What are the areas of work in a biobank? What are the basic aspects to be considered? What does a biobank laboratory need? And how is a repository set up? These and many other questions are now answered by a "starter kit" developed by the German Biobank Alliance (GBA) working group of the same name, led by Dr. Heidi Altmann (Integrated Liquid Biobank Dresden) and Dr. Daniel Brucker (Interdisciplinary Biobank and Database Frankfurt, iBDF). It is aimed in particular at "young" biobanks that are still in the process of being established and at those who are at the very beginning of planning a new biobank. Readers will benefit from the accumulated knowledge of the German Biobank Node (GBN) and the GBA over the last decade.
The starter kit is a structured, modular guide available in German on the OpenILIAS platform. It provides an overview of the most important aspects of biobanking as well as checklists and links to further information or templates. The modules are accompanied by a series of webinars.
The starter kit provides information on the following topics:
- Organisation and governance
- Finance
- Human resources
- ELSI
- Laboratory
- Repository
- IT
- Quality management
- Study and project management
- Further education and training
- Communications and public relations
Developments in biobanking in recent years have shown that the recommendations given here can by no means be regarded as permanent. The starter kit is therefore intended to be a 'living' knowledge base that will be continuously updated and supplemented.
Access to the starter kit is open to all OpenILIAS members of the GBA. If you are a GBA partner or observer but do not yet have an OpenILIAS account, please contact the GBN office (germanbiobanknode@charite.de).
Further information and links:
