About Us

An online platform to source biosamples for industry researchers

About The Company 

Biosample Hub is a UK-based not-for-profit company, incorporation date: 12th March 2020. Company number 12514786. The not-for-profit status of Biosample Hub matches the non-commercial biobanks it serves.

Our biobank network includes around 100 biobanks from 18 countries, and is strongest in North America, Western Europe and Australia.

Biosample Hub for biospecimen access

Academic Biobanks

Countries

Director

Robert Hewitt MB BS, PhD

Biography

Robert first encountered biobanking at Hammersmith Hospital, London, in 1998, when he helped establish a biobank that collaborated with several large biotech and pharma companies. Around this time he read the Nuffield Council on Bioethics report on “Human Tissue: ethical and legal issues“, and was drawn to the idea that biosample procurement should be organized on a non-commercial basis.

From 2000 to 2009, Robert established biobanks in Riyadh and Singapore, became ISBER’s first non-US president, organized the first ISBER meeting in Asia (Singapore, 2007), and transformed the Cell Preservation Technology journal into Biopreservation and Biobanking. As recognition, he received ISBER’s Outstanding Achievement in Biobanking Award.

In 2010, he co-founded ESBB in France, and organized annual biobanking conferences across Europe for the next 7 years. The 2017 Stockholm conference, Global Biobank Week, was a notable collaboration between ESBB, ISBER and BBMRI, drawing 857 participants from 53 countries.

In 2020, Robert founded Biosample Hub, an online ethical solution for industry researchers to obtain reliable clinical samples. Drawing on his experience at Hammersmith Hospital, ISBER, and ESBB,  Biosample Hub represents the culmination of his international career in biobanking.

For more details see Robert’s LinkedIn profile.

International Strategy Advisor

Sakshi Setia MB BS, MSc 

Personal Statement

Dr Sakshi Setia is International Strategy Advisor

“I am a medical professional with experience in policy design and execution for health programmes in both the public and commercial sectors. My medical degree is from Baba Farid University of Health Sciences in Faridkot, India, where I received a distinction and an academic achievement award. Throughout my studies, I got fascinated by the inner workings of health systems and the development of health policies across systems. So I went on to City, University of London to obtain a Postgraduate Certificate in Health Sciences, which I received with honours. Following that, I pursued an MSc in International Health Management at Imperial College London, where I graduated with distinction, once again.

I enjoy working with a range of stakeholders to understand their needs and then building solutions that are personalised to address them using a multidisciplinary approach. In the past year, I’ve done consulting work for a Nigerian digital health start-up, an NGO in Lebanon and, most recently, Qatar’s Ministry of Public Health. I am a strategic thinker, focused on designing and implementing systems that achieve improved health outcomes through evidence-based interventions.

Biosample Hub is an excellent online platform that connects biotech and pharmaceutical companies with non-profit biobanks while ensuring financial transparency. The ideals on which it is based, drew me in the most, particularly in terms of minimising any ethical issues about biobanking commercialization and bridging the gap between public and private sector human tissue sample providers. Bio-sample traceability is frequently jeopardised due to commercial interests. It’s vital to understand the ethical and scientific consequences of this.

I believe that by combining my abilities and knowledge with the rest of the Biosample Hub team, we will be able to develop an effective and sustainable strategy for this not-for-profit company and contribute to the global movement of uniting Biotechs and Pharma with non-commercial Biobanks.”

Advisory Panel

Dr Eng Chon Boon

Dr Eng Chon Boon, is the director for the Tissue Repository, National University Hospital (NUH) and runs the Hospital-based Cancer Registry (HCR) at the National University Cancer Institute (NCIS) and has an adjunct position in the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health (SSHSPH), National University of Singapore (NUS). He is also the principal person-in-charge of tissue banks across the National University Health System (NUHS) public healthcare cluster and the lead PI for the Singapore Integrated Network of Biorepositories (SINB), an infrastructure network formed by academic tissue repositories in Singapore. He is the Singapore’s convenor for ISO//TC276 Biotechnology and in the editorial board of “Biopreservation and Biobanking” by Mary Ann Liebert.

He is a past recipient for International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER) special service award (2010) and had numerous voluntary responsibilities within the ISBER over the years (Councilor, Chair of the ISBER Marketing Committee, members of ISBER Finance, Nominating, Strategic Planning, Program Committee). He is also the Vice-chair of Local Organizing Committee for the 2007 ISBER Annual Meeting in Singapore.

He has numerous publications/book chapter/patent in the field of biobanking and had given talks, conducted biobanking workshops and consulted for various international biobanks over the past 15 years. For a list of biobanking activities and further info, please refer to the following:

Publications

LinkedIn profile

Tissue Repository website

 

Dr Rajeev Singh

Dr. Rajeev Singh, MD, MBA, is Director, Biorepository at Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX, USA. Dr. Singh is a trained pathologist, obtaining his basic medical and specialist degree in India and his MBA from USA. Dr. Singh has been a biobanker for last 15 years having worked across various positions in biobanks in Singapore and US.

