attracted to the early experience of these biobanks. Furthermore, successful examples of foreign biobanks (such as UK Biobank, Biobank Graz, Integrated BioBank of Luxembourg [IBBL], Karolinska Institute Biobank [KIBB], etc.) were publicized to provide positive examples of what research impact could be achieved and expected from a well-designed and well-maintained biobank. It was then recognized by the Russian biomedical research community that biobanks can serve as rather useful resource centers and core facilities to promote institutional research and involvement in larger-scale collaborative research activities.
Since then, a significant number of research biobanks (including environmental repositories) were formed in Russia and started operating in compliance with international principles of biobanking. Two key modes were utilized: first, biobanks were created anew; second, they were formed by merging and consolidating already existing collections of biospecimens. While public biobanks predominate, a few private biobanks (research and clinical ones) also exist, adding a degree of diversity and flexibility to the professional community. The increased number of biobanks operating in Russia fully reflects an ongoing national and global trend: an increased demand for high-quality biospecimens collected legally and ethically, processed and stored according to proper procedures, and thus suitable for research.
This demand is driven by the growing local private biotechnological and pharmaceutical sectors, in particular. Furthermore, creating biobanking infrastructure facilitated launching projects that were previously unfeasible. An understanding of the importance of biobanks as essential means to promote research and development in biomedical sciences has been repeatedly expressed by the government in Russia.
At the same time, only one national program directly supporting biobanks currently exists in Russia. Namely, in late 2018, the HealthNet track of the Russian National Technological Initiative (NTI) launched a project focused on creation and scaling up of a network of biobanks in five regions of the Russian Federation. It is expected that both political and financial state support for the field will grow, further improving the stability and sustainability of Russian biobanks. Without such support, long-term business planning of biobanks becomes difficult, reducing their ability to perform biobanking projects matching the scale of Russian territory and population.
Starting in 2014, Russian biobanks have joined ISBER, and now both member and nonmember institutions attend global and regional ISBER meetings routinely. The successful experience of national and international biobanking associations and consortiums, such as CTRNet (Canadian Tissue Repository Network), BCBA (Brain Cancer Biobanking Australia), and especially BBMRI served as inspiring examples on how the interaction between biobanks can improve service quality, raise biospecimens' utilization rate, and amplify the potential of existing and newly organized biobanks.
Given the background outlined above, a group of Russian biobanking professionals met in May 2017 for a roundtable discussion held at the National Medical Research Center for Therapy and Preventive Medicine in Moscow, aiming at establishing professional society that would enable:
exchanging expertise in biobanking; facilitating further development of biobanks in Russia and improving their effectiveness; facilitating deeper integration of Russian biobanks into the global professional community and international exchange of biospecimens; uniting efforts in influencing government decisions related to biobanking standards and regulations; providing professional advice and expertise in biobank development and biobank management.
By mid-2017, preliminary agreement was achieved on future legal and operational structure and functions of the society and in December, 2018 the National Association of Biobanks and Biobanking Specialists (NASBIO) was successfully registered by nine individuals representing eight institutions actively engaged in biobanking: namely, Scientific Research Center for Preventive Medicine (Moscow, Russia); N.F. Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology; I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University (Moscow, Russia); National BioService, LLC (Saint-Petersburg, Russia); Qvadros-Bio, LLC (Moscow, Russia); Saint-Petersburg State University (Saint-Petersburg, Russia); D.O. Ott Research Institute of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductology (Saint-Petersburg, Russia); and Research Center of Neurology (Moscow, Russia).
In 2019, 27 individual researchers and 18 biobanks joined the NASBIO, followed by another 6 biobanks and 5 individuals who joined at the beginning of 2020. Currently, NASBIO has 62 members, including 23 biobanks—the majority of active research biobanks currently operating in Russia (Table 1) and 39 biobanking specialists, as institutional and personal members, respectively. It further includes several research and clinical research centers that currently do not have operational institutional biobanks, but are considering developing them and are seeking professional advice and expertise.
The majority of NASBIO institutional members are based in Moscow and in Saint-Petersburg, Russia's second largest city, but Siberian, Southern, Ural, and Far East regions are also represented by Tomsk, Rostov-on-Don, Ufa, and Vladivostok, respectively (Fig. 1). Additionally, a number of “personal members” have joined the Association. This model aims to attract members employed in organizations unwilling to join the Association as “institutional members.” A total of 34 personal members joined the Association in its first year, supporting the attractiveness of this model.
Russian NASBIO member biobanks. NASBIO, National Association of Biobanks and Biobanking Specialists.
