Abstract
Biopreservation and Biobanking (BIO) is in its 21st year of publication in 2023. The growth of BIO over the past year was excellent, with a total of 197 submissions in 2022, a 15% increase over 2021 (171 submissions). The Impact Factor is currently 2.256, and the CiteScore is 3.8. The journal received submissions from 30 countries across the globe.
Articles published in 2022 covered a wide range of timely and important topics related to biopreservation and biobanking, including method validation and quality control; optimization of cryopreservation techniques; informatics; emerging technologies; ethical, legal, and social issues; biobank management and valuation; and biospecimen utilization. Although it is not possible to describe all of the excellent articles published in 2022, some of the articles and special issues published in 2022 are highlighted hereunder.
Quality control and method validation are essential for ensuring that the results of studies using biospecimens are scientifically sound and reproducible. Furthermore, process validation is a requirement for biobank accreditation under ISO 20387:2018 Biotechnology–Biobanking–General requirements for biobanking. Several articles published in BIO in 2022 addressed these critical issues.
Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology has been shown to be useful for a wide range of studies, including in vitro disease modeling, drug discovery, and clinical trials. However, questions have been raised about the risk of unreliable results of generating iPSCs from fibroblasts, and efforts have been made to address this issue.
In an article by Mommaerts et al, 1 the authors described the results of their studies to optimize the protocol for skin biopsy dissociation and fibroblast culture methodology for downstream mRNA reprogramming into iPSCs. They report that an explant-based dissociation method and homemade medium were optimal for isolating and cryopreserving fibroblasts from skin biopsies for reprogramming into iPSCs.
In Macente et al's study, 2 the protocol for vitrification of testicular fragments from adult domestic cats was studied, including the vitrification device, warming methods, and subsequent in vitro culture.
Crisol et al 3 reported some interesting results of their long-term research on the cryopreservation of articular cartilage, which showed the effectiveness of clinical-grade chondroitin sulfate and ascorbic acid in the mitigation of cryoprotectant toxicity in porcine articular cartilage.
A special recommendation to the readers is the report by Lin et al 4 about the cryopreservation and biobanking of coral reefs. They investigated coral tissue cryopreservation from 37 species. This study provides an important exploration of the conservation of corals and marine ecosystems.
Several articles published in BIO in 2022 concerned important issues related to successful biobank management and operations, such as biospecimen utilization and biobank valuation. To achieve optimal biospecimen utilization, biobanks must be able to meet the current scientific needs of the research community. Although the needs and perspectives of biobank end users are essential to biobank operations, this issue has not been widely reported in the literature.
To gather information on end-user needs and perspectives, Rush et al 5 performed an online survey of biospecimen researchers in Australia. Most researchers surveyed indicated that they had established their own biospecimen collections due to perceived gaps in sample availability, as well as a perceived increase in efficiency. The majority of biobanks accessed by researchers were situated locally. Cost was identified as the top factor influencing use of a particular biobank. In addition, reduced cost was the most frequently recommended improvement. To address these issues, the authors suggest that biobanks consider marketing plans to promote their ability to collect fit-for-purpose biospecimens and encourage use by local researchers. In addition, they recommend that biobanks carefully balance the end users' ability to pay with cost-recovery fee structures.
To achieve optimal biospecimen utilization, biobanks must not only be able to meet the current scientific needs but must be also able to adapt to changing scientific needs over time. To predict the demand for future biospecimen quality, Wotton et al 6 analyzed articles utilizing human biospecimens for cancer research over three time intervals (2000, 2010, and 2020) for their source and complexity. Over these periods, the authors reported increased use of dual biospecimen formats, matched samples and biospecimens with associated outcome data. They suggest that to optimize biospecimen utilization, biobanks may need to adjust their operating models to better meet the needs of researchers for these types of biospecimens.
Several articles published in 2022 in BIO addressed important ethical, legal, and social issues related to biobanking and research use of human biospecimens, including relevant regulations, informed consent, public trust, and trustworthiness in biobanking. The collection, storage, distribution, and use of human biospecimens and associated data for research are subject to complex regulatory and ethical frameworks that may be challenging to implement.
In an article by Beusink et al, 7 the authors examined the factors that facilitate or hinder the implementation of the Netherlands Code of Conduct that governs the secondary use of residual biospecimens in that country. The study employed a mixed methods design, using surveys and interviews of pathologists, physicians, researchers, review boards, and data protection managers. Challenges identified in implementing the code were insufficient resources and knowledge about how to interpret the code and translate it into daily practice. The respondents noted the need for greater clarity regarding the interpretation of the code concerning the secondary use of biospecimens and associated data. The authors recommend that some interventions are needed to foster the implementation of the code, such as checklists and other practical tools, with active engagement of researchers, review boards, and data protection officers. In an article by Miranda et al, 8 the authors describe their risk assessment of their biobank's activities under the U.K. Human Tissue Act of 2004 (HTA). The act regulates the removal, storage, use, and disposal of human biological material, including the use of such material for research. One of the requirements of the regulation is to regularly perform risk assessments for processes and procedures related to the use of human biospecimens in research.
In the article, the authors describe the risks identified for their biobank, including those concerning consent, damage, or loss of samples during transport, ethical approval, mislabeling or misidentifying of samples, malfunctioning storage facilities and equipment, and unauthorized access to samples. The authors also suggest measures to control these risks and ensure compliance with the HTA.
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted challenges to the secondary use of human biospecimens in research. Remnant biospecimens collected during routine care are extremely valuable for research. However, there is a general uncertainty regarding how the various regulatory schema in various countries apply to their use in research and whether individuals whose biospecimens are used in research would agree to waive their right to consent, particularly in the face of a sudden outbreak of a new infectious disease.
