Cornell’s Biobank receives accreditation

Cornell’s Veterinary Biobank has achieved international accreditation under a new global standard, making it the first biobank of any type to earn such a distinction.

“Quality accreditation increases the confidence in our operation. It shows that we are transparent about our processes, open to critique and are doing high-quality work under a rigorous standard,” said Dr. Marta Castelhano, director of the Cornell Veterinary School.

The American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA), which officially granted Cornell the accreditation in a ceremony May 22 at the College of Veterinary Medicine, is a nonprofit international accreditation body that assesses a range of laboratory types using meticulous standards developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

“The achievement of earning A2LA’s first accreditation to the new ISO 20387 standard ensures that Cornell’s operations will function with the highest level of quality,” said Adam Gouker, A2LA’s general manager. “A2LA is proud to be a part of this historic milestone and to provide accreditation to the biobank industry, ensuring the quality of materials being used for research and development.”

A biobank is a secure storage facility for biological materials and can store samples from humans, plants or – in the case of the Cornell Veterinary Biobank – animals. More than 3,000 animal disorders have a genetic basis, half of which are potential models of human disease.

To research these and many other diseases, Cornell’s biobank collects samples from both ill and healthy animals; the samples are then processed, catalogued and provided to scientists around the world. Armed with these typically tough-to-get samples, scientists can accelerate biomedical research projects that improve both animal and human health.

Accreditation is a thorough process, especially for the Cornell biobank, which includes a complete range of services, including sample collection, acquisition, preparation, preservation, testing, analysis, storage and distribution.

“Some biobanks exist only for storage, but ours does every single process a biobank can do,” said Castelhano.