Biospecimens. From the first advents of clinical neuroscience, scientists have been fascinated by biospecimen classification and storage. The immortal images from Ramon y Cajal to the staining done by Golgi have illustrated that biospecimens are parallel to the discoveries seen in clinical neuroscience. As we move to the 21st century, we may not be all that different from the forbearers of Neurology. Here is a post starting from the origins of the biorepository and leading up to the relevance of biorepositories today.
Tag Archives: biobank
Reinventing a consortium – the RES data sharing policy
Share or be shared. During the last two weeks, the RES consortium has approved a new data sharing policy that will allow us to work with increased transparency and accountability within our upcoming projects. This new data sharing policy is a consequent extension of the previous protocols we had in earlier consortia – with one major difference. This time, it’s in writing. While we are getting ready to tackle the large dataset on epileptic encephalopathies released by the Sanger Institute, we took a moment to talk about how things should be running.
The Biobank Dilemma
Killing two birds with one stone. I am currently preparing for a presentation for the Scientific Advisory Board of our local biobank network P2N and I thought that I wanted to share a few thoughts on biobanking and sample collection for epilepsy genetics that have troubled me for a while. Continue reading
Next Generation Ethics: Struggling with petabyte consent forms
Everyone involved in research with human subjects knows about the importance of informed consent. The purpose of informed consent is to promote educated decision-making and voluntary participation in research. Whether or not you’re aware of the fundamental ethical principles underlying the process (patient autonomy and protection from harm, for those keeping score at home), you at least know that you have to get the study participant to sign the form. Continue reading
