Credit: IBBL

The Integrated BioBank of Luxembourg (IBBL) has officially opened registration for the 2019 edition of its Biospecimen Proficiency Testing programme, an internationally-recognised quality assessment tool to verify the precision and accuracy of laboratory biospecimen testing methods.

Endorsed by the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER), the Proficiency Testing (PT) programme offers laboratories working with biospecimens the opportunity to verify the accuracy, precision and efficiency of their routine methods and compare their performance to that of other expert laboratories. 

Regular participation in the programme allows participants to comply with certification and accreditation requirements, as well as monitor their performance over time and prove consistency. As Dr Olga Kofanova, IBBL’s PT Project Manager, explained: “The PT programme is an integral part of a biobank laboratory’s quality management system. Yearly participation is essential to ensure monitoring and prove consistency of performance over time”.

As the only proficiency testing programme in the world that focuses on biospecimens, IBBL’s PT programme has become increasingly popular over the last seven years. In 2018, 115 participants from 31 countries registered for a total of 492 PT schemes.

Indeed, the 2019 PT programme has been refined through the addition of one new combined processing and testing scheme, namely “Circulating Tumour Cells (CTC) Isolation and Detection”, thus bringing the total offering to nineteen.

As well as this new combined addition, there are twelve processing schemes:

  • Cell Free RNA (cfRNA) Extraction from Plasma
  • CSF Aliquoting
  • Viable PBMC Isolation
  • DNA Extraction from Whole Blood
  • DNA Extraction from FFPE Material
  • DNA Extraction from Frozen Tissue
  • Microbial DNA Extraction from Saliva
  • Microbial DNA Extraction from Stool
  • Cell-Free DNA (cfDNA) Extraction from Whole Blood
  • RNA Extraction from Whole Blood
  • RNA Extraction from FFPE Material
  • Total RNA Extraction from Frozen Tissue

The PT programme offers a further six Testing Schemes:

  • DNA Integrity
  • DNA Quantification and Purity
  • RNA Quantification and Purity
  • RNA Integrity
  • Cell Viability
  • Tissue Histology

Registration will remain open until 23 August 2019.

For more information, please visit the dedicated PT page on the IBBL website: https://www.ibbl.lu/ibbl-bioservices/biospecimen-proficiency-testing/.