Explore Biobanking Issues: Get to Know ISBER's Working Groups and Special Interest Groups

Biospecimen Science WG—Biospecimens stored in biorepositories are intended to be used for biomarker identification and validation. The performance of such biomarkers greatly depends on the preanalytical variations of the samples that were used for their initial identification. These variations introduced during specimen processing can alter the actual experimental data, potentially leading to misinterpretation of findings. Quality assurance on this issue is, therefore, of utmost importance and allows one to establish the right correlation between processing methods and end-use biomarkers. Lalita Wadhwa recently took over the leadership of this group.

Enviro-Bio WG—The Enviro-Bio WG's mission is to provide the ISBER communication forum for environmental, biological, and animal (e.g., “enviro-bio”) biospecimens and biobanks with an aim to represent these biobanks' needs and integrate them into ISBER activities and products. Their current activities center around defining and integrating enviro-bio terminology into ISBER products, e.g., by contributing enviro-bio content to ISBER educational material and training programs. In the past, the Enviro-Bio WG has led conference workshops on interdisciplinary collaborations and on international regulations. The group is chaired by Piper Mullins.

Informatics WG—The ISBER Informatics WG includes representatives from ISBER member vendors who provide custom built and Commercial Off-the-Shelf Software systems, as well as members who are involved in informatics within a repository. The mission of the Informatics Working Group includes ongoing development of best practices for information management to support biobanking. Cheryl Michels took over the leadership of this WG in September 2022.

International Repository Locator WG—This is an initiative to help investigators locate biospecimen and data repositories via a directory of repository information that can be searched online. The International Repository Locator also seeks to increase the profile of research and biobanking activities being supported by individual repositories among key global stakeholders including scientific societies, researchers, funding bodies, governments, consortia, and private industry.

Pharma WG—Pharma Biospecimen WG—The WG exists to identify and address challenging topics facing industry (pharma, biotech, diagnostics, and scientific services) through shared industry experience and expertise. In addition, the WG promotes the requirements of industry within the ISBER community and seeks to grow attendance from the industry sector at the ISBER annual meeting. The membership is predominantly from the pharma and industry life sciences sector but aims to build alignment and shared objectives with the wider biobanking community and across different sectors.

Automated Repositories SIG—Automated repositories present challenging issues with regard to design, sample process, data process, and labware. The quantity of environmental and biological specimens and derivatives is rising and will continue to do so. Automation of processes to collect, prepare, distribute, and archive materials and data associated with those materials become compelling as laboratory operations increase. Interoperability and facile exchange of specimens and data among collections are critical. The Automated Repositories SIG meets to present automation experiences, share learning, and answer questions about implementing automation. The group is chaired by Andy Zaayenga and Jessica Bilyeu.

Pediatric SIG—As pediatric biobanking and adult biobanking are fundamentally different, the ISBER Pediatric SIG focuses on pediatric biobanking-specific topics. These topics include the often small number of samples obtained from pediatric patients, the relative rarity of most childhood diseases, the hereditary nature of a significant amount of childhood diseases assent and capacity to consent to name a few! This SIG provides leadership in pediatric biobanking, develops pediatric biobanking guidelines, and fosters collaborations. A pediatric specific BIO issue was published in 2021. The group started in 2017, and is led by Suzanne Vercauteren.

Rare Disease SIG—Rare diseases are a clinically heterogeneous group of ∼7000 disorders that are mostly genetic in origin. Rare diseases affect mostly children, are commonly diagnosed during childhood, and often have deleterious long-term effects. Their cumulative public concern around the world is substantial. Unfortunately, only a small portion of these disorders has an effective drug therapy.

To expand our scientific knowledge of these disorders, increased effort is needed to invest in initiatives addressing obstacles in children participation in research, including collection and access to pediatric samples. To increase the participation of ISBER members in this group and based on experience/outcome, the group recently transitioned from rare disease (RD) WG to RD SIG. The plan is to regroup the members who are interested in RDs to share and discuss emerging issues and new development in the field of rare diseases. The group is led by Yaffa Rubinstein.