BIOBANKING AROUND THE WORLD
the [fixing] process, where we’ll
see the fixation of critical tissue
portions in the operating room,
or freezing tissue right in the
operating room,” Rimm says.
A number of countries have launched their own national
tumor and tissue banks; others are teaming up to
share resources. Here are a few of the largest biobanks and
biobanking networks:
TAKING MATTERS INTO
THEIR OWN HANDS
It’s easy to imagine that once
a tumor sample is fixed, it’s
ready for research, and cancer
investigators would collaborate
in the spirit of conquering the
disease. But that’s usually not the
case. In general, researchers’ only
access to usable tumor samples is
from their own institutions.
To get around this roadblock,
oncologist Anthony Tolcher set
up his own tumor bank. Two years
ago, Tolcher founded South Texas
Accelerated Research Therapeutics
(START) in San Antonio, Texas,
which aims to accelerate the
development of cancer drugs.
“Access to tumor biopsies is
rarely available to the people
developing the drugs,” he says.
“We felt that we could actually
make a difference by making
[the tumor bank] open to other
academic centers, and big and small
pharmaceutical companies.”
Within the next two years,
Tolcher wants to amass a collection
of 10,000 tumor samples, most
of which will come from START
patients. He hopes to produce
research-ready slides with breast
and colon cancer tumor tissue
later this year.
BIOBANK JAPAN
www.src.riken.jp/english/project/person
• National; collects tissue from hospital patients and the
general population
• Focuses on common diseases and pharmacogenomic research
BIOBANKING AND BIOMOLECULAR RESOURCES
RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE
www.bbmri.eu
• Network of new and existing biobanks
• Brings together 200 organizations in 24 European Union
countries; already manages 10 million samples
ESTONIAN GENOME PROJECT
www.geenivaramu.ee
• National; collects tissue from the general population
• Started collecting tissue samples in 2002; hopes to reach
100,000 samples in the next three to four years
SINGAPORE TISSUE NETWORK
www.stn.org.sg
• Tissue and DNA bank for translational and
population research
• Collects, processes and disseminates tissue samples
for specific research projects
CR | Page No. 41 | www.CRmagazine.org
UK BIOBANK
www.ukbiobank.ac.uk
• National; collects tissue from the general population
• Recruited its first donors in 2006; hopes to have 500,000
donors aged 40 to 69
For a list of more biobanks around the world, visit the
Confederation of Cancer Biobanks at
www.ncri.org.uk/ccb/links.html.
Source: Carolyn Compton
