Biospecimen Quality in Clinical Research

Author: Shonali Paul

Journal: Biobanking.com, February 11, 2019

Abstract: Biospecimens form an integral part of many clinical research studies. The production of valid clinical data sets depends largely upon the quality of biospecimens utilized in the study. Annotations of biospecimens help unveil information related to disease prognosis, diagnosis, and treatment. However, there are several stages including collection, processing, and storage through which a biospecimen travels before its utilization in research. Even minute mismanagement during any of these stages may lead to quality degradation of the biospecimen and thus skew the clinical data. Consequently, it may result in escalated costs. So it becomes critical to maintain scrupulous attention to ethical, legal, and social concerns related to biospecimens and to adhere to defined regulatory guidelines and bioethical standards. While it is hard to guarantee the biospecimen quality during clinical research, there are a many ways to surmount the obstacles.