The Pulmonary Bank of Vall d'Hebron obtains a quality certificate

The Pulmonary Bank of the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital's Biobank has been certified with the seal ISO 9001:2008 for its management and operation. This certification, obtained together with the Research Centre Network for Respiratory Disease (CIBERES), supports good practice in obtaining, handling, storage and shipment of biological samples in the field of respiratory medicine.

The Pulmonary Bank was created in September 2014 with the aim of obtaining biological samples for biomedical research from donors who have lung diseases and will undergo a lung transplant. These operations are done in the hospital Vall d'Hebron, which is the only Catalan centre that performs lung transplants, and the one that performs such interventions the most in Spain. The project involves not only professionals from the biobank, but also all the actors involved in transplantation: the surgical team, Transplant Coordination, and the Respiratory and Pathology services.

After its launch, samples from more than 50 patients have already been collected. The bank includes samples of lung tissue, processed according to various protocols to ensure their use in a wide range of techniques, such as blood samples. To obtain these samples and guarantee an excellent quality of them, it was necessary to create a permanent team on duty that moves to process the sample at the time the transplantation is performed.

Biobank collaborates with its counterpart CIBERES, as established by the agreement to promote research into lung diseases between the groups in the network and the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR). Biomedical research from biological samples given to the bank can contribute to a better understanding, diagnosis, prevention and/or treatment of pulmonary diseases. Therefore, it will improve the quality, health and life expectancy of people with these diseases.