Collections & studies
A distinction must be made between
1) A HBM collection: collecting and storing HBM samples:
- A hospital or other healthcare organization collects HBM samples from a patient or a healthy volunteer (both donors).
- The samples may be either
- Residual HBM: remains of a sample taken as part of care; requires opting out by the hospital
- Prospective HCM: taken specifically for research purposes; requires written consent from the donor.
2) A study using aliquots of HBM for a specific research project.
A collection may (or may not) be linked, from the outset, to a specific study as part of a research project
1) A collection may :
- Constitute a pool of HBM from a donor population for future, as yet undefined, research: there is no associated study at the outset, but several studies may be linked to it in the future.
Ex: a plasma sample and a urine sample collected weekly between day 0 and day 100 after kidney transplantation
Ex: a plasma, RNA and tumor sample collected at diagnosis from each breast cancer patient
- To be used only for a specific research project (the entire sample will be used for this research): collection and study have the same purpose and title
2) If there is a research project linked from the outset to a collection, even if (1) supplier and user of the HBM are part of the CHU (or even the same department) or if (2) the partner requesting the HBM finances its collection, this must be done through the BHUL. Simultaneously:
- Set up a new collection between the HBM supplier (CHU or other hospital) and BHUL (or another notified biobank)
- Set up a new study between the BHUL (or another notified biobank) and the research laboratory (CHU, ULiège, public, private)
3) If the HBM collected is to be delivered fresh directly to the laboratory which needs it for its research, without the HBM samples being physically sent to BHUL for processing and storage, these samples must nevertheless be labelled by the supplier and traced by BHUL, as rigorously as for any other collection or study, generally using a register (Excel file) kept up to date by the supplier's department and sent regularly to BHUL.
