Mission and Goals

The Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research Branch (BBRB) enables translational research that brings patients closer to precision medicine by providing leadership, tools, resources, and policies in biobanking. BBRB also sponsors and facilitates research studies that form the basis of evidence-based biospecimen best practices to guide cancer research. We put these best practices to work in leading NCI and NIH biobanking programs to support critical scientific needs.

Five core areas of activity drive our work:

• Lead the development and continuous improvement of policy for collection and management of biospecimen resources
• Develop and support scientific research and programs that inform best practices for biospecimen collection, handling and processing
• Develop educational materials and forums for communication around biospecimen related issues
• Forge partnerships nationally and internationally to coordinate and communicate biospecimen and biobanking standards as well as facilitate access to biospecimens
• Provide a resource for direct support of NCI and NIH programs and initiatives that involve biospecimen use and collection and biospecimen research