A new report from CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, conservatively estimates that a national platform for searching and accessing human biospecimens and data could deliver annual benefits worth $39 million. These benefits would stem from improved coordination across Australian biobanks and cohort studies, enhancing research efficiency and outcomes.
In partnership with the NCRIS Health Group, NSW Health, University of Sydney, Medical Advances Without Animals Trust, Queensland Health and University of New South Wales, CSIRO today launched the Valuation of increased coordination in Australian biobanking report, providing new insights to inform Australia's National Research Infrastructure Roadmap.
Australia is estimated to have more than 200 biobanks and over 4 million stored biospecimens — critical infrastructure that underpins biomedical, clinical, public and population health research. These collections provide access to human biological materials and associated data, helping researchers maximise the value of existing resources, ensure biological models reflect the diversity of Australia's population, and inform evidence-based public health decisions.
CSIRO Futures health and biosecurity lead Greg Williams emphasised the importance and value of national coordination and the opportunities it can provide.
"Coordination at a national level offers a range of benefits: reducing the time required to search and access biospecimens or data; accelerating research progress; promoting the utilisation of existing biobanks; guiding the establishment, expansion or retirement of collections; and improving overall risk management," he said.
"These aspects are essential to promote international collaborations, attract biopharmaceutical companies and increase the outputs of biobanks and cohort studies."
Michael Dobbie, CEO of Phenomics Australia and representative for the project's steering committee, said biobanks are key research infrastructure for the country and national coordination is a longstanding need to maximise the use of data and accelerate lifesaving research.
"Australia has biobanks and cohort studies across all states and territories, for a wide range of diseases and conditions. They represent many years' worth of effort from researchers, investment by research funders and trust from participants," Professor Dobbie said.
Professor Jennifer Byrne, Director of Biobanking at NSW Health and steering committee member added that initiatives to improve visibility and accessibility strengthen the path to downstream health outcomes.
"For example, a researcher investigating a rare type of cancer would now be able to identify and access biospecimens from multiple institutions, linked with rich clinical and genomic data. This could potentially lead to the uncovering of a new biomarker that predicts treatment response and improves survival rates," said Professor Byrne.
The report provides five key recommendations aimed at improving national coordination of biobanks and cohort studies:
- conducting a comprehensive survey of biobanks and cohort studies across Australia
- implementing a shared national discovery and access platform
- establishing a national governance framework for human health biobanking
- promoting a consistent quality management framework at the national level
- establishing a national steering committee to guide coordination initiatives.
"Based on the findings, we hope the report will provide an opportunity for further discussions about the biobanks and studies that we have across Australia, the importance of federated digital environments to connect them and the need for consistent governance frameworks," said Bev Muhlhausler, Senior Principal Research Scientist at CSIRO.
To learn more about the challenges and opportunities in Australia's biobanking landscape, download the full report .
