International Biospecimens Initiatives

The Australasian Biospecimen Network
The ABN seeks to provide a forum to address technical, legal, ethical, and managerial issues relevant to human biorepositories in Australia and New Zealand.

Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure
The BBMRI is a Pan-European effort to develop a network of new and existing biospecimen resources. Currently in a preparatory phase, the BBMRI seeks to build on existing resources, complemented by new and innovative components.

International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories
The primary goal of the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories, ISBER, is to provide information and guidance on the safe and effective management of specimen collections. ISBER was founded in 2000 as an educational forum for discussion of repository management and dissemination of information on operational issues. The society serves to pool and share collective knowledge and experiences with colleagues. This knowledge helps member repositories operate more efficiently in managing and preserving their collections.

Karolinska Institutet Biobank
Karolinska Institutet (KI) Biobank constitutes a national, non-commercial resource for collection, handling, and storage of human biological material aiming at promoting scientific excellence within molecular and genetic research.

onCore UK
onCore UK is an organization set up as a collaboration by the UK's largest governmental and nongovernmental agencies in the fight against cancer - the Department of Health (England), the Medical Research Council and Cancer Research UK. The mission of onCore UK is to serve as a national biosample and information resource to enable research towards the discovery and development of new interventions against cancer.

Singapore Tissue Network
The Singapore Tissue Network (STN) is a national, non-profit research tissue and DNA bank funded by Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research. The STN will work in close partnership with Singapore's key medical and research institutions to collect, process, archive and distribute high quality biological samples in support of research needs.

SPIDIA
SPIDIA is a 4-year project, funded by the European Union FP7 program to the value of 9 million Euros, which brings together a consortium of 16 leading academic institutions, international organizations and life sciences companies. The project is coordinated by QIAGEN GmbH and aims to tackle the standardization and improvement of pre-analytical procedures for in-vitro diagnostics. The proposed research and standardization activities cover all steps from creation of evidence-based guidelines to creation of tools for the pre-analytical phase to testing and optimization of these tools through the development of novel assays and biomarkers.

UK Biobank, Ltd.
UK Biobank is a long-term project aimed at building a comprehensive resource for medical researchers. The full project started in 2006, and will gather information on the health and lifestyle of 500,000 volunteers aged between 40 and 69.