Sunday, November 6th: 1:30 - 3:30 pm
Information Management: Conquering the Complexity of Biobanking
Biobanks provide the resource for researchers to increase our understanding of complex disease. Biosample resources come together through a complex chain of cooperation across collection, preservation, storage, retrieval, and research. The value of these biosamples lies not only in the samples themselves but with the metadata associated with each specimen. Information Management (IM) helps simplify data from inventory management to database integration through to data analysis. Learn from biobank managers and IT professionals as they share their experience of conquering the complexity of biobanking.
Designing the IM system to meet and adjust to growth:
- Inventory management
- Data capture and data tracking
- Quality control
- Chain-of-custody
- Integration of instrumentation and automation systems
- Improving operations
- Data sharing
- Data mining
1:30 Chairperson's Opening Remarks
1:40 QC/QM of Biosamples in Cancer Biobanks: LIMS
Pedro Rondot Radío, M.D., Executive Director, Public National Oncologic Serum Biobank, University of Buenos Aires - Biography
With the advancement of science, the high quality of biosamples continues to grow. But this is not a top concern for researchers who are often charged with managing enormous volumes of both samples and relevant data. LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System-Solutions) can deliver functionality for the needs of the biobanking industry, and they are specifically designed to address the challenges of specimen collecton, tracking and storage.
To facilitate the interplay between R&D and biospecimen management, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are increasingly turning to LIMS to manage the SOPs and workflow in biobanks, because of the automation of different softwares to facilitate the approval process for the government institutions for NDA (New Drug Applications).
The volume of biological samples and the associated medical records stored in biobanks need a powerful data management system to gather, store, sort and retrieve data in a useable format. When researchers make a sample request, they need to be able to query the patient information to select the correct sample without violating the patients´ privacy.
I will also present a brief talk about "the short experience" in our Serum Biobank (sample collection, storage (SOPs), and data handling (our software "Tumor Bank).
2:10 Building a Flexible Informatics Guided Workflow to Improve the Quality of Biobanking Operations
Rao Mulpuri, Director, Center for Translational Research, CIRI, Catholic Health Initiatives - Biography
In contrast to single-site academic hospitals, networks of community-based hospitals enable vast, demographically diverse, biospecimen collection. Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) is committed to bringing cutting-edge research and treatments to its 73 hospitals in 19 states. Facilitating the advancement and integration of personalized medicine, CHI has established the Center for Translational Research (CTR) which is comprised of a biorepository, a molecular diagnostic lab, and a research lab. By engaging CHI physicians and leveraging diagnostic testing infrastructure, the CTR has established state-of-the-art biorepository facilities to enable innovation and advance personalized medicine with in their communities. Using an IRB-approved protocol, the CTR collects biospecimens from eligible cancer patients and associated clinical and longitudinal follow-up data for up to 10years. We describe the collaboration with BioFortis in implementing a Labmatrix-based IT framework that guides data collection, management and exploration of patient and molecular data.
2:40 Infrastructure Implementation for Whole Human Brain Collection, Storage and Processing for a Large-Scale Human Brain Atlas of Gene Expression
Zackery Riley, Manager, Tissue Procurement and Process Development, Allen Institute for Brain Science - Biography
The Allen Human Brain Atlas is the first-ever anatomically-comprehensive gene expression map of the human brain, integrating classical histology with MR imaging and genome-wide microarray-based expression profiling. This effort required the development of many new operational processes and protocols that: (1) met criteria for high-quality tissue and genetic material; (2) enabled consistent neuroanatomic orientation and identification; and (3) were standardizable for implementation in a high-throughput laboratory environment.
The audience will be provided with a technical perspective of the processes involved in procuring, processing and housing a large and diverse portfolio of 'normal' human brain tissue for the creation of a human brain atlas.
3:10 Panel Discussion with Speakers
3:30 Close of Short Course One with Networking Refreshment Break
*Separate registration required.