Top 10 Most Interesting Facts from the Biorepostories Conference

About the author: Alex Gelman is the Managing Partner of Poplar Partners, an investment firm looking to acquire a company in the biorepository space. Before founding Poplar Partners, he worked at KKR Capstone, the operating arm of private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis and Roberts, and at McKinsey &Co. He has an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA from Dartmouth College.

Top 10 Most Interesting Facts from the Biorepostories Conference

Today’s blog post takes a little inspiration from David Letterman. Below are the top 10 things I learned at the 6th Biorepository and Sample Management Conference, and a credit to the providers of the facts.

1. 1. Several gaps that exist in standardization include difficulty reusing samples and variance in ethical use, difficulty with metaprocessing and data analysis, and loss of integrity and tacking impacts future research use. (Lori Ball – Standardization Workshop)
2. 2. One of the greatest obstacles in the Biobank industry is the lack of a universal language, which hinders the growth of future biomedical research. (Mark Collins)
3. 3. Biobanked samples are vital to developing future drug processes and effectively addressing/answering regulatory authority questions and concerns during drug registration. (Arunthi Thiagalingam)
4. 4. The BBRB, the U.S. National Cancer Institute Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research Branch, was created in 2005 to address how variability in biospecimen collection, processing, and storage procedures may affect reproducibility of basic and clinical research results as well as the variability that may affect the progress and effectiveness of molecular or “personalized” medicine. (Helen Moore)
5. 5. Some of the key features of BioSMARTS include location and inventory management, query or search tools, document attachment functionality, and compliance with applicable data privacy and bioethics. (Jean Cavallo)
6. 6. The scarcity of robust, appropriate, and sufficient clinically annotated biospecimens is a major factor limiting the widespread implementation of companion diagnostics. (Jeffry Lawrence)
7. 7. Global Pharma Biorepository Typical Workflows follows this cycle: Planning, Trial Setup, Primary Testing, Inventory Management, and Post Primary Testing. (Ken Wilke)
8. 8. Without the time or resources to build and a lack of transport expertise in biobanks are two of the many reasons to outsource your biorepository services rather than to build it in house. (Lori Ball)
9. 9. The Cascade system uses oil lubrication with wear, stop-start operation, and surge current at start-up and on-off cycling, which differs from the Stirling system that encompasses gas bearings in a non-contact operation with no wear, continuous operation with modulation, and no surge content. (Neil Lane)
10. 10. There are three different biobank models: (Angen Liu)

1. - Prospective Collection Model – samples are collected to meet the investigator’s specific requirements
2. - Banking model – samples of potential interest are collected and stored until needed
3. -Clinical trial model – samples are collected from a clinical trial

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