Biological specimen

Setting broad standards for quality of biological specimens was initially an underdeveloped aspect of biobank growth.

[1] Some progress for the creation of policy-making organizations include the National Cancer Institute's 2005 creation of the Office of Biobanking and Biospecimen Research (OBBR)[1] and the annual Biospecimen Research Network Symposia.

[1] DNA integrity is an important factor for studies which involve whole genome amplification.

[4] Also biobanks, which do specimen storage, cannot take full responsibility for specimen integrity, because before they take custody of samples someone must collect and process them and effects such as RNA degradation are more likely to occur from delayed sample processing than inadequate storage.

[6] Some of the laboratory techniques associated with biological specimen storage include phenol-chloroform extraction, PCR, and RFLP.