gms | German Medical Science

Background: There has been and remains a global need for samples in order to support research. Never has that demand been greater with the COVID-19 pandemic in our midst. National programmes have been created to coordinate biobanks in each country and also across borders, such as BBMRI-ERIC. However, no two biobanks are the same and therefore the challenge is to build a national search system across all biobanks that works for all.

Methods: The UKCRC Tissue Directory and Coordination Centre (BBMRI.uk) was setup in 2014 with the aim of making biobanks more discoverable and ultimately used more by a wider range of researchers. BBMRI.uk has engaged in significant work with the researcher community as well as a novel approach to industry to find novel solutions.

Results: The result of the work is an in-depth understanding that has led to a strategy of engagement for both the researchers and the biobanks. BBMRI.uk has developed a mixed strategy to enable biobanks to register their collections. There is an option for those with a single collection, an option for those that have a laboratory information system in place (but limited scale of data) and lastly a solution for some of the largest cohorts from the United Kingdom. At the same time, the work with researchers revealed the factors and data that are perceived to be most valuable when seeking to discover biobanks. New versions of the search interfaces have been prototyped to ensure further relevance to the researcher community.

Conclusion: BBMRI.uk is able to demonstrate increased use of biobanks in the United Kingdom from the use of the Tissue Directory. The strategy has worked by catering for both rather local collections as well as large national cohorts such as Generation Scotland. The engagement with industry has accelerated the work faster than what could have been achieved alone and therefore is making the biobanks of the United Kingdom discoverable internationally.

Dr. Quinlan is an advisor to BC Platforms.

The authors declare that an ethics committee vote is not required.