Structure and Functions of NASBIO
At the general meeting, members of NASBIO elect the President, Vice-Presidents, Director, Executive Director, and members of the Management Board for a period of 3 years and agree on other issues related to the work of the Association. The Director represents the sole executive body of the association. The Executive Director and the secretary also participate in the work of the executive body of the association, as part of the director's assignment. The President and Vice Presidents are responsible for representative functions, interact with government and scientific institutions, and coordinate activities within working groups (Fig. 2). There are eight working groups currently set up in NASBIO:
Russian NASBIO structure.
“Ethical and Legal Aspects of Biobanking”: is responsible for the cooperation between biobanks in implementing joint projects in the field of ethics and law, promotion of legislative initiatives and proposals in the field of biobanking and genomic research, expert advisory activities in the field of biobanking, and assistance in obtaining and protecting intellectual property (IP).
“Standardization”: is responsible for the harmonization with international biobanking standards and development of national standards, participation in the work of the national Technical Committee for Standardization #326 “Biotechnologies,” development of standardized methods of collection, processing, storage, and quality control of biological samples and validation of these methods, consulting, and auditing newly established biobanks.
“International Cooperation”: is responsible for building the Russian national biobanking network as an integral element of global biopharmaceutical R&D, implementation of advanced biobanking practices, and progressive regulatory approaches; promoting Russian biobanks and assisting their involvement in international exchange and cooperation, attracting global biobanking experts and opinion leaders to participate in the Association's events, dissemination and promotion of ISBER resources and activities in Russia, and harmonization of international and domestic biobanking requirements.
“Informatization and Harmonization of Databases”: is responsible for systematization and harmonization of information on contents of available biobank collections and biobank capabilities, attracting demand and improving utilization rate; harmonization of clinical information registration forms for key clinical areas.
“Interaction with Government and Public Organizations”: is responsible for interactions of NASBIO with the Federal executive bodies, promoting NASBIO interests, solving organizational and legal issues, participation in law-making on the topic of biobanking, monitoring of governmental and media activities in the field of biobanking, interaction with relevant industry associations, participation in the organization of events, and setting up advisory councils under government bodies. The main task is to convey the opinion of NASBIO specialists in all areas of biobanking to decision makers.
“Membership”: is responsible for establishing interactions with specialists on a national level, attracting specialists from different fields of biomedical science, whose activities are related to biobanking, setting up registration, and admission for new members of NASBIO.
“Science and Education”: is responsible for coordination and development of professional educational programs for biobanking specialists, identification of target groups of various level, development of educational programs for professional development, relevant for various specialists faced with the need to interact with biobanks in their activities, development of educational programs for students of biomedical disciplines, monitoring of major international research projects that rely on biobanking, and to identify new tasks for developing educational programs.
“Conferences and Publication Activity”: is responsible for organization of annual NASBIO conferences, planning for NASBIO participation in national and international conferences and workshops, stimulating the publishing activity of Russian specialists in biobanking, setup of the “BioBanking” column in one of national biomedical journals as a platform for publications in the field of biobanking.
NASBIO Mission Statement
Many issues related to the use of different types of biomaterial for both research and clinical purposes need to be addressed for the successful development of biomedicine. This determines the enormous relevance of the biobanking field and highlights the importance of cooperation between biobanks at the national and international levels. Several years ago, the European Commission highlighted the primary role of a biobank, in particular, to associate with current and/or future research projects at the time of specimen collection and to support scientific knowledge. 10 Consequently, modern biobanks function as complex infrastructures where clinicians, biologists, nurses, technicians, and bioethicists work together to provide the collection of high-quality samples and information.
To tackle the current challenges and stimulate the cooperation between Russian and international biobanks, the following core objectives were set for NASBIO:
Professional consolidation, strengthening, and developing of professional contacts among specialists representing various fields of biomedical sciences.
Popularization and promotion of biobanking as a basis for modern scientific infrastructure in biology and medicine.
Providing support in developing biobanks in Russia.
Development and implementation of recommendations, standards, regulations, operating rules, and documents for various types of biobanks.
Information exchange between specialists professionally engaged in biobanking activities.
Development of cooperation between biobanks to facilitate joint scientific projects, including academic and industrial-based, commercial, and noncommercial. Developing a national network of biobanks and improving efficiency of cooperation between various biobanks is considered being one of the major objectives.
Establishment and promotion of professional connections with specialists and professional societies representing other biomedical specialties.
Facilitation of international collaboration in biobanking.
Providing education services in biobanking.
Providing IP protection-related services relevant to biobanking.
