On 2^nd March, 2023, the Victorian Cancer Biobank (VCB) was proud to collaborate with the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute to co-host a seminar “Biobanking Quality: Exploring ISO20387 Accreditation pathways using a global perspective”.

The local networking event brought together 25+ quality and biobanking leaders from across four Victorian-based biobanking groups to explore and discuss emerging gold-standard quality practices in biobanking. VCB was represented by various representatives from our VCB Strategic Advisory Group, VCB Management Operations Group and Victorian Cancer Agency.

Inspired by a visiting special guest speaker Clare Allocca, Senior Advisor for Standardisation at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), USA, and President for International Society of Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER), attendees discussed quality management best practice, avenues for maintaining fit-for-purpose biospecimens and data, and emerging global opportunities such as compliance to international Standards such as ISO-20387 Biotechnology – Biobanking – General Requirements for Biobanking.

Prior to the seminar, together with Clare, we also had an opportunity to visit GenV’s state-of-art automated biobanking facility at Murdoch Children’s and also Peter Mac Tissue Bank (a member of our VCB) at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.

We thank Clare for spending time with us during her visit and hope she enjoyed her stay in Melbourne!

The VCB is committed to the provision of high-quality biospecimens and data to improve cancer research outcomes. To express interest in future quality seminars, contact the VCB Quality Manager, Samantha Higgins (samantha.higgins@cancervic.org.au).