Gao et al 9 conducted an online survey in China to determine the willingness to donate remnant human biospecimens in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. They found that the majority of respondents would be willing to donate their left-over biospecimens for research without their informed consent in the context of a pandemic like COVID-19. The major reasons for the unwillingness to waive consent were privacy concerns and a lack of understanding of the proposed research.
Two special issues of BIO were published in 2022; one on cryobiology–cryopreservation and the other on emerging markets and technologies.
In the special issue entitled “Cryobiology in Biobanking,” a series of interesting articles were published to present recent advancements in fundamental and applied cryobiology, as well as optimal preservation techniques for various biospecimens from different species, by researchers from all over the world. In biobanking, low temperature is usually utilized to keep living biospecimens dormant but potentially alive for long-term cryopreservation. However, there is an apparent contradiction between the purpose of cryopreservation and experimental findings that the living biospecimen can be killed by the cryopreservation process itself. Therefore, the development of optimal preservation protocols is essential to ensure the survival of the cryopreserved biospecimens. This requires optimizing the selection of the cryoprotective agents (CPAs) with maximum cryoprotective functions and minimum chemical toxicity and the procedures for adding and removing CPAs to prevent osmotic injury. In addition, it requires optimizing cooling and rewarming conditions/programs to avoid lethal intracellular ice formation, severe dehydration during the freezing process, and deadly ice recrystallization or devitrification during the warming process.
Two articles in the fundamental cryobiology field were included in this special issue. In Huang et al's article, 10 most critical cryobiological characteristics of human umbilical vein endothelial cells were investigated, including the cell membrane hydraulic conductivity, membrane permeability activation energy, osmotically inactive cell volume, intracellular ice formation, and cell volume excursion during cooling at different cooling rates. This study and the results are needed for predicting and determining the optimal cooling protocol for cryopreservation. Ren et al 11 presented a novel single-mode electromagnetic resonance technology for the ultrarapid and uniform rewarming of cryopreserved cells, tissues, and organs, preventing ice recrystallization and thermal stress-induced fractures.
Among the selected articles on advanced biopreservation techniques, one article is about the postpreservation processing of biosamples. Eivazkhani et al
12
investigated the effects of N-acetyl-
Among the articles regarding best practices or optimization of biopreservation protocols, de Araújo et al 13 evaluated the hypothermic storage or transport of bovine ear skins in refrigerators at 5°C. The results showed that refrigeration at 5°C was efficient in maintaining viable tissues for up to 30 days, and fibroblasts isolated from the preserved skin tissues were qualified to be used for cloned embryo production. However, significant changes did occur to the cells (e.g., cell attachment, proliferation, viability) after a long period of hypothermic storage. This study demonstrated a convenient and cost-effective storage method in the settings of genetic obtainment and applications for cloning through somatic cell nuclear transfer. In the other articles, either freeze–thaw or vitrification was applied as the cryopreservation approach.
Fertility preservation by preserving sperm, spermatogonial stem cells, and ovarian or testicular tissues is still one major field of research interest, even though this has been extensively studied for more than seven decades ever since the very beginning of modern cryopreservation in the late 1940s (the first successfully cryopreserved mammalian cell type was sperm). This may be contributed not only by the continuous needs or unsolved challenges in fertility preservation, regenerative medicine, and conservation of endangered species, but also by the discrepancy in the response to cryopreservation for sperm from different species.
The selected articles represented some work about the cryopreservation of sperm or spermatogonial stem cells from different species, including human, 14 goat,15,16 mouse, 17 and fish. 18 Obviously, searching for novel and effective cryoprotectants is still the major research topic, especially antioxidants to mitigate the damages caused by reactive oxygen species.
The efficiency of a few cryoprotectants was investigated, such as hydrated carbon 60 fullerene, 15 cyclohexanediol, 16 trehalose, 16 astaxanthin Ghantabpour et al, 14 and melatonin. 17 These cryoprotectants were demonstrated to possess cryoprotective, antioxidant, or antiapoptotic effects and could improve the cell survival rate after cryopreservation. Liang et al 16 also presented a method to assess the ultrastructural alterations of sperm by transmission electron microscope.
Besides sperm preservation, cryopreservation of human aortic endothelial cells with trehalose was investigated by Huang et al. The results showed that trehalose could work as an inducer of autophagy to improve the expression of some autophagy-related genes, and reduce apoptosis and cell death during cryopreservation. This may provide a new perspective on the cryoprotection mechanism of trehalose, the “magic molecule” in cryopreservation.
Emerging markets and technologies represent a new section established for BIO in 2022, with Section Editors Rohit Gupta and Zisis Kozlakidis. This new section is intended to highlight novel techniques and platforms for the collection, preservation, transport, and analysis of biospecimens as well as biobanking management and operations. Articles in the special issue on this topic included a review by Jacott et al of modular software for different biobanking activities. 19 In addition, articles in the issue highlighted novel devices and techniques for sample preservation and sample management solutions that standardize important biobanking processes. A new ethical issue was presented and discussed by Shirakashi et al, 20 the decarbonization of biobanking.
In summary, it was an excellent year for the journal. Thanks to our Deputy Editors Dayong Gao and Peter Watson, Asian Editor Junmei Zhou, European Editor William Mathieson, and the many experts on our editorial board for their work in ensuring the success of the journal, the authors who contributed articles, and the many reviewers without whom the publication of the journal would not be possible. Finally, many thanks to Jim Vaught and John Baust for their outstanding service as previous editors-in-chief for the journal and who brought the journal to where it is today. We look forward to another great year for the journal in 2023!