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Biobanking in Africa: Opportunities and Challenges

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Biobanking of Human Biospecimens

Abstract

Biobanking and its associated policies and procedures for managing biological specimen collections are critical to the success of a variety of research endeavors. Several international organizations have produced best practices which cover the important technical and ethical-regulatory issues that are important for the collection and management of biospecimens and associated data. The expanding and global nature of biomedical research has resulted in disparities in biobanking practices among high-income countries (HIC) and low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). In Africa, projects such as H3Africa and B3Africa have resulted in new and promising advances in biobanking infrastructure and the creation of biobanking networks. However, the initiation of such projects has highlighted some of the challenges faced by biobanks in Africa, from both the technical and ethical-regulatory perspectives.

This chapter was originally published in “The State of Oncology Africa, 2015” which was published and distributed by the International Prevention Research Institute of 95 cours Lafayette, Lyon France under ISBN 978-953-9268-3-5, in 2016.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Biobanking and biobanks may also be referred to as biorepositories, biological resources or biological resource centers (BRC).

  2. 2.

    Biological specimens or biospecimens can be solid tissues, fluids e.g. blood, urine, saliva.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Senior Research Fellow, International Prevention Research Institute (IPRI), Past-President, International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories, 3405 Wake Drive, Kensington, MD, 20895, USA

    Jim Vaught Ph.D. (Editor-in-Chief, Biopreservation and Biobanking)

Authors
  1. Jim Vaught Ph.D.
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Correspondence to Jim Vaught Ph.D. .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Cancer Research, Institute for Advanced Biosciences, Inserm U1209 CNRS UMR 5309, Université Grenoble-Alpes, Grenoble, France

    Pierre Hainaut

  2. International Prevention Research Institute, Biopreservation and Biobanking, Kensington, Maryland, USA

    Jim Vaught

  3. Institute of Pathology, Medical University of Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 25, A-8036, Graz, Austria

    Kurt Zatloukal

  4. Biobanking and Biomolecular resources Research Infrastructure (BBMRI-ERIC), Graz, Austria

    Markus Pasterk

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Vaught, J. (2017). Biobanking in Africa: Opportunities and Challenges. In: Hainaut, P., Vaught, J., Zatloukal, K., Pasterk, M. (eds) Biobanking of Human Biospecimens. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55120-3_12

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