Arne Hoffman
Pathology VUmc, Netherlands
Title: Towards a Dutch National Tissuebank Portal: one portal to access all pathology archives for research.
Biography
Biography: Arne Hoffman
Abstract
The Dutch National Tissuebank Portal (DNTP) project aims to achieve increased, easier and improved secondary use of residual human tissue samples (FFPE blocks) from all pathology laboratories in the Netherlands. Currently, there are more than 60 million archived FFPE samples with standardized associated data which can be used for research purposes. With the DNTP researchers can request samples online through the portal from where the request will automatically be sent to the pathology laboratory where the samples are stored. After approval from a research- and privacy committee and the participating laboratory a DNTP employee will collect the samples and send them to the researcher. Pathology laboratories can request a sample to return, if this sample is needed for delayed patient care. The result will be that in the Netherlands we have established a professional research infrastructure that will provide virtual and physical access to all residual FFPE pathology samples and their associated data for research purposes. Nowhere in the world does such a web based portal exist that supports pathology laboratories and researchers in their quest of searching, requesting, registering, retrieving and returning archived FFPE samples for research from all the national pathology archives. This project was financially supported by Biobanking and Biomolecular Research Infrastructure The Netherlands (BBMRI-NL), a Research Infrastructure financed by the Dutch Government (NWO 184.021.007). BBMRI-NL co-ordinates the collaboration between Dutch biobanks. It is not a biobank itself, but facilitates collaboration by harmonisation and enrichment of existing biobanks.