Dr. Singh is an active ISBER member for last 15 years and has been involved with the Biospecimen Science, Standards and Finance committees of ISBER, currently and in the past. Dr. Singh has co-chaired sessions and led round table discussions on important biobanking issues in past ISBER meetings. Dr. Singh has been a part of the task force that reviewed the 4th edition of ISBER Best practices. Dr. Singh has delivered international talks on biobanking related topics and sits on the advisory panel for an Indian biobank. Dr. Singh has published/presented biobanking related articles and posters in various journals and conferences.

Dr. Singh’s focus areas in biobanking are biospecimen quality and donor perspectives. Dr. Singh is currently driving his biorepository towards CAP accreditation and is a certified CAP Biorepository Inspector.

Mr Barjinder Sahota

Mr Barjinder Sahota is a barrister practising at the independent Bar and a member of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, London.  His practice address is at 7 Bell Yard, London, WC2A 2JR.  He has a special interest in biobanking and has served on two committees, as a lay member, involving biobank access and research involving biobanking.

Dr Ray Perkins

Dr. Ray Perkins, PhD, is Founder and President of New Liberty Proteomics Corp., an organization whose unique mission is integration of Drug and Diagnostics development in support of Personalized (Precision) Medicine.  NLP assesses the impact of disease and drugs on fundamental molecular and cellular activity.  Areas of emphasis include development of network-based diagnostics for cancer and dementia.  Dr. Perkins earned a PhD from Vanderbilt University where he was a research fellow for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, adapting magnetic resonance technologies to assessment and diagnosis of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.  Recent activities include expert panelist for events such as “Medicines in the 21st Century” recently held in Wales, and multiple publications*, each of which has been downloaded thousands of times.  In this era of the COVID pandemic Dr. Perkins is called upon in multiple capacities including evaluation of likely therapies and diagnostics.

* “Making the Case for Functional Proteomics”

“Proteases, Pivot Points in Functional Proteomics”

“COVID-19 Pandemic Surgery Guidance”

Dr Jeanne-Hélène di Donato

Jeanne-Hélène di Donato has been involved in biobank professionalization for almost 25 years, first as manager of the French AFM-Généthon biobank for a period of 14 years, then as a consultant for biobanks through her 3C-R Company for the past 15 years. She worked for many years on the establishment of best practices for Biological Resource Centres. For example, she was a Member of the French delegation to the OECD BRC Task Force and leader of the working group on best practice guidelines for human-derived material. She participated in the development of French law on management of collections and use of human samples for research. She is also co-author of French Standard NF S 96-900 for a biobank quality management system.

Today she is certified for her consulting activities  (helping biobanks with their logistics, quality management systems, administrative, ethical and legal development requirements) and training missions. She is also an auditor (NF S 96-900, ISO 20387, ISO 9001). She is the manager of the largest francophone biobank network (125 biobanks are members of Club 3C-R) established to promote discussion, collaboration and problem solving, In addition, she is a lecturer on Master degree for biobank managers at the Catholic University of Lyon. She is a member of the French Ethical Committee for clinical trials, and also a member of  Eurobiobank, ISBER and ESBB international biobanking networks.

Dr Fay Betsou

Dr Betsou (PhD, HDR) is Chief Scientific Officer at IBBL. She has 25 years of experience in molecular diagnostics, disease-oriented biobanking and biospecimen research, and 15 years of experience in ISO 9001 and ISO 17025 application to biobanks. She holds 3 patents, authored of more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and teaches in several biobanking training courses across Europe. She is the chair of the ISBER Biospecimen Science Working Group and of the Proficiency Testing Advisory Group and the Luxembourg national delegate in ISO REMCO and ISO TC276.

Mr Liam Burke Masterson

Liam Burke Masterson is a Clinical Partnership Manager at Genuity Science. One of his current key roles is to build longstanding mutually beneficial collaborations with clinicians and academic cohort custodians. Genuity Science is a contract genomics and data-sourcing, analytics and insights organization headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, USA with offices in Dublin, Ireland and Reykjavik, Iceland. Genuity works in collaboration with clinicians, patients, academic researchers and global pharmaceutical companies to use the power of population genomics to discover pathways to new treatments and new diagnostics.

Liam has an M.Sc. in Project and Programme Management as well as extensive background in Biobanking having been a key member of the Qatar Biobank team from initiation stages through collaboration with Imperial College London towards biobank maturity. During this time, he gained extensive insight from biobanking experts including many of the leading international experts, including hands on experience such as disaster management, cryopreservation and transition to automaton. During this time Liam became involved with ESBB and ISBER and has continued to participate in the biobanking community. Liam spent over 7 years in the Middle East until returning to his native Ireland in 2018 to take up his current position with one of the leading genomics organisations.

