Biobank Representation At The National Cancer Institute (NCI)

Background/Rationale
On January 12th, 2016 during his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama announced the establishment of the “Cancer Moonshot” which is to accelerate cancer research and the progress towards a cure. Subsequently, the initiative was tasked to Vice President Joe Biden, who described the criticality of propelling cancer research by explaining that, “only 5% of cancer patients in the United States end up in a clinical trial” (Biden, 2016). Additionally, although “community Oncologists see approximately 75% of cancer patients, they have limited access to cutting edge research and advances” (Biden, 2016). From this, VP Biden stated that there were two (2) things he proposed to do – 1) increase resources (public and

The biobank/biorepository at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) plays an integral component of the research and clinical community at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It archives and provides biological specimens collected under informed consent to principal investigators and their collaborators. The biobank’s function is to support biomedical specimen based research. The National Cancer Institute’s biobank is composed of approximately 150 staff personnel. The staff personnel of the biobank consist of Full Time Equivalent (FTE) employees such as staff clinicians, clinical trainees, technologists, administrative personnel, as well as basic science researchers. In addition to the FTE employees, the biobank consists of Non – FTE employees such as summer interns, post baccalaureate researchers, pre-doctoral trainees, visiting fellows, special volunteers, as well as post doctorate research

The earliest evidence of biomedical research had positive outcomes, but was performed at risk to some participants. As early as the eighteenth-century, British surgeon Lind spent several years studying scurvy in sailors by providing some with fruits and vegetables while others suffered without (Emanuel et al., 2003). In another early human subject’s research, researcher Sanarelli infected five persons with yellow fever (Emanuel et al., 2003). Shortly thereafter, U.S. Surgeon General Reed was tasked with identifying the cause of yellow fever, but in this study investigators obtained consent from participants. This project is credited for obtaining explicit consent of research volunteers, and helped legitimize human subject’s research (Emanuel et al., 2003, p. 1). Despite the early rewards of human subject’s research, several brutal experiments were performed by Nazi doctors against Jewish prisoners during World War II. The military tribunal that punished the guilty investigators established the most widely known document on the ethics of research, which is the Nuremberg Code (Emanuel et al., 2003, p.