Building a Biobank

In Biopreservation and Biobanking, we are committed to publishing articles of the highest quality concerning our areas of interest. During the past 7 years since we changed the name of the journal from Cell Preservation Technology, we have concentrated on continuing to attract articles concerning biopreservation, but with an increased emphasis on all aspects of biobanking. We have, in particular, taken a leading role in publishing articles concerning biobanking economics and sustainability, ethical and regulatory issues, biospecimen science, informatics, and an array of Expert Speaks articles from opinion leaders in our fields of interest. However, it has been a while since we devoted significant space in the journal to the basics of biobank (or biorepository) construction and maintenance. The best practices that we now rely on to guide our biobank facilities and biospecimen work were primarily developed from the standard procedures used on a daily basis in the larger, more efficient commercial and government biorepositories. But all such facilities had to initially be designed and constructed according to strict standards to meet the needs of biobankers.

Professionals entering the biobanking industry normally have a biomedical background, for example, in pathology. Their exposure to the needs for biobanking infrastructure and equipment has generally been minimal, because there are few formal educational programs for biobankers. As a biobanking community, we need to provide the resources and education our members need, to ensure they can equip and operate their facilities at a high level of security and safety. Biostorage is, in concept, a simple business. The biobank acquires freezers, deposits samples in them, and then retrieves the materials as needed. The reality, however, is more complex. Hard experience has demonstrated that a simplistic view, lack of understanding, and insufficient attention to the details of hardware and facility procedures for maintaining the security of our biosamples can lead to catastrophic losses.

In 2005, Baird and Frome published an article in Cell Preservation Technology (Volume 3, Number 4) entitled “Large-Scale Repository Design” summarized just here from the abstract:

“The design and implementation of a large-scale biologic repository is typically an exercise in converting a basic warehouse-type building into a highly sophisticated storage facility. A model for a repository with infrastructure to accommodate 100 units for sub-ambient temperature storage is utilized. We present an outline of the design process and considerations, timelines, and a cost model. Included are guides for determining the floor space required, and recommendations for establishing engineering design features. Our model projects a 7000-square foot facility, requiring 6 to 8 months to design and build, uses 30 freezer units at start-up, with an initial cost of $1.5 to $2.5 million.”

In this issue of Biopreservation and Biobanking, Baird and Gunter have updated and extended that earlier design article and published a two-part review entitled “Repository Planning, Design, and Engineering.” Part I concerns infrastructure, including planning for the types of biological and environmental samples to be collected, the physical requirements for the repository such as the space needs, heating and air conditioning, power requirements, lighting and flooring, as well as other physical site considerations. Part II (available online and to be published in print in a future issue) details the equipment and cost considerations for a fairly large biobank. The various types of storage units are described in detail, along with comprehensive space and cost projections for leasing and equipping such a facility.

This new two-part review is an important contribution to the biobanking literature and nicely complements the journal's efforts to inform our readership in all of the critical aspects of conducting biospecimen research and managing a biobank. In the biobanking community, there are vibrant discussions and articles on ethics, techniques, processes, regulations, financial sustainability, and a host of other relevant and important topics. At the same time, there has been a dearth of information on the basic details and advances in infrastructure and design. There is a tendency to become involved in high-level topics to the detriment of the basic premise of biobanking—to provide a safe and secure environment for samples and their associated data—with the assumption that “everyone knows” the details of the physical storage and security aspects of biobanks.

As an industry, we must pay attention to the details of the facilities and equipment we employ, as well as how we maintain our infrastructure, and we must plan for the unexpected, which can be as simple as loss of electric power, mechanical failure of freezers, failure of the monitoring or security systems, or from simple human inaction. We also need to anticipate and plan for more extreme failure modes, such as tornadoes, floods, or earthquakes.

We owe it to our constituency, the biomedical research community, and the people who have altruistically contributed samples, to provide the best possible infrastructure and procedures to guarantee the security and safety of the samples. We hope that authors will continue to submit articles to Biopreservation and Biobanking that allow our readers to learn the biorepository/biobanking basics, which allow evidence-based practices to be developed from properly designed and managed facilities.