Abstract
Purpose:
Biobanks are becoming more and more common use in clinical medicine. The implementation, management, storage, as well as safeguarding of (clinical) data can be challenging for individual institutes. Here, we describe the ophthalmic biobank CORRBI from the Netherlands as an example of how a clinical biobank can be put into operation.
Methods:
CORRBI was founded in 2012 as a collaboration between two large ophthalmic centers in Rotterdam with the objective to provide storage of biomaterials of ophthalmic patients for future research. Ethical approval for CORRBI was obtained from the local academic medical ethical committee. Clinicians ask eligible patients during their clinic for participation in the biobank. Patients are subsequently informed on the ethical issues regarding storage and use of samples for scientific purposes by a nurse or research assistant, and sign informed consent. Draw of biomaterials such as DNA and serum occurs at the blood draw unit; waste biologic samples of anterior or posterior chamber fluid are obtained at the OR during surgery. Data on ethnicity, family composition, and lifestyle are obtained by questionnaire; ophthalmic data are obtained from medical charts. Samples are stored using standard protocols, and unique biobank numbers and data are registered in an online, secured database. Requests for use of samples are judged by the biobank committee consisting of members from both institutes, and approval for use is only granted if the ophthalmologist that collected the sample set of interest agrees.
Results:
CORRBI now stores 3750 samples from 2950 patients. A variety of ophthalmic disorders is represented, ranging from common disorders such as myopia, glaucoma, uveitis, strabismus, and age-related macular degeneration to rare disorders such as optic nerve head drusen (ONHD) and AZOOR. Samples include DNA (75%), serum (12%), and other specimens (13%). Samples from CORRBI have contributed to international research initiatives such as exome sequencing projects for AMD and glaucoma.
Conclusions:
The CORRBI biobank has proven to be an efficient platform for storage of biomaterials and clinical data of a wide range of ophthalmic disorders, and is an example of how a biobank can be instrumental between the clinic and research.