Ongoing Activities: Early Experience
Educational activities and conferences
Even before the NASBIO Association was officially formed (i.e., in 2015–2018), key founding members of future NASBIO were organizing schools, workshops, and meetings dedicated to biobanking. Such activities served as highly useful tools to exchange up-to-date information and consolidate local biobanking professionals, and in fact laid the foundation for the launch of NASBIO itself. The first biobanking conference held after the official registration of NASBIO, in April 2019, brought together more than 100 participants: specialists from various regions of Russia, both academia, government, and industry, as well as international experts, and attracted significant attention from the scientific and medical community. The second NASBIO meeting was held in April 2020, with equal success.
Each October, NASBIO arranges an annual School in Biobanking, in which the 2-day program includes both lectures and workshops. NASBIO also actively participates in the associated symposium of the annual Congress of Vavilov Society of Geneticists and Breeders 11 and provides a platform for two to three lectures for members and nonmembers at its bimonthly meetings. In addition to these new routine activities, NASBIO contributes reports on biobanking to the sessions and sections within specialized meetings in oncology, reproductive medicine and neonatology, regenerative medicine, etc. Members of NASBIO regularly attend the key international conferences such as Europe Biobank Week, presenting the results of their national projects and successful experience of setting up biobanks in Russia.
The NASBIO website was established, 12 providing key information about its role, goals, and principles of biobanking, features of biobanking in Russia as well as the Board of Directors, Working Groups, membership rules, and active list of members. The NASBIO website provides information and materials for past and ongoing biobanking and educational activities (schools and workshops). Most important news critical for national professional community are provided. An English language webpage has also been developed. 13 Website performance monitoring confirms it is actively accessed by many users representing diverse geographical areas.
Publications
Publishing activity of NASBIO members in national and international peer-reviewed journals related to biobanking represents another important focus for the Association. PubMed and other international resources reference quite a limited number of articles citing Russian biobanks.1–3,8,9,14–21 This is inevitable though, since many biobanks undergo a prolonged organizational period before accumulating enough momentum in research to prepare their first articles.
There are no specialized biobanking journals in Russia, and several articles highlighting the role of biospecimens in translational and clinical research, ethical and psychological issues related to the responsibility to preserve and utilize human tissues for public benefit, and importance of biobanking for the development of personalized medicine and other relevant subjects, were recently published in national journals.21–25 We are currently seeking a national biomedical journal that will provide a NASBIO-specific section in which accredited biobanks could describe available collections of biospecimens and, conversely, scientists could find the possibility to describe the characteristics of samples they are looking for.
Furthermore, NASBIO aims to prepare and publish guidelines, aids, methods, and protocols in biobanking, in the Russian language, to serve as important basic educational and everyday reference tools useful for biobanking specialists involved in routine biobanking activities. Creation of a harmonized biobanking Glossary in the Russian language represents one more ongoing activity. Such a Glossary will be useful for the development of local standards, regulations, and tools.
Biobank networking in Russia
The interaction of biobanks increases the effectiveness of scientific research, and NASBIO actively promotes cooperation between various member biobanks, spreading contacts and sharing ideas. For example, a joint project of the Biobank of the National Medical Research Center for Preventive Medicine (Moscow, Russia) and the Biobank of Saint-Petersburg State University was initiated based on the contacts established within the Association. This provided a major boost to this project, dedicated to discovering novel gene targets associated with obesity and type 2 diabetes, shortening the project duration by more than a year. 26 Numerous other joint projects uniting various biobanks representing NASBIO members are currently under development.
Most biobanks operating in Russia are public biobanks, representing core facilities of clinical centers or medical research institutes. At the same time, a number of private biobanks, including research biobanks (e.g., Biobank of North Eurasia and National BioService) and clinical biobanks (e.g., Gemabank, International Medical Center for Processing and Cryopreservation of Biomaterials) also exist (Table 1). While public biobanks rely on state support and serve as the platform to perform research projects of large or even strategic scale, private biobanks are more flexible in terms of responding to researchers' needs and thus have higher biospecimen utilization rates.
Biobanks of both types are present among NASBIO members and interact routinely, exchanging their opinions and experiences. In particular, the perspectives and experiences of both types of biobanks are presented jointly during educational sessions, workshops, and meetings organized by NASBIO. This promotes mutual learning and improvement for both sides and clearly widens outlook of all participants, including many junior specialists.
Standardization represents a particularly important issue for Russian biobanks. While many biobanks worldwide are long established, utilize proven sets of documents and electronic platforms, and can attract experienced specialists, most Russian biobanks are relatively young and operate with a deficit of the resources outlined above. More importantly, until NASBIO was formed they operated disjointly, each developing their own protocols, procedures, and forms. This factor prevents optimal utilization of the existing legacy collections, and impedes large-scale, multicenter biobanking projects.
