About OBBR

The NCI Office of Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research (OBBR) was established in 2005 in recognition of the critical role that biospecimens play in cancer research. The OBBR is responsible for developing a common biorepository infrastructure that promotes resource sharing and team science, in order to facilitate multi-institutional, high throughput genomic and proteomic studies.

OBBR is focused on the following objectives:

• Establish biobanking as a new area of research, in order to determine the impact of various collection and processing protocols on the usefulness of biospecimens in genomic and proteomic studies
• Disseminate first-generation Best Practices in order to harmonize policies and procedures of NCI-supported biorepositories
• Develop future generations of biorepository best practices, based on the data generated in the biobanking research programs above
• Promote professional oversight of biospecimen standards development by standards organizations
• Develop new technologies for biorepository operations
• Develop a biorepository accreditation program
• Facilitate the establishment of a National Biospecimen Network
• Coordinate with the international biobanking community to harmonize policies and procedures to facilitate multi-national research