The Alaska Area Specimen Bank: a tribal–federal partnership to maintain and manage a resource for health research

• Published in: International Journal of Circumpolar Health
• Main Authors: Alan J. Parkinson, Thomas Hennessy, Lisa Bulkow, H. Sally Smith, the Alaska Area Specimen Bank Working Group
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2013
• Subjects: Biobanking; policy and procedures; Tribal and Federal Management; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Arctic; Circumpolar Health; International Journal of Circumpolar Health; Alaska
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3402/ijch.v72i0.20607; https://doaj.org/article/81edc3e690e14db68724ec670cb19563

Banked biospecimens from a defined population are a valuable resource that can be used to assess early markers for illness or to determine the prevalence of a disease to aid the development of intervention strategies to reduce morbidity and mortality. The Alaska Area Specimen Bank (AASB) currently contains 266,353 residual biologic specimens (serum, plasma, whole blood, tissue, bacterial cultures) from 83,841 persons who participated in research studies, public health investigations and clinical testing conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service and Alaska Native tribal health organisations dating back to 1961. The majority (95.7%) are serum specimens, 77% were collected between 1981 and 1994 and 85% were collected from Alaska Native people. Oversight of the specimen bank is provided by a working group with representation from tribal, state and federal health organisations, the Alaska Area IRB and a specimen bank committee which ensures the specimens are used in accordance with policies and procedures developed by the working group.