NASBIO dedicates considerable effort to developing standard protocols and forms, including case report forms for various groups of disorders. Developing and incorporating standards is essential for biobank networking: it allows performing effective joint studies using resources from various biobanks, while being able to rely on the quality of biospecimens collected, processed, and stored under standardized conditions.
NASBIO also plans to develop an electronic platform where existing collections of biospecimens available in the member biobanks will be registered and described in a uniform manner in terms of type of biospecimens, size and number of aliquots, consent status, inclusion and exclusion criteria applied, associated information, etc. We believe that such a platform will improve the utilization rate for both existing and prospective collections tremendously. However, significant financial support is required to develop that platform, and NASBIO is currently seeking funding from a grant opportunity to fulfill this task. For newer prospective collections performed in the member biobanks, we pursue using predominantly standardized protocols and forms, where possible, allowing for merging such collections, if necessary.
International cooperation
Since 2018, NASBIO members actively participate in global and regional ISBER and BBMRI-ERIC/ESBB meetings. International experts representing ISBER, BBMRI-ERIC, ESBB, universities, research centers, and biobanking equipment manufacturing companies are now routinely invited to participate in Russian national conferences and workshops organized by NASBIO. In 2018, a Russian translation of “ISBER Best Practices: Recommendations for Repositories, Fourth Edition” was prepared with the support of NASBIO member National BioService, LLC, an affiliate partner of ISBER in Russia, was released by ISBER, 27 and later also published as a hardcopy, with ISBER approval. 28
Later, “Addendum 1: Liquid Nitrogen-Based Cryogenic Storage of Specimens” was translated with the support of NASBIO and the National BioService, and also recently released by ISBER. 29 It should also be stressed that the number of international biobanking projects involving Russian biobanks grows annually, which correlates well with rapid expansion of biobanking infrastructure in Russia.
Russian biobanks (including NASBIO members) have taken an active role in international research projects for years now, and biospecimens of Russian origin are available for research for foreign partners throughout the world. NASBIO plans to provide an information platform and serve a coordinator's role to facilitate more effective interaction of Russian biobanks with both national and global partners. Requests addressed to NASBIO email (info@nasbio.ru) will be forwarded by the Secretary to the biobanks with appropriate profiles; alternatively, readers may use means of contact present in the Table 1, matched to the particular member biobanks.
NASBIO Plans for the Future
Key plans of NASBIO currently include:
Short-term (1–2 years):
Further expansion of the Association, aiming to include of all actively operating biobanks in Russia, including institutional and departmental, human and environmental.
Further optimization of operational routines, including those related to monthly meetings, preparing and holding annual schools and conferences, providing feedback to requests, improving sustainability, etc.
Preparing and publishing guidelines, training manuals, methods, and protocols in biobanking, in the Russian language.
Mid-term (3–5 years):
Contributing to the creation of national standards and regulations of biobanking, based on the consolidated expert position of the Association.
Launching a section on Biobanking in one of the national journals which specializes in experimental medicine.
Expanding the global presence of Russian biobanks and promoting their integration into international research projects.
Long-term (>5 years):
Achieving major progress in the utilization rate of Russian biobanks, by combining both conventional (website, meetings, etc.) and modern (social networks, digital platforms, etc.) means of information exchange.
Conclusion
Valuable biospecimen collections have been developed in Russia since the 20th century, but in the last decade we witnessed particularly rapid growth of collections and biobanks. The NASBIO was created in December 2018 to unite professionals and provide services in the field of biobanking. It currently unites 23 biobanks—majority of active biobanks in Russia—and many individual researchers.
Within <2 years, NASBIO organized research schools and conferences involving participants from academia, government, and industry. It also participated in translating and releasing ISBER Best Practices in the Russian language, simplifying access to this important resource for many Russian biobanks. Currently, the association aims to contribute to national regulations on biobanking, to develop an online platform presenting specimens available for researchers, and to launch a section on biobanking in one of the national biomedical journals.
The authors hope this review and the Association's website (nasbio.ru/en) will enhance the utilization rate of Russian biobanks and assist their further integration to the global professional community.
Footnotes
Acknowledgments
The authors thank all institutional and personal members of NASBIO for their professional support and unfading enthusiasm in developing biobanks to serve the progress of biomedicine.
Author Disclosure Statement
No conflicting financial interests exist.
Funding Information
No funding was received for this article.