There are two important activities in the processing of samples and data: quality control and the production of derivatives.

Quality control

The first quality control step in biobanking procedures is to verify that the tissue sample sourced from a medical institution is in fact what its label says it is. This step is key to ensuring that when the sample is put into inventory, it is appropriately and accurately labeled, and that researchers who may access it in the future are able to conduct their research study in an accurate way. This quality control step is known as Pathology Validation, and must be conducted by trained pathologists.

The second quality control step is to qualify the tissue sample as to its physical characteristics (such as weight) and its appropriateness for various research uses. For example, tissue that is highly heterogeneous (that is, comprised of many different cell types) would not lend itself to an experiment in which the researcher extracts RNA for expression profiling, because the sample would result in an indeterminate mixture of cells of interest and cells that were irrelevant. Such a qualification step for every tissue sample is essential to ensuring the research value of the biobank’s inventory.

The third quality control step is to categorize the tissue samples according to certain pre-determined parameters. For example, it is important to know the cellular composition of the sample, such as what fraction of the sample is comprised of truly cancerous cells vs. other types of cells. Another parameter would be the stage (that is, how far advanced) and the grade (that is, the aggressiveness) of the cancer present in the tissue.

Production of derivatives

Production of derivatives is the process of turning tissue samples into laboratory reagents.

There are several types of formats of tissue samples that may be desirable for research:

• Tissue sliced and mounted on slides, or tissue placed on microarray plates, may be used in research where the structural integrity of the tissue is important, and the geographic location of different components is of relevance to the study.
• Tissue that is transformed into cell lines, in which the cells are immortalized, may be used for situations where a series of experiments are required, or a multitude of experiments that would otherwise “use up” all the available tissue.
• Molecular extracts are proteins, RNA, or DNA taken from the tissue, usually for use in high throughput profiling experiments. By definition, production of these molecular extracts “uses up” the tissue. These molecular extracts are useful for microchip experiments, and in high density micro-titre plates as researchers seek molecular signatures associated with certain types of cancer.

Among the many responsibilities of a biobank is to provide the consistency of processing quality and accuracy to serve as a foundation for reliable research.