International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories


The International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories is the largest international forum that addresses the technical, legal, ethical, and managerial issues relevant to repositories of biological and environmental specimens. ISBER is a professional society of individuals and organizations who share an interest in promoting consistent, high quality standards, ethical principles and innovation in biospecimen banking by uniting the global biobanking community. ISBER invites all sub-components of government, academia, the private sector, and manufacturers to become active participants of the society.

Mission

ISBER is a global organization which creates opportunities for sharing ideas and innovations in biobanking and harmonizes approaches to evolving challenges for biological and environmental repositories.
ISBER fosters collaboration, creates education and training opportunities, provides an international showcase for state-of-the-art policies, processes, and research findings, and innovative technologies, products, and services. Together, these activities promote best practices that cut across the broad range of repositories that ISBER serves.

Vision

ISBER will be the leading global forum for promoting harmonized high quality standards, ethical principles, and innovation in the science and management of biorepositories.

Membership

Membership includes organizations and individuals from over 30 countries involved in long-term preservation and storage of animal, environmental, human, microorganism culture, museum, and plant/seed collections.

Members

ISBER has members from all around the world. Here are some of them:
Abbott Informatics
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
Accelerated Cure Project for MS
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
Administrator, Health Sciences Core Research Facilities
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
Alberta Cancer Research Biobank
Canada
Geographic Region: Americas
Analytical Biological Services, Inc
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
Artel
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
Canada
Geographic Region: Americas
Asterand Bioscience
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
Aurora Research Institute
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
AutoGen, Inc.
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
BC Cancer Agency Tumour Tissue Repository
Canada
Geographic Region: Americas
BC Children's Hospital
Canada
Geographic Region: Americas
Beaumont Health System
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
Biobank of the Repository Health Network of FRQS
Canada
Geographic Region: Americas
BioCision, LLC
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
BioFortis, Inc.
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
BioLife Solutions, Inc.
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
Biomatrica
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
BioRepository Resources, LLC
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
BioSero
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
BioStorage Technologies, Inc
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
BioTillion
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
Blood Systems Research Inst
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
Boston Children's Hospital
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
Brigham & Womens Hospital
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
Brooks Automation
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
Canadian Tissue Repository Network
Canada
Geographic Region: Americas
CGI
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
CHTN Eastern Division
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
CloudLIMS
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
Comprehensive Cancer Center-Univ. of Puerto Rico
Geographic Region: Americas
Conversant Bio
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
Core Cryolab Inc
Canada
Geographic Region: Americas
Coriell Inst for Med Research
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
Cryogenic Control
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
Cryoport, Inc
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
CryoXtract Instruments
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
Cureline, Inc
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
Dataworks Development, Inc.
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
Department of Veterans Affairs
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
Diversified Laboratory Repair, Inc.
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
Duke University
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
Eastern Virginia Medical School
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
Eli Lilly and Company
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
Elpro Services Inc.
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
EMMC Cancer Care Biorepository
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
EPL Archives, Inc
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
Eversight
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
Farrar Scientific Corporation
United States
Geographic Region: Americas
The complete list is available over official website.

Meetings

ISBER holds one international meeting each year. Lectures, workshops, poster presentations, and working group discussions focus on technical issues and challenges such as quality assurance and control, regulations, human subject privacy and confidentiality issues, and provide information about sources of equipment and expertise.

ISBER Annual Meeting Locations

The availability of high quality biological and environmental specimens for research purposes requires the development of standardized methods for collection, long-term storage, retrieval and distribution of specimens that will enable their future use. Sharing successful strategies for accomplishing this goal is one of the driving forces for the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories.
ISBER's Best Practices for Repositories reflects the collective experience of its members and has received broad input from other repository professionals. Throughout this document effective practices are presented for the management of specimen collections and repositories. The term "Best Practice" is used in cases where a level of operation is indicated that is above the basic recommended practice or, more specifically, designates the most effective practice. It is understood that repositories in certain locations or with particular financial constraints may not be able to adhere to each of the items designated as "Best Practices". Repositories fitting into either of these categories will need to decide how they might best adhere to these recommendations within their particular circumstances. While adherence to ISBER Best Practices is strictly on a voluntary basis, it is important to note that some aspects of specimen management are governed by national/federal, regional and local regulations. The reader should refer directly to regulations for their national/federal, regional and local requirements, as appropriate.
The ISBER Best Practices are periodically reviewed and revised to reflect advances in research and technology. The third edition of the Best Practices builds on the foundation established in the first and second editions which were published in 2005 and 2008, respectively.

Current Best Practices

ISBER Best Practices For Repositories: Collection, Storage, Retrieval and Distribution of Biological Materials for Research provides repository professionals with standardized guidelines for the management of biobank specimen collections and repositories. The most current version of the ISBER Best Practices was published in Biopreservation and Biobanking, April 2012 issue.

Self-Assessment Tool (SAT)

ISBER has created this Self-Assessment Tool to assist repository operators in determining how well their repository follows the ISBER Best Practices for Repositories.The assessment is confidential and aimed at helping specimen collection centers strengthen their practices through the identification of areas in need of improvement.
ISBER provides a yearly anonymized SAT result summary, found on the ISBER website here .

SAT Information

The tool contains 158 questions which may be answered in a single or multiple sessions. Each page of the survey corresponds to a section of the ISBER Best Practices. Results from pilot tests indicated that the SAT takes a little over an hour to complete if all required information is available at the time of completing the survey. The tool is free to ISBER members, and non-members may participate for a fee.
After completion of the SAT, a personalized e-mail is sent to the participant which includes a "risk-balanced assessment score" and notification of top deviation areas to help the participant evaluate how their current practices conform to the ISBER Best Practices. The score is based on possible risk to the specimens, frequency of implementation of each practice, and the ease with which deviations can be detected.

Biorepository Proficiency Testing Program

Developed in collaboration with the Integrated Biobank of Luxembourg, the Biorepository Proficiency Testing Program is designed to allow biorepositories to assess the accuracy of their quality control assays and characterization of biospecimens. Participants can compare their results with those obtained in other laboratories and can identify testing issues that may be related to individual staff performance or calibration of instrumentation used in biospecimen quality control. The program provides guidance to biorepositories so they can take appropriate remedial action to be in compliance with ISO/IEC 17043:2010, providing a necessary External Quality Assessment tool for biorepositories who wish to seek accreditation.