Biography
Biography: Zdenka Prodanovic
Abstract
Monash Surgical Oncology Biobank (MSOB) was set up in large tertiary hospital to enable research of various clinical teams and academia. MSOB operates under pathology services within Monash Health and collaborates with Paediatric Oncology Biobank from Monash Children’s. Biobank activity set up, operation and integration into current translational model is faced with many stakeholders. Donor recruitment, multilingual environment we are operating in, level of understanding of our activities, decision making on participation would be one part of challenges we have. Sample collection, processing, storage and supply for research; updates on research outcomes and its effects on patient care on the other side. Going beyond the above activities, biobank like ours offers additional support to research helping with digital pathology image analysis, dealing with “difficult” antibodies for researchers, creating tissue micro arrays (TMA) to speed up research outcomes, would be some of them. As a result of its hard work MSOB is operating successfully within research environments it is directly or indirectly linked to. It has managed to integrate its activity across various clinical groups and is directly supported by them. There is proportion of funding allocated to biobank activity on behalf of each group. In return these groups receive quality support for their own research projects. Key to creation of sustainable environment is integrating all of the above activities, understanding your role as biobank and willingness to work tirelessly.
