BIO-BABBLE
AUSTRALASIAN BIOSPECIMEN NETWORK ASSOCIATION
Your ABNA Committee 2019 
President: Pamela Saunders
Vice President: Anusha Hettiaratchi 
Treasurer:  Valerie Jakrot & Catherine
Kennedy
Secretary: Judith Heads & Leanne
Wallace
Other Committee Members:
Nina D'Vaz, Cassandra Griffin, Bharvi
Maneck, Kathleen Phillips, Ussha
Pillai, Georget Reaiche, Phillip
Shepherd, Helen Tsimiklis
Dr Drew Berry
Lisa Devereux
Lisa Devereux
Conference networking dinner, St Kilda
 
NEWSLETTER
MARCH 2019
The Art of Biobanking
ABNA 16th Annual Conference, Melbourne
The 2018 ABNA annual conference, The Art of Biobanking, held at the
Pullman Mercure, Melbourne was opened by Lisa Devereux. We were very
fortunate to have Professor Jane Kaye, the Director of the Centre for Law,
Health and Emerging Technologies (HeLEX) at the University of Oxford, a
Wellcome Trust University Award holder deliver the keynote presentation.
We hope you enjoyed the workshops and the presentations from invited
speakers as well as the abstract presentations at all the sessions. Thank you
to all the presenters who provided such an interesting and broad range of
topics for our members.
The 2018 Conference Organising Committee would also like to thank all the
corporate sponsors including the platinum sponsor, Thermo Fisher Scientific,
for their support in 2018.
Congratulations to our 2018 ABNA Melbourne prize winners:
Best Oral Presention: Heather Madsen
Best Poster: Joji Marie Teves
Handbook puzzle: Mythily Sachchithananthan
Copies of all abstracts can be found at: https://abna.org.au/wp-
content/uploads/2018/10/ABNA-web-version-111018.pdf
If you have not already had a chance to complete the conference feedback
survey, please find the links here:
Attendees:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ABNA2018attendees
Sponsors: /www.surveymonkey.com/r/ABNA2018sponsors
ABNA conference photograph credits: Judith Heads, Ussha Pillai, Dan
Catchpoole.
Prof Andy Brooks ABNA president Pamela Saunders and keynote
speaker Prof Jane Kaye
Corporate sponsors area Poster area
Biobanking in the news

http://med.stanford.edu/researchofficebulletin/topics/big-chill-stanford-reinvents-biobanking.html

Philippine General Hospital Biobank

The Newly Established Philippine General Hospital Biobank in the Philippines.

Dr. Rodney Dofitas, Prof. Michael Velarde, Dr. Ma. Antonia Habana, Dr. Apple Valparaiso and Dr. Shiela
Macalindong, Ma. Easter Joy Sajo PhD, Joji Marie Teves MSc.

The Philippine General Hospital (PGH) Biobank, based at the University of the Philippines- Manila, was
established in January 2018 as a unique, investigator-driven initiative to understand the genetic and
molecular characteristics of cancer among Filipinos. The government-based biobank collects patient-
derived tumor specimens, peripheral blood specimens, hair and urine for long-term storage and
application into various biomedical or clinical research pursuits. PGH biobank's new facility envisions
that the collected tumor specimens from Filipino cancer patients can extend beyond the institute and
can support nationwide studies and even globally, as means for representation of the Filipino
community. Moreover, the investigator-driven study supporting the newly established biobank further
aims to explore the environmental exposure factors including endocrine-disrupting chemicals and
ethnogeographical biodiversity in a groundbreaking attempt to find a cure for cancer. The project is
seen to expand all over the country to obtain high quality biospecimens, specifically breast cancer, in
the future. As of the moment, the biobank have established collaborations with the University of
California in San Francisco and the University of the Philippines- Diliman, and continues to be open
for potential collaborators.
More information available on their website: biobank.ph
http://med.stanford.edu/researchofficebulletin/topics/big-chill-stanford-reinvents-biobanking.html

ISBER election result Which data management

Congratulations to Australia;s own Associate system is best for you?
Professor Dan Catchpoole who has been voted
Choosing the right management system for your
President- Elect of the International Society for
Biobank can be a daunting task. This brief article
Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER).
will highlight some features to look for and what to
Dan, the current Director-at-Large for the Indo-
avoid when choosing the right system for you.
Pacific Rim, will be taking over the position of
President-Elect commencing May 2019.
There are numerous systems out there and they all
have pros and cons, so it’s important to note that the
As a result, ISBER will be running a by-election for
right system for you may not be the right one for
the remainder of the Director-at-Large Indo-Pacific
another group. Here is a list of things to consider:
Rim term for May 2019 to May 2020. ISBER has
a) Off-the-shelf products vs a custom built product.
announced the launch of nominations for the
b) Security and privacy; does it comply with relevant
position of Director-at-Large, Indo-Pacific-
local requirements? Is the system able to keep user
Rim. However, please note that only current ISBER
profiles and contents private and able to assign
members located in the region are able to participate
different levels of access?
in the elections. Deadline to submit a nomination is
c) How flexible is the system to modifications – to
March 31, 2019 at 8:59 PM Pacific Time. Head to the
adapt to your specific needs, or to expand with
ISBER website for more information: 
future developments?
https://www.isber.org/general/custom.asp?
d) Does it have clinical and laboratory data
page=2019-DAL-Noms
integration features?
e) Can it integrate with other software or systems?
Please join the ABNA committee in congratulating
f) Will there be support available any time it is
Dan on his new role.
required and have you discussed system support
plans as well as, training, testing, set up and
If you have any suggestions for a software release?
short article  for Bio-Babble, g) Is the system easy to use, and is it easy to access so
please contact  Pamela Saunders,
that the users and customers are able to be self-
ABNA President;
sufficient configuring new data, producing reports
 pamela.consulting1@gmail.com etc?
h) Does it have good reporting and auditing
C/- Research Department
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre,
capabilities, able to edit what contents you report on
Locked Bag 1, A'Beckett St, VIC, as well as providing a good audit trail?
8006, Australia i) How cost effective is it? For example, the initial
http://abna.org.au/
set-up cost and yearly support packages should be
factored into based expenditure.