
SEPTEMBER 25, 2018
WEBINAR OVERVIEW
Precision medicine, also known as personalized medicine, is a new and promising approach to address an individual patient’s healthcare needs by taking into account a patient’s genetic and lifestyle variability. Biobanks provide high-quality, appropriately consented bio-specimens and associated metadata to clinicians which enable molecular characterization of the host and the disease, advancing translational research, thus driving the development of personalized medicine. The webinar focuses primarily on the importance of high-quality biospecimens for precision medicine. The webinar also highlights the role of a biobanking LIMS in data management and in preserving bio-specimen quality, which is crucial for translational and clinical research.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Requirements in research for precision medicine
- Considerations when sourcing bio-specimens from biobanks
- Importance and key elements of bio-specimen quality
WHO SHOULD WATCH
Recommended attendees include laboratory directors and managers, owners, and quality managers of biobanks and clinical research laboratories.
Speaker

Dr. Jim Vaught
Editor-in-Chief
Biopreservation and Biobanking (BIO)
Dr. Jim Vaught spent 14 years at the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI), most recently as the Chief of the Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research Branch (BBRB) in the Cancer Diagnosis Program. He has been working in the field of biorepository and biospecimen science for over 20 years. In 1999, he was one of the founding members of the International Society for Biological & Environmental Repositories (ISBER). He serves on a number of biobank advisory groups including the Telethon-Italy Genetic Biobank Network; the Biobanques Network (France) Scientific Board; and the Provia Labs (Boston) Advisory Board. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Disease Research Interchange. He is Senior Biobank Advisor to the Shanghai Clinical Research Center. In addition to ISBER, Dr. Vaught is a member of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, the European Society for Biopreservation & Biobanking, the American Association of Blood Banks, and the American Association for Clinical Chemistry. He is the author of over 70 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. From 2006 to 2012 he was Senior Editor for Biospecimens and Biorepositories for the AACR journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention. In 2012 he became Editor-in-Chief of Biopreservation and Biobanking, the official journal of ISBER. He is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the International Prevention Research Institute (Lyon), and a consultant for a number of international biobanking activities. Dr. Vaught is the President of ISBER for 2015-2016.