The foundation biobank-suisse (BBS) is a collaborative network of existing and future research biobanks in Switzerland. Networks of biobanks are also called meta-biobanks.
The primary goal are:
- to provide researchers a quick overview of available human biospecimens and up to date person related data. Researchers can get a quick overview of the biospecimens available by using the web query interface (go to Find biospecimen)
- to provide biobankers with services to further improve the quality of biobanks in Switzerland (e.g. information about up-to-date IT and database software for biobanking; solutions for ethical, legal, and social issues; develop common platform for biobankers; etc.).
BBS was founded in December 2005 as an initiative of Oncosuisse and SWISS BRIDGE with the goal to build a collaborative network of existing and future biobanks for research in Switzerland. A research biobanks is defined as a systematic collection of human biospecimens and person related data for research purpose only. This excludes collections of biospecimens for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes as required by law, for internal quality control and/or teaching. Each biobank joining the collaborative network will keep its autonomy. The biospecimens and data will continue to be stored in the different biobanks. Information about the biospecimens and about the person related data will be sent in reversibly anonymized form to the central server of BBS.
As a collaborative network, the database infrastructure was key for BBS. The availability and the robustness of this infrastructure were tested with data of different biobanks in Bern, Zurich and Lausanne. The open source software CAISIS developed in the 90th at MSKCC (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center) in New York and used internationally by more than 25 centers was chosen.
BBS has entered in a closed collaboration with SAKK’s (Swiss Working Group on Clinical Cancer Research) IT department. BBS’s server is run by SAKK and technical support is provided by the SAKK IT department.
BBS is an active member of ISBER (International Society of Biological and Environmental Repositories) the international society of biobanks. BBS also joint BBMRI (an European initiative to build an pan-European network of biobanks.
The working group informed consent initiated by BBS has published the template of the informed consent and the regulation for biobanks. These documents can be found at the download section of this website.