UKCRC Funders' vision for Human Tissue Resources - STRATUM project

We had an interesting 'phone conversation today with the head of the STRATUM project and one of the project's workstream leads discussing what promises to be a valuable and long-necessary piece of work looking at the creation of a centralised biobanking data repository for the UK.

Funded in part by the Technology Strategy Board, it will be a public-private partnership. STRATUM (Strategic Tissue Repository Alliance Through Unified Methodology) aims to maximise the value of stored human tissue by creating the foundations of a UK biobanking network. The project will run from October 2011 for 18 months. The partners in the project at present are: 


From Pharma: AstraZeneca UK Ltd (lead), GlaxoSmithKline, Lab21 Ltd

From Academia: University of Manchester, University of Nottingham, University of Leicester

There's not a great deal out there on the web at present about the initiative but check out the UK Clinical Research Collaboration's notes on the workstreams involved.