DATA MANAGEMENT: BIOBANKING
A booming banking sector
Biobanks have their own unique requirements in terms of data management and, with increasing amounts of molecular data being generated around biobank samples, sophisticated informatics solutions are essential, as Greg Blackman finds out
The increased focus on translational research has placed greater emphasis on biobanking as a source of samples for researchers to tap into. The value of these repositories doesn’t lie solely in the samples themselves, but in the metadata associated with each specimen. Researchers studying diseases like cancer can access samples based on criteria specified in the metadata, such as age and health information about the patient, as well as the type and stage of tumour tissue stored, among other information. Facilities will use Laboratory Information
Management Systems (LIMS) firstly simply to book samples in and out of the bank, as Nial Hodge, IT support at the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, University of Liverpool Cancer Research Centre, comments. He says that LIMS improved the centre’s booking- in process and a proper booking-out system did not exist prior to LIMS. The foundation conducts lung cancer research and is using Autoscribe’s Matrix Gemini LIMS to manage its tissue bank samples. Tissue samples will often be sourced with
the cooperation of surgeons and hospital staff, as Lorrie Perpetua, coordinator for the University of Connecticut Health Center Research Biorepository, explains: ‘There are several surgeons that participate and identify appropriate candidates (for tissue). The consent of the patient is obtained and through the cooperation of the surgeon, the
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operating room staff and the pathology staff will coordinate with the centre’s [University of Connecticut] biorepository for the collection of tissue.’ Any leftover tissue after pathology diagnosis is stored at the biobank. The University of Connecticut’s biobank
currently stores around 2,600 tissue and blood samples, as well as patient data obtained from consented individuals, as a source of material for researchers within the University of Connecticut. The biorepository uses LabWare LIMS as
an inventory program, to track the sample movement, and to attach clinical and
laboratory information that researchers might require, such as age, type of tumour, and cross- sectional images of tissue. ‘A really important aspect for the researchers is the clinical information provided with the sample and the ability to store this information is something that standard inventory programs typically don’t have,’ says Perpetua. Trish Meek, director of product strategy,
life sciences, informatics at Thermo Fisher Scientific, specifies that a biobanking LIMS ‘needs to be able to simplify inventory management and ensure that associated sample data, like chain of custody and patient consent, are available at every level of the hierarchy’. She also notes that LIMS should integrate easily with instrumentation and automation systems. As well as storage, scientists need to be able
to search for samples to make sample requests. ‘Creating a request is only the start of the process,’ says Meek. ‘[Using LIMS] customers of biobanks will be able to track the progress of their request from creation to fulfilment.’
Storage solutions… A liquid nitrogen repository.
SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING WORLD APRIL/MAY 2010
www.scientific-computing.com
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