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Fig 2. Blood samples collected by the Biorepository before COVID-19 and during the pandemic.
years on the service has grown, now suppling researchers all over the world with a variety of human tissue samples for research. Often researchers will come back for further research in areas because of the service provision, which would not be possible without biorepository support, including during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Indeed in 2024, the NHS GG&C
Biorepository became the first in the UK, and eighth in the world, to be accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) for ISO 20387:2018, which is the international standard for biobank quality and operational competence.2 The accreditation demonstrates the biorepository’s commitment to the highest standards of sample provision including traceability, governance, and continuous quality improvement. This article explores how biomedical science and pathology techniques are used to assist the operations of the NHS GG&C Biorepository and highlights its contributions to important research projects like the Siren COVID-19 vaccination study and Radiogenomics. These examples of human tissue research will illustrate how biobanking is used to meet the needs of clinical research into areas like precision diagnostics and personalised medicine.
The NHS GG&C Biorepository The NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde Biorepository serves as a centralised, ethically governed location for the acquisition, processing, and provision of biological samples for research. Working in close partnership with pathology departments, clinical teams, and researchers, the Biorepository enables access to a wide range of surplus diagnostic samples, approved for research use under biorepository delegated tissue bank ethics.
Only samples that are not required for clinical diagnosis and care with appropriate authorisation, are considered for research. These include formalin-fixed paraffin wax-embedded (FFPE) tissue blocks, fresh frozen tissue, serum, plasma, whole blood, and extracted nucleic acids. All samples are anonymised to protect patient confidentiality, while allowing ethical and well-governed research. The Biorepository has its own tissue bank ethics approval for the provision of surplus diagnostic samples for research. These samples allow the progression of over 100 research projects per year. The Biorepository staff are also involved in the supply of human tissue samples for clinical trials which have project specific ethics approval. Trained Biorepository staff are
responsible for the identification, retrieval, and processing of specimens according to the specific needs of each research project. This may involve sectioning FFPE tissue for molecular analysis, preparing fresh tissue for cell culture or organoid work, or aliquoting and stabilising blood components for biomarker discovery, which was vital during the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19 – adaptation and resilience of the Biorepository The first case study describes the work carried out by the Biorepository for COVID-19 research work on the Siren project. In 2020, with elective surgeries essentially postponed and an overwhelming increase in requests for access to patient blood samples rather than solid tissue, the Biorepository swiftly found itself having to adapt to different working practices and collection methods. Whilst other research and diagnostic teams were reducing attendance in laboratories so that social distancing could be maintained, and working with
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decreased hours or furloughed staff; the Biorepository team were finding themselves at the opposite end of the spectrum, with an increased workload and pressures. Coupled with the complexities of some members of the team needing to be at home with children and any incidences of self-isolation due to the pandemic, staff were working at maximum capacity with stretched resources and heightened apprehension about what lay ahead. The Biorepository team was asked to train and become competent in blood, sputum and urine processing methods in order to support the establishment of a large COVID-19 biobank. We had to implement sample collection pathways across GG&C from diagnostic biochemistry and haematology laboratories all within very short timelines and for immediate delivery. The Human Tissue Governance Manager and Management Review Group had to turn around applications, approvals and associated contracts with much quicker timelines than usual and at the same time ensure all appropriate governance and ethical responsibilities were still in place to meet all the NHS Research Scotland accreditation standards and legislation.
The rapid collection of blood samples
For several years the Biorepository had collected a small number of surplus ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and serum separating tube (SST) samples required by various projects. During the early part of the pandemic this increased dramatically as shown in Figure 2. This meant that the department already had a good relationship with the Haematology and Biochemistry departments in the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and Glasgow Royal Infirmary, which were happy to cooperate in saving the samples to collect. Around 15,000 diagnostic blood samples pass through the Biochemistry and Haematology departments each day. The challenge was to identify and collect as many of those samples that had been taken from donors with a previous positive PCR test for COVID-19. Biochemistry uses an automated ‘track’ system to process its samples which are stored for four days in case the clinicians request a further test, before being disposed of into clinical waste bins. The Biorepository would collect these bins and scan the SST samples to identify those suitable for processing. This ‘track’ system was helpful as the laboratory could separate out known COVID-19 samples by entering a
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Number of sample tubes
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