Washington, DC, December 14, 2010 The American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) announces a webinar titled Biorepositories: Worth Their Weight in Gold, to be held on March 2, 2011, at 2:00pm Eastern. The webinar will last 90 minutes.
The lack of high-quality specimen banks is widely recognized as a major obstacle to advances in clinical laboratory medicine. This problem has been addressed by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) which has developed a centralized infrastructure that will be a reliable source of biospecimens and best practice guidelines. The proper collection, storage and tracking of samples are critical to creating a high quality specimen bank, and failure to follow best practices in these can have a significant effect on results.
During the webinar, leading experts in bio banking will share the NCI’s best practice guidelines that are designed to promote biospecimen resource practices, promote data quality and support adherence to ethical and legal requirements. They will also outline the key elements of developing and maintaining a biorepository system that is right for any laboratory, regardless of the size and location. The expert panel for the webinar is Jim Vaught, PhD, Deputy Director, Office of Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research, National Cancer Institute (Bethesda, MD) and Elaine W. Gunter, MT (ASCP), Specimen Solutions, LLC (Tucker, GA). The webinar is moderated by Vincent Ricchiuti, PhD, Director, Harvard Catalyst Central Laboratories (Boston, MA) and President of AACC’s Clinical Transitional Science Division.
This program is sponsored by AACC and co-sponsored by NCI and AACC’s Clinical Translational Science Division.
AACC invites interested journalists to participate in this important webinar where they will learn about the benefits of specimen banking, the challenges facing the laboratory in specimen quality and standardization, ensuring and tracking informed consent, best practices in labeling and tracking samples and more. For a complimentary registration, complete and submit a Press Registration Form.
For more information about the webinar or AACC, please contact Peter Patterson on either of the above phone numbers or at ppatterson@aacc.org.