Mr Daniel Uribe

CEO & Co Founder of Genobank.io, Serial Entrepreneur, +15 years experience in UNIX, Cybersecurity, Cloud Computing; +5 years experience in Blockchain & Smart Contracts.  Recently specialized in the intersection of Privacy Laws, Genomics & Bioinformatics.

Holds BS Electronics Engineering, MBA from IPADE Business School, Executive Programs @ Stanford GSB, Singularity University; Data Science at Galvanize & RNAseq at EcSeq Bioinformatics GmbH (Berlin).

Mr Neil Mitchell-Clark

Neil is a Fellow and Lifetime Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAEW) and has worked as a professional CFO, for many years, across a broad range of publicly listed and larger privately owned businesses.

He has been working as a Corporate Advisor since 2014, advising a broad range of businesses and NFP’s on strategic planning and development, performance improvement, turnarounds, workouts, managing insolvency situations, litigation support/expert witness, corporate governance, M&A, IPO’s, capital raisings and investor relations.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks are due to Mr Barjinder Sahota, a barrister at 7 Bell Yard, London, UK, for his excellent advice on legal and business development matters. Also, for his solid and continuous support for the Biosample Hub project.

Additional thanks to:

Published Articles

Published articles making the case for Biosample Hub

List

Biospecimen access for Biotechs: quality, provenance, and “taking pot luck”. The Pathologist, February 14, 2022

Why there is a block between bench and bedside. Neoconnected.co.uk, February 11, 2022

Crises can’t be dealt with until they are recognised. Pharmiweb, January 5, 2022

Why Biotechs Lack Biospecimens With Adequate Provenance. International Clinical Trials, November 2021

Why Public Sector Biobanks Must Support Biotech Companies. Clinical Researcher, November 16, 2021

Dealing with a crisis requires recognising it. Neoconnected, November 11, 2021

Please, Sir, May I Have Some Samples? The Medicine Maker, November 03, 2021

Are The Business Practices Of Commercial Biospecimen Brokers Conducive To Reliable And Ethical Biospecimen Procurement? Business Mondays, October 12, 2021

Biosamples: The need to recognise a crisis. Healthcare Newsdesk, October 08, 2021

A crisis in biotech? ScientistLive, October 01, 2021

The biosample industry crisis in waiting. Health Tech World, September 30, 2021

Biospecimen Procurement. Chemistry & Industry, September, 2021, p38

Why there is a blockage in the biosample system. Drug Target Review, September 24, 2021

Biobanks, Biotechs and the Need to Recognize a Crisis. Technology Networks, September 21, 2021

Why Hospital Biobanks Should Supply Biotechs. Drug Discovery & Development, September 13, 2021

The Challenges of Biosample Access and What Needs to Change. Labmate Online, September 10, 2021

The Challenge Of Solving A Huge Biotech Problem. Published in:

Wellbeing Insider, September 6, 2021

Biotech Asia News, September 6, 2021

Global Pharma Times, September 8, 2021

Lifesciences India, September 6, 2021

The Obstacles To Hospital Biobanks Supplying Biotechs. CPOstrategy, August 27, 2021

Biosample Provenance – What Researchers Need to Know and What Needs to Change. Labmate Online, August 10, 2021

Why Hospital Biobanks Need To Supply Industry – and Why There Is a Blockage in the System. Technology Networks, August 9, 2021

Connecting Biobanks With Biotech and Pharma Successfully. Technology Networks, July 20, 2021

Fix the pipeline for biological samples. ResearchProfessional News, July 14, 2021

Biosample Hub: making biobanks more accessible to industry. Health Tech World, July 6, 2021

Why the system for biospecimen procurement is broken. Drug Target Review, July 5, 2021

Are the business practices of commercial biospecimen brokers conducive to reliable and ethical biospecimen procurement? Business In The News, July 2021

The Business of Biospecimen Procurement needs to be Revised. The Journal of mHealth, July 5, 2021

Are the business practices of commercial biospecimen brokers conducive to reliable and ethical biospecimen procurement?. Healthcare Newsdesk, July 2, 2021

Do Commercial Biological Sample Broker Business Practices Help Procure Reliable and Ethical Biological Samples? Eminetra, July 2, 2021

The problem with biospecimen procurement. Scientist Live, June 28, 2021

Biosamples – business vs ethics. Health Tech World, June 24, 2021

We need to talk about biospecimen procurement. Manufacturing Chemist, June 24, 2021

Can business interest and reliable and ethical biospecimen procurement coexist? Pharmiweb.com, June 24, 2021