Dr Eng Chon Boon

Director, NUH Tissue Repository     
Research Office
National University Health Systems

Dr Eng Chon Boon, is the director for the Tissue Repository, National University Hospital (NUH), runs the Hospital-based Cancer Registry (HCR) at the National University Cancer Institute (NCIS) and has an adjunct position in the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health (SSHSPH), National University of Singapore (NUS). He is also the principal person-in-charge of tissue banks across the National University Health System (NUHS) public healthcare cluster and the co-lead PI for the Singapore Integrated Network of Biorepositories (SINB), an infrastructure network formed by academic tissue repositories in Singapore and co-lead for cancer databases and tissue bank platform within Singapore Translation Cancer Consortium (STCC). He is the Singapore’s convenor for ISO//TC276 Biotechnology and in the editorial board of “Biopreservation and Biobanking” by Mary Ann Liebert. He graduated from University of Leeds, UK, with first class honours and subsequently, PhD in Molecular biology in 2004.

Presentation Title

Biobanking and Databases for Better Research and Healthcare

The Human Tissue Framework (HTF) under Human Biomedical Research Act (HBRA), which regulates research tissue banking, was enacted on 1 November 2019. With this framework, institutional research tissue banks are required to notify MOH of their tissue banking activities.

In line with this effort, there are currently numerous national biobanking initiatives that facilitate research activities across academics as well as our industrial partners, examples include Singapore Translation Cancer Consortium (STCC), Singapore Integrated Network of Biorepositories (SINB).

The talk will focus on (1) standardization/harmonization of biobanking operational requirements and data management (e.g. specimen, clinical, research), (2) the issue of cyber security and coordination with Integrated Health Information System (IHiS), (3) coordination of various IRBs/institutional tissue banking committees for multicentre studies, and finally, (4) governance and specimen & tissue access policies.

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