BHUL
The Biothèque Hospitalo-Universitaire de Liège (BHUL) was created in 2015 to bring together all the activities involved in obtaining, preserving and making available Human Body Material (HBM) for scientific research purposes, mainly to the research laboratories of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Liège (CHU) and the University of Liège (ULiège).
The BHUL's mission is to integrate all past, present and future biobanking activities within the CHU de Liège / ULiège. It manages collections of human body material (HBM), including tissues, cells, biological fluids (blood, plasma, serum, urine, puncture fluid, etc.) or other products (stool, sputum, etc.) or associated derivatives (DNA, RNA, proteins, etc.) of human origin, obtained from samples taken from patients or healthy subjects (= donors).
The BHUL collects, classifies and catalogues biological samples / HBM. It ensures the quality of the material it supplies by implementing sample traceability (in compliance with confidentiality rules), mastering HBM processing and conservation methods, and setting up a surveillance/quality control program for the HBM entrusted to it.
Biomedical researchers often need human body material to carry out fundamental or applied research. One of BHUL's missions is to facilitate access to samples, making them available to researchers under appropriate ethical, technical and logistical conditions.
Legal framework
On Novemberthe 1st 2018, the Royal Decree implementing the law of 12/19/2008 on obtaining and using human body material (HBM) for scientific research came into force. This text requires that all HBM intended for or used in research be traced, from collection to destruction, by a biobank approved by the Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products (FAMHP). It has therefore become illegal to collect, store or use HCM for research purposes without going through such a recognized biobank.
A biobank can only be approved once its objectives and procedures have been validated by a recognized ethics committee and its complete file has been notified to the FAMHP. The Biothèque Hospitalo-Universitaire de Liège (BHUL) is the notified institutional biobank of the CHU de Liège and ULiège. It initially grouped together the biobanking activities of the departments of pathological anatomy, hematology and oncology, gastroenterology, cardiology, pneumology and genetics, but now has the mission of grouping together all the biobanking activities of the CHU de Liège and ULiège.
Any department of the CHU de Liège or ULiège that collects or uses HCM for research purposes must comply with this law of 19/12/2008 and its implementing decrees. In addition, the collection of personal data (and in particular medical data) on HBM donors must comply with the law of 22/08/2002 on patients' rights, the law of 30/07/2018 on the protection of personal data and Regulation 2016/679 of 27 April 2016 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data. BHUL has therefore set up processes concerning both HBM collections (collection and storage of HBM samples) and studies using HBM (use of HBM aliquots for research) in order to carry out research work in compliance with legal, ethical, technical and logistical constraints.
Useful links
Royal Decree of 05/02/2018 of the law of 19/12/2008
Law of 22/08/2002 on patients' rights
Law of 07/30/2018 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data
