The CONCERT Biobank receives and stores a large collection of biological samples – primarily tissue and blood – from individuals in South West Sydney, Illawarra/Shoalhaven and the ACT who have been diagnosed with cancer.
Since its operation in 2012, the CONCERT Biobank has been providing samples to researchers investigating the genetic, lifestyle and environmental factors linked to cancer. These findings are being translated into new ways to prevent, detect, diagnose and treat different types of cancer. The CONCERT Biobank is also a NSW Health Pathology certified Biobank – BRC-00010.
Biobanks are an important weapon in the fight against cancer, and the CONCERT Biobank plays an active role working with hospitals to establish more biobanks in the region.
The CONCERT Biobank was established as an open-access, multiple collection site, infrastructure tool accessible to all cancer researchers in NSW.
With its generalist cancer approach; collecting biospecimens from all types of cancer, biospecimens collected by the CONCERT Biobank not only includes formalin-fixed paraffin embedded sections as routinely collected by most NSW Biobanks but also is unique in collecting fresh tumour and normal adjacent tissue, as well as blood, cerebrospinal fluid and other relevant bodily fluids.
CONCERT Biobank aims to provide NSW cancer researchers access to high-quality, representative biospecimens and associated epidemiological, clinical and quality of life data in order to facilitate research to understand the factors that influence early-detection, prevention and treatment of cancer.
The key objectives of the CONCERT Biobank are to:
Biobank Director – Professor Soon Lee
Biobank Manager – Dr Joseph Po
Illawarra/Shoalhaven Site Director – Professor Morteza Aghmesheh
Illawarra/Shoalhaven Site Manager – Ashleigh Splitt
Acting Illawarra/Shoalhaven Site Manager – Ross Turner
Clinical Nurse Consultant – Hei Lan Byun
Biobank Officers – Anshuli Razdan, Tanzila Khan, Steven Trieu, Mohammed Nimir, Shannon Chan, Jeehoon Ham, Prateek Rakesh
Biobanking Stakeholder Network Representative – Associate Professor Kevin Spring
The CONCERT Biobank was established according to national and international Best Practice guidelines such as the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER) Best Practices for Repositories Guidelines and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Best Practice Guidelines for Biological Resource Centres.
The CONCERT Biobank is compliant with the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research and the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research and has approval from the South West Sydney Local Health District HREC (EC00136).
The CONCERT Biobank is governed by three committees; the CONCERT Biobank Management Advisory Committee (MAC) and Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC), as well as the CONCERT TCRC Executive Committee. Each committee has defined roles, powers and responsibilities for the governance of the CONCERT Biobank.
For a comprehensive list of projects, please click here.
For a comprehensive list of publications, please click here.
The opportunity to donate to the CONCERT Biobank begins when individuals elect to have surgery as part of their cancer treatment.
When a tumour is removed, it is sent to a pathologist to be examined. Usually, the pathologist uses a small amount of tumour tissue for the diagnosis and then discards the rest.
If an individual chooses to become a donor to the CONCERT Biobank at the Ingham Institute, a small portion of the tumour and surrounding tissue removed during surgery is stored by the biobank. Sometimes a small amount of blood is donated at the same time.
Collecting the tumour sample happens after the pathologist has all of the information needed to make their diagnosis. The biobank then stores the remaining tissue sample securely so that both current and future generations can benefit from the valuable information it contains. Biobanking is internationally recognised as an important activity in the fight against cancer, and biobanks are supported by state and national funding such as the Cancer Institute NSW.
If you would like to participate in the CONCERT Biobank program please speak with your surgeon, medical oncologist or contact us.
Cancer cohorts include (but are not limited to):
See our collection information below as of mid-2020:
Biospecimens collected by the CONCERT Biobank are made available to Australian researchers on the provision that use of specimens are for scientifically valid and ethically approved cancer research projects. For our guidelines click here.
To access our researcher application form click here.
The CONCERT Biobank is a non-profit consortium. Charges and service fees may be applicable to offset the costs of collecting, processing, storing, retrieving and disseminating biospecimens. Please contact the CONCERT Biobank for current fees and charges.
Follow us on LinkedIn and please email all enquiries to Biobank@inghaminstitute.